I have a puppy tracking question. I've been working on tracking with my pup for about 2 weeks. He is doing well but there is a "side effect" I don't have any good idea on how to handle. I'm using hot dogs as my bait, and after the pup eats the bit of hot dog he also eats whatever was directly under it (dirt, grass, etc.). He does progress down the track at a pace that I like, but now that the tracks are getting longer, he is eating more crap and as a result has had some severe GI tract upsets. He's not ready for me to use less bait, any ideas?
I wouldn't necessarily use less, bait, but rather use bigger "jackpots" at wider intervals.
Double the distance between food drops, but pile more food at each drop. When he finishes the small pile of food, encourage him to move on. This will prevent him from spending too much time at any one food drop, and hopefully, decrease the amount of "crap" that he's eating.
Use one consistent size food dropping all the time. This way the puppy does not think “Hey let me search maybe there is more food stuck down there.” He knows there is always only one piece of food so let me move on.
Ps. Don't go crazy on this now. Let him have fun. Later when you intoduce corrections you can correct him to move on. Way Way too early. Now it's time to learn that tracking is fun!
Thanks for your replies. It wasn't the hot dogs that were causing the stomach problems, I use them without incident for obedience. The ground where I track him seems to have a lot of small pebbles which he is eating (his very loose stools looked like the bottom of a dirty fish tank).
Vince, thanks for the reminder to take it easy. My last dog had very little prey or food drive, and I do catch myself being overzealous with the new pup. I think I need to make myself a bunch of Post-it notes for reminders.
Chad,
Find another place to track -- one that has good grass for a ground cover. IMO puppies shouldn't be on dirt or gravel anyway -- too difficult & advanced. I found cemeteries to be excellent for tracking especially if you can use them very early in the morning before anyone gets up <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> . There are usually places when there isn't much activity & that are hidden from general view. But at the crack of dawn when the dew is still on the ground, nobody is there anyway.
Reg: 12-02-2001
Posts: 2
Loc: Melbourne, Australia
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Hello from Australia
This is our first message.I started my first dog in our winter and so I used long-grassed bushy areas and she loved that. My 1 year old pup has to learn on short,mown ovals(playing fields)as there are too many snakes in the long grass in these summer months. This is harder. The playing fields are very poluted with tracks.I put the food on a tiny(2") square of sock material and that stopped her eating the stuff underneath.Happy Christmas from OZ and Dayia
Dayia... you are correct that most sport people like to start on a field without scent from other people.
I have a different approach (which may be controversial). I teach scent discrimination almost from the very beginning. That means that as soon as the pup understands the idea of following a track for food (or a ball etc.) I start to teach it to follow only a specific persons scent. As a result, tracking on a "contaminated" field is not a problem.
This approach has advantages later on... for example, it avoids the common problem of the dog learning to simply follow the smell of crushed vegitation (from the footsteps).
To teach scent discrimination in tracking, you simply act as though it was the first day... lay very short, simple tracks etc...
I'm sure I will be attacked by many for espousing a different approach but... this appproach may be something for you to consider.
No I will not attack you. The reason this subject might be controversial is because no one really knows how a dog tracks. Is it the crushed vegetation he seeks, the tiny cells that are released from our bodies or something else not even thought of. Until a dog learns to talk I don’t know if we will ever truly know.
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