Hello everyone,
I have a three month GSD. I have been doing maker training with it for a while now and began some light obedience work. I want to start tracking soon but I have no clue how to. I have looked on the forums and on youtube but everyone has a different method...
Thank you in advance,
Christian

bump

Bump?

I was bumping your post back up near the top of "active topics."

Any added post "bumps" it up ..... even a post that says nothing but "bump."

Sorry im new to this thanks!

 Quote: Christian Cruz

Hello everyone,
I have a three month GSD. I have been doing maker training with it for a while now and began some light obedience work. I want to start tracking soon but I have no clue how to. I have looked on the forums and on youtube but everyone has a different method...
Thank you in advance,
Christian

So you are looking to do SchH later, right?

http://leerburg.com/qatrack.htm#when

I've never done tracking with a puppy, but others here have, so I know you'll get help.

There are a number of books on sport tracking and Joanne Flemming Plumb has some excellent DVDs in tracking.
With you having "no clue" it may be a bit hard to explaine but I start out with a tracking "box".
Stomp out a 3'x 3' area in the grass. Sprinkle this area with food and DO NOT get any outside the area you stomped on. With a leash on the pup let it eat the food it finds in the stomped on area. You want to do this with 3-4 boxes but at least 15 - 20 ft away from one another. You also want to let the pup search the boxes upwind from the next box so it doesn't air scent the next box.
What this does is associates the scent of crushed vegetation to a reward (the food).
Ideally you want to track every day. The earlier the better.
When the pup is consistently turning back into the box when it goes outside the box you know it's starting to get the idea of crushed grass means reward.
Do this in areas that have little to no foot traffic.
Stay consistent with the same type of surface until the dog is solid on a track. Don't go from grass to dirt or dirt to grass.
This is pretty vague so ask questions.
There are also a lot of beginning tracking with your dog on youtube. Seeing things done can be a big help.
Lots of other ways to start tracking but the "box" is what I do.

I would like to do some schutzhund work with her later on. So far I have laid down a simple straight line a foot apart with a clear starting point and end point. I have kept her on a short leash and praise her as she goes. I run into the issue of her skipping and going ahead. I have done this on concrete andGrass as eell

Don't try too many different things all at once Christian. Nevermind concrete right now. The boxes, or scent pads Bob is talking about are a good beginning. It becomes real clear when they start making the right associations, by the way they stick to the edges of what you've stomped in. From there you can move into actual tracks or using three tracks like in the Patterson Book.

Something different would be Ivan's circle tracking. That would still be compatable with the scent pads. You could look into that while she's working those.

IMHO, JMO, what I did with my older beginner...

You don't want the skipping to get ingrained. If it were me, I'd go back and do the scent pad (box) work that Bob described. When you do start tracking in a line, trench your steps and don't space them out like you are now. Bait in every step until the pup is checking every footstep. You'll see a slight headswing from side to side as he checks each footstep. When you do start spreading the baits out farther, he should still be checking each footstep with a deep nose.

The most important thing for now is building the association that the crushed grass is the primary scent that he is following, and not the bait. Avoid concrete... that's setting him up to fail. Grass is the easiest surface to start.