Brendan, are the praise and pats working? Sometimes the quickest is not neccessarily the best.

I'd still be intrested in Vince's response, though.

Chris, you could definitely go ahead and start on some tracking, just make it fun for the pup. Of course it sounds like you've already got your hands full with the basics for two pups! You might want to get a good foothold there before moving on to tracking, but I could be wrong. I guess it depends on how much you can deal with at once, and how much help you have. Do you have a clear idea on how you would go about introducing tracking to the pup?

JParker

No actually I don't have a "clear" understanding on how to introduce tracking. I started a thread under S&R Tracking on this forum hoping for some input. Could you point me in the right direction?

I have no experience in Police Service Work but I am told by experts that the bite development for PSW, PPW and sport are all the same. Only after the foundation work is completed do the three split. So this is as far as I can take you until our fellow members can take over. It’s pretty simple when you think about it. If you want someone to do something how do you accomplish this? By rewarding them with something they want. The more reward the more effort they put forth. If you post two missing person posters and one you offer a 100 dollar reward and the other a 10,000,000 dollar reward. I guarantee you that you will receive more effort from the public on the later. I hear members telling me that their dog works for them. Sure they do but I guarantee you that not one member on this boards has a dog that will work harder for them than Rabiat for a ball (prey item). Now does all this prey drive come with any drawbacks. Yes. Locking a dog into prey. This is done by overdeveloping the prey drive with out developing a strong defense. This dog knows that all he must do is bare through the punishment and he will win his prey. He thinks go ahead attack me or beat me all you want I know that when you are done I get my prey (sleeve). This makes it very hard to bring out defense and eventually fight. But with a solid and systematic defense development program you can avoid this. His focus redirects from the sleeve (prey item) to the man (fighting partner). It is so simple that I can’t imagine not understanding this.

I have a 1.5 year old GSD. She's been ou to fmy care for 8 months. No training or obedience whatsoever. Waiting for Ed's DVD on Obedience training. Started to try and lay the "groundwork" per Ed's article. When at work should I create her? While at home should I crate her when I don't have her on leash in hand? What are some signs the groubd work is begining to take effect? Any advice woul dbe greatly appreciated. Thanks. Emilio

Vince,
This book is one of the best books for tracking wounded game: Tracking Dogs For Finding Wounded Deer
by John Jeanneney. Do a search on google and you will find alot of info on Jeanneny and his book. While he uses German bred Daushunds (sp) for his bloodtracking he list the GSD as a possible candidate. It is amazing to read about some of his finds (48 hourold track.... 9 miles). He is a part of an organization called http://www.deersearh.org. I plan to obtain a GSD to do this job also.
Best of luck,

The above post was for Chris not vince ..sorry...

I would also like to mention that the book -
Tracking Dogs For Finding Wounded Deer
by John Jeanneney
is avaliable on the Leerburg site...