I did some tracking experiments on my 11 weeks old puppy. He only put his nose on the footstep at beginning when I point him to. Next, he won't follow footstep, but sniff around a little bit and run directly to the hidden object. I thought he found it by luck, but after a few times experimenting, he can always find it. I'm fairly inexperienced on tracking. I don't know what type of method he was using and still undecided taking him to schutzhund or not (coz heard too many negative opinions on schutzhund). Can anybody enlighten me, what type of tracking he was using? What's YOUR recommend way to train a dog to track. BTW, I read Ed's articles. I really want to know what u all r thinking. Please warn me the pitfalls I might fall into when training tracking!!!

1st tracker

shon shon??

You need to change your displayed name to your real FULL name, first and last.

Those are the rules, did you read 'em?

If you are wanting to teach him to footstep track, don't use a hidden object. Make the track itself be the fun part, not just getting to the end. To teach him to relax and search for the food rather than rushing to the end, start out by making just a large scent (about 1 meter square) with a LOT of food in it. Bring the pup up close to it, show him a piece of food in your hand, toss the food into the scent pad, and release the pup. The leash should stay TOTALLY slack unless the pup leaves the scent pad area by more than a half meter. If he does leave the scent pad by that much, don't pull him back; simply stop him from going any further and allow him to find his way back to the rewarding area on his own. Do not point ever. Let him use his nose to discover where it is "good" and rewarding vs. where it is non-rewarding. Just stand still and let the pup spend lots of time searching the area and getting the food. When you think he's got almost all of it, call him and make him leave the scent pad. Don't go into playing ball or rewarding him for leaving the scent pad or you make finishing be more rewarding than working. Just quietly take him back to his crate. Do this for at least a week, lots more if he still shows a desire to leave the scent pad prematurely. There's no rush to move on to more difficult stuff. Once he shows an intense desire to search the scent pad thoroughly, you can make a short food track out of that scent pad to another large scent pad loaded with food. Lay the track with the wind at your back so he doesn't smell the second scent pad prematurely.

Lee, what do you mean by "a large scent pad". Do you mean it should be demarcated somehow?

Where a standard trial scent pad is only about 12-18" square, make a very large one that is at least a meter square. In other words a 4' square area that you step all over and hide LOTS of food in. The entire area is scented. You don't want any visible demarcation of the area, but you should know where the limits are so that you are aware if the dog leaves the scent pad by more than a body length or so.

Thanx alot for your advice! Do I have to keep him on leash to do this? With or without leash, the puppy will walk pass some food on the footstep. And then he will sniff back to finish off everything. Should I allow him to that?

Hey Campster,

Looks like he or she (Shon) just blew you off <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />