Lovely work! Really great and still so young! Will be an excellent tracker!

Will- I think that a dog should be praised enthusiastically (and when I taught puppy school it was the most annoying for me when a pup did something perfectly and all he got was a piece of cheese, pat on the shoulder and a flat "Good"). But for my dog it wade her race down the track. When I started to be really laid back and calm, she relaxed and now tracks at a good speed (at least for a doberman).

Norman- when you hold the dog back for a piece of food, doesn´t the dog raise his head? Mine did. She looked at me like I a pig would look an orange with "WHAT???" all over her face. If a dog does this, how do you go about that?

Jaana, there could be many reasons for your dogs head lifting problem. I assume this dog was a Dobe and if so generally this breed is very handler sensitive and if you have been doing any obedience where even some minor corrections were involved before or during this tracking training the dogs drive might have be affected by thinking your holding him back is a correction. If this is the case stop obedience training where any leash corrections are involved, and go back a few steps and run very short tracks (ten-twenty paces) and if the dog looks up point to the food in the next foot step and give your track command and praise the dog when he finds the food. The reason the track must be this short is the dog needs a quick win and a jackpot and praise for his effort. IMO you should with a dog like this always have some tension on the leash so there won’t be any jerk when the dog stops or slows. I know that sounds crazy but this slight leash tension will also give the dog confidence. In the beginning you might have to get down with the dog(at its level) while tracking as this will also help the dogs confidence. That “What” look you described is confusion and the way to lessen it is by the dog having success even a small success. Good luck and hope this was of help.

Hey Norman,

Great stuff. I am just coming into this thread. Don't have any questions but I have tools for my toolbox now and just wanted to say Thanks and I appreciate it.

Speaking of tracking training, what do you guys think of training tracking to a dog just for the fun of it? I have a new dog Terra, she is always trying to track something down in the back yard. She is a wire haired terrior mix and has lots of energy. Thought it might be fun for her to be trained in tracking, but what do you think, I do not have any knowledge about tracking training.
Thanks sharon

Go ahead and try it. I think it's enjoyable for my dog. After years of not letting him sniff the ground and wanting him to keep his head up it's like a big relief that he gets to bury his nose into the grass.

 Quote:

IMO you should with a dog like this always have some tension on the leash so there won’t be any jerk when the dog stops or slows. I know that sounds crazy but this slight leash tension will also give the dog confidence.

For me, this turned out to be great advice. A simple handling tip that has made a big difference. Without thinking about or knowing exactly why I was handling like this in the very beginning but had gotten away from it. Thanks Norman.

Glad I could be of some help. Norman

 Quote: norman epstein

...then when he shows me he’s ready to progress...

how does a pup show you this norman?

and, when you do start laying short tracks, do you do "heel-to-toe" steps, or just a normal step?

Hey Ann, I'm not trying to answer for Norman but I can tell you with my dog he started working around the edges of the scent pad and if he went off it at all it was at most a foot and he would come right back to it. After playing around with the length of my strides I've settled in with a normal width, basically where they would be walking normally, and about 2or3 inches in front each other. Hopefully Norman can expand on this.

one of the reasons i ask about stride length is b/c when i started my last pup, it was w/heel-to-toe footsteps, and he would charge down the track, holding him back resulted in hectic behavior; the only thing that slowed him down was going to a "regular" stride length (for me, probably 12-16" strides).

i have a sneaky feeling that this one of those "dog-dependent" deals, ie, my next pup may or may not react the way brix did to the initial heel-to-toe baiting. but by the same token, i don't want to have to go back and try to fix the hectic behavior if it seems that starting out w/normal steps is actually a better way.

does that make sense?

and i still don't get when one tells that a pup is ready to start a short FST track.

but i think i get what you're saying steve: stay on the pad until the pup figures out that there's nothing outside of it. is that right?

also, if i do get a pup this year, it'll probably be 6 mo old by the time decent tracking weather/conditions apply, though i'll certainly try to at least imprint a pad before the weather gets too crappy (which has already started ). can a person imprint pads in the snow?