How do you correct the dog when they won't take the scent article? My dog will turn her head 180 degrees to not smell the scent article. I give the command "scent it" but she'll still turn her head.

How do you get the dog to play as a reward for finding the person? Coda is happy to get the treats but I want to start to introduce the act of play...my biggest hurdle - Her previous owner would not allow her to play. She's now playing with me at home but not at the track.

If a dog runs a poor track. Say the track is laid north and she heads west. How should I correct her? Do I start back at the begining..or do I turn her around and point her in the direction of the track and let her pick up the scent again. or do I let her keep going?

Lot's of rabbits out here where I live. Is it good that she chase them all down. or should her tracking be specifically for humans? I like to train her for Search and Rescue as I'm a member of the S&R team in our area. So my hope is to get her certified to be on the team with me. this is why I ask.

thanks for the feed back...

as for the question about running a poor track..there are times she's out there just goofing around. and it's those times I wanted to just abort the whole run. The last time she did this I wanted to abort the whole run but I was encouraged to have her continue to find the subject. What is best in this situation?

as for the rabbits...I hear you loud and clear.

HOw old is your dog? I have taken a seminar with Gary Murray and found it very informational and helpful. Here are some articles he has on SAR and TTD.

http://www.memlane.com/business/tightlines/articles.html

Does your dog have ball drive? I started by giving the quary (person at end of track) his kong....his 'reward'when he found the person was playing ball. (my guy has HIGH ball drive). I have not used food with him.

The foundation you build is critical to sucess. Maybe you are asking too much too fast?

Another question is until he is consistenly good are you leaving a good scent pad and scuffing the first few feet -- maybe leaving some food near the start of the track in the track if food motivated.

A lot of people start with runaways where the dog sees the victim leave to build the dog up for the game. I don't really like that as I want to start in hunt drive instead of prey drive -- my first dog always got compliments on his diligence in relocating lost scent and I think that is partially because I started him on tracking ....but runaways are a common method of training.

Once again I would get with someone or attend a seminar. Jonni Joyce is also good http://www.jonnijoyce.com but she does start with the runaway approach. To me she is VERY strong in reading both the handler and the dog and diagnosing what went wrong and how to fix it.