Hi...... i have an 18 month G.S.D just starting tracking. His straight legs are ver good with nose to the ground and never more than 18 inches off the track. However he is really struggling with corners and failing to knock the next leg after several casts where his nose is passing right over the track. Any advice please. (This is police tracking not sports tracking).

Tracking is tracking, regardless if it is police or sport. The problem may be he is just taking you for a walk and 18 inches off the track is not tracking for me. Try laying serpentine tracks to proof him and see if he is really tracking, and this may help you when it is time for corners. Find a knowledgeable trainer that can walk with you and see the big picture.........

Steve,
Please do not post the same question in multiple areas on the forum. Your repeated question will just be deleted.
Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Will Rambeau
Mod

Alan, Show me a police dog that stays within 18 inches of a track and I'll show you a sport dog. It would be nice to have a PSD that accurate all the time but in the real world this is just not so. Unless of course you want the majority of criminals to escape due to slow footstep to footstep work. Police tracking is more "trailing" than actual tracking. As such, having a PSD anywhere from 1 ft to 20 ft off the track is the norm depending on wind conditions.

Howard

Forgot to mention....The sepentine advice was good <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Howard, of course you are absolutely correct, well maybe partially, and I'm sure you know that dogs know how to track we only teach/train them how to do it for us. So if you're satisfied with 20 feet off the track and "trailing" so be it. Training a dog to track is not the same as a police deployment, some of the better police dogs I have observed started out as foot step trackers but soon learned how to quickly find bad guys. In this case I don't think we are talking about an experienced police dog only one at the beginning of training. If you don't have the proper foundation from the beginning how can you expect the dog to perform properly later on the street.

Alan, You are correct as well. The majority of agencies purchase dogs that have a Sch tiltle or two. They also buy dogs that have some Sch tracking but were later sold primarily because they werent good Sch prospects. So...training a dog from scratch, it would be a good idea to get him as accurate as possible from the beginning and then let the dog learn to wing it for bad guys as it matures and gets street experience. My bad for not paying closer attention to Steve's post.

Howard

What kind of reward is the dog getting at the end of the track? How is your track being started? I would try having you dog encounter a decoy and make the dog miss the bite..get him fired up and mad. Have the decoy take off-hold your dog until the decoy is well out of site then go find him. If your dog vigorously hunts for the guy no problem..it sounds to me like your dog is unmotivated. Also I have a 7 year old excellent manhunter.....he goes off track by 10-15 all the time but he is actively working the whole time and working very very fast. I would not spend too much time with slow nose down work. The dog needs to have his eyes up or he may be a dead dog. What you describes even for a rookie dog sounds like sport tracking or sport expectations. Its easier for me to take a motivated dog and slow him down or get more precise later than it is to fire up a slow or lazy dog. Don't sour the young dog on tracking..use tons of enthusiam and verbal encouragement and give that young dog a big big reward at the end of the track. If he knows a reward is coming at the end of every track he will work very hard to complete the track and make the find. Derek

Steve, a couple of little tricks that you might try for your corners are, triple laying the first 20-30 feet of your next leg.....You must first know exactly where your negative is so it is much easier to read your dogs track indication on the next leg.....He might only give you a head snap then carry on in his circle......you will have to read that and when you see it, lots of praise and hopefully he will then take the leg and in time his track indications will become more pronounced with the praise. Triple laying the leg makes it much easier for him to pick up the next leg......you can also then place an article after the triple laid portion which is a quick reward for picking up the next leg.....worse case scenario you can also place an article right after your corner so he actually winds the article on the track then hopefully he will continue on.....there is numerous other tricks which are dependant on the dog, whether laying little chunks of wieners on your cross wind portion so as soon as he looses the track and gives you a negative he goes right into his circle to re-acquire the next leg and gain the wieners as a reward and continue tracking to gain further rewards. He will hopefully progress along to the point where the little rewards are no longer needed......Also when starting out, if you can circle him upwind into the next portion of the track instead of with the wind, it is much easier for a dog to acquire the track......Good Luck

David BESSASON Trainer/Handler
Winnipeg Police Service

If the dog is doing straight legs, you can run a straight leg into the side of a building"wall" and turn either way. The dog will be forced to make the turn.