What confuses me in Ed's article on TTD is when he mentions that out of all the dogs in the RCMP program, the ones that were FST couldn't make it through the program. It is contradictory with every thing that I have been told lately. Does anyone know what Ed's point is on that subject. I have been saving my pennies for the TTD level one video, but haven't been able to get it yet. I got the impression from the article that you shouldn't do a bunch of FST before you do the TTD. As you can see, I am a bit confused. If you are supposed to do the FST first, how much should you do? Ed mentioned that a Sch dog can't or didn't make it through the RCMP. So does this mean that you shouldn't finish a dog off on the FST before TTD? If some one could clear this up for me, it would help.
Thanks. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

I have been to one of Gary Murray's seminar on TTD. Out of the 12 dogs at the seminar he felt that 3 had what it took to be a SAR, RCMP dog etc. Interestingly enough, 2 were pups (one is mine <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> and one was an adult. I had done a few tracks with FST as a young pup but that was it. The other pup had only been taught in TTD and the older dog was worked in TTD as well.

Whether or not a dog trained in FST can make it in TTD really depends on the individual dog , how much FST has been done and my guess how it was trained in FST as well.
Younger dogs or pups that have had some experience in FST , gave good drive, can often move over to TTD with no problems.
If it is an older dog, that maybe didn't have the greatest drive in the first place and was trained in FST would have a tougher time. Dogs with great drive, that have been trained in FST and move over to TTD can also do it well. (I know some people who have done this with thier dogs.)

You need to also remember that many dogs are washouts with the RCMP even when they have started their tracking with TTD.

What you need to decide is what kind of tracking you want to do. If you want to get a SchH title, then you have no choice really but to do FST. What would then be your reason to move over to TTD? Those who are training their dog for SAR work, should train TTD (at least in Canada this is what is taught). THe concepts and reasons for training in these 2 different styles are very different.

What is it you want to do with your dog?