Hello, I not absolutely sure but I believe the first step is to have your dog find you on a short track with the wind always at your back then once you see the dog has an understanding of what you are training him to do you have him find someone else who he like s if possible hope you have some good friends that like to play hide and seek I used my son when he was young he enjoyed the game now I would probably have to pay him.

Thanks for the input. I have 5 kids so finding "volunteers" should be easy. For about 60% of my dogs foot step tracks I laid them, went back and tracked my dog to find me. That is one of the questions I had was do I start with me doing run away/hides?

For SAR training, does starting in footstep tracking still apply? Since dogs already know how to track and their natural method is air-scenting and periodically putting their nose to the ground, why not work with this from the beginning?

curtisoms, I'm pretty new at this but I think you are onto something by stating your GSD is a natural air scenter. My understanding is that GSDs are by nature dogs that track using scent from air, foilage, or off the ground.

Are you training your dog for competition or SAR? I'll check out your other post.

The hide and seek idea is a good way to start a dog. I would suggest having someone hold your dog while you run off a small way to a hiding spot. Let the dog see you run off and then the helper should let go of the dog and give him the command to seek. When he comes to you, praise him and tell him, good seek, good seek. Then do the same thing, go to the same spot and when you are there have the person turn the dog around so he can't see you. Then go just a short distance away to another hiding place. At this time the helper should release the dog and give the command to seek again. If you can watch closely, the dog will run to the spot you were hiding before and when you are not there, the dog will naturally begin to track you. Dogs naturally know how to track and he will want to track you to be reunited. Don't be alarmed if the dog cuts back and forth before starting in a direction, he is simply picking up scent to locate direction and other info about you. This is how they track.

I have taken a Tracking Through Drive clinic with Gary Murray recently.

To start off a new dog, he would take the dog, the owner would 'tease' the dog and start to walk away still teasing. Then Gary would take the dog behind something so that the dog could no longer see where the owner was going. After the owner was out of site, you bring the dog out (in harness and with long line) and start to circle the dog across the track. Most dogs (with good drive etc) would very soon put thier nose to the ground to find the scent and trail it to their owner. This is done several times or until the dog catche on to what it is you want.

Most people doing TTD believe that it is important that there is a live quarry at the end of every track.

As well, it is felt that dog should not be taught to search until they are well versed in the tracking or trailing.

When dogs loose the track in the air etc, they need to know that they can use the scent on the ground, thus a good foundation in this is important.

Thanks very much for that information. I'll start there.

Hello,
I too am looking at starting a young dog in TTD. I have done some foot step tracking and he does very well. He is 5 mths old. I assume that you would start at about this age in TTD instead of foot step. I also have a 12 mth old that has only a handfull of foot step tracks. He doesn't want to put his nose to the ground. Do I need to do more foot step tracking before I switch to TTD. This pup is kinda hectick when he does things. He has drive, just doesn't know what direction to take it. I will try him on the circling method and see how that works.
Any input will help.
Thanks

Ed's article "Tracking Through Drive" vs. "Foot Step Tracking" might answer a few questions for you.

I didn't find the article too useful, actually, it raised more questions than it answered. I would recommend the tape. I found the tape to be much more helpful in answering the questions that I had.
http://www.leerburg.com/205.htm

J, I thought Vince was on the right path also, you may consider buying the TTD vidoe, tracking in the country......first start with fstfs, no harm can be done with this. I went this way with my Otis grandson......had his first find after 14 hours, multiple cross tracks and several other variables (other cops). this was done the night of his first birthday and I am by no stretch of the imagination, the scent guru.