I have always trained tracking before area search and tracking, my mentors said this was always the way to do it. Here is the problem, I moved here to Alabama and I have a dog in training right now, the temperature with humidity is over 100% I wwould like to know if I train the building area searches before evidence and tracking will this dogs tracking evidence suffer? In Washington it never got this hot so we always taught tracking first<

Would you please explain to me why doing one before the other makes a difference? Thanks.

It was explained to me if he is taught air scenting first he will not be as accurate a tracker because he will lift his head and resort to air scenting instead of keeping his head down when he hits a rough track, I wanted to know if this is true or not as I do not want to have to wait until it cools off to start his area and building searches, because his tracking might suffer.The majority of this teams calls will be for tracks for his as well as other agencies in the surrounding area with some locations as far as an hour away, and like I previously stated in (western) Washington the weather is suitable for tracking training all year round.
I have always taught tracking first and wanted opinions if there is going to be a problem doing it in reverse order.

Let me start out by saying I am not a police officer but do train in protection, tracking, and have done a little with narcotics indication. I differ with you on thinking the dog MUST keep his head down when tracking. Dogs naturally know how to track and locate things with their nose. To think that we can teach a GSD or Malinois to do it "better" by forcing them to track nose down all the time is nonsense. I understand that this is the "popular" way to do it and that you may have to in order to remain a K-9 officer (it was my understanding that you are) but think about the logic of it. If someone is running and they are scared (maybe they're lost, or a criminal running) they may circle or make semi-circles before deciding which way to go or where to hide. If you let the dog track naturally by air scenting and nosing down, he can locate that person quicker than following the exact footstep. I'd like to hear your opinion of this. I live in Florida and it is very hot and humid here.

I don't agree that a dog should footstep track all the time as well. I let our dogs footstep/air/trail, whatever you want to call a mix of terms. I want the dogs to go to source(badguys) as quickly and efficciently as possible. I think that if you have a dog w/ a good noses and a solid foundation, they will use it. I want my dogs tracking, well should I say "hunting" for source. If they need to put their noses down when they get to pavement, they will do it so as not to loose the scent. If they cut a corner in a airscent, no big deal to me. As long as I teach the handlers, and they learn how to read their dogs the mix works. I think it is a much more natural way for the dogs to learn, and stay in drive. You might almost call it hunting and not tracking.

Glad to hear your thoughts, Josh. I have seen GSD pups do very short tracks in the first day of being shown. I know in my experience with my GSD I have not taught him to track at all. With the exception of teaching him to associate the command with the action. It has been more a process of me learning to read him.
However our local law enforcement are very big on footstep tracking. Any ideas as to why?

One can never guess or make assumptions as to why someone does anything. What I have PERSONALLY found when teaching seminars across the country are that this style of tracking is associated w/ a Schutzhund foundation. Many venders are Schutzhund trainers, thus teach tracking this way. Many "old school" trainers feel this is the ONLY way to do it and do not look outside to modern "track through drive", "fight drive", "hunt drive" or any other method that differs from the "way it was 25 years ago, and if it worked then, it will work now" methodology. I have heard of one case in Massachusetts where the footstep tracking almost got a case tossed out. As this is a public forum, I will not go into specifics, but any LEO Handler who would like to know the details can email me privately. Again, there is NOTHING wrong w/ footstep tracking, but IMO it is not the only way to get the job done.

I have beemn training tracking dogs for 20 plus years, all my teams trail off leash. I start by teaching the dog to track first in the woods completely away from distractions using a quarry right from the beginning. Once he has mastered the basics of tracking we move to quiet area in the city introducing different surfaces and tracking at different times during the day and night using different time delays and also weather conditions if it permits. Once familiar with that we then move into true urban tracks where the dog must at times resort to trailing, air scenting,as well as tracking, once a week during training the teams all go back to the woods to track on just grass and away from distractions. to remember hopefully just how easy and fun it is. I use a quarry on every track from his very first and all through his career.
From what I am gathering it should not make a difference if I start the air scent work first.
thanks

I have a comment and a question.

You can still train in the heat. We live in Phoenix and train year round. In the summer you just have to train early in the morning or late at night. Protection training starts a 7:00 am and in the evening we start after 7:00 pm. If you are going to work on asphalt or concrete put your hand on the surface, if it is too hot to leave your hand on it for 1 min. then it is too hot for the dogs feet. We also make sure the dog has lots of water and use spray bottles with ice water to spry the dogs down lightly to help them cool off. You can also just pour water over them to cool them down.

My question is isn't there times when the dog needs to Footstep track for certain track conditions? I have always been told that in wet conditions that the scent tends to stay trapped at the ground and that requires the dog to keep it's head down. The reason that Footstep is taught first is that it is more difficult for the dog and so if they have a learned another method they may loose some tracks by not getting close enough to the ground.

Yes indeed it rains almost year round in Washington(western)and the dogs noses are consistantly low to the ground when tracking on just about all surfaces. There have been occasions when teams have made arrests on all concrete tracks because they felt the light rain kept the scent very close to the ground amd the k-9 was able to actually track instead of winding and trailing.
Because of the hours this subject worked is why I wanted to do the air scenting first and when it cooled off and the days got shorter I could do his tracking before he went to work. They will not allow him to be away to train we must train on his days off or before going to work.