Anne Jones Webboard User Reg: 04-29-2004
Posts: 3825
Loc: Northeast
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I never had my dogs rely on the visual footprints...they focused on the human scent or the ground disturbance, depending on the depth of the snow. They would sometimes even push the snow out of the way for the firt couple of steps & put their nose down deeper & then just take off & on the track.
I started my female, as a 12 week old pup, in the dead of winter after a blizzard..on scent pads & never really saw her paying much attention to the footprints in the snow. She was already following my steps all over the yard & shoveled walkways by scent & not by sight from 9 weeks old.
Your pup has had his nose to the ground already following scent...so I don't think that he will use the footprints as a crutch. But I could be wrong.
The T.T.D.U. is on my shopping list for tomorrow- what an AMAZING idea!
My trainer taught me to place the food at the toe, as that is where the scent pool is concentrated. (You PUSH off your toe when walking, I guess is the idea) It helps the dog learn to follow through the step from the heel to the toe, and he's rewarded by tracking the human scent up to the toe where a hotdog or whatever lies in wait.
I don't know what is right or wrong, I just know this is what my trainer teaches, and it made sense to me!
Sorry for the case of mistaken identity, Phaedra! I KNEW he was a GSD, I swear. Not sure why I said Mal. I guess the mask. His head structure is very GSD looking though, now that I study it. whoops!
I have been toying with/thinking about beginning to work on tracking with Falcon and you guys are definitely giving me more inspiration. No snow on the ground but I'll take that as a good thing for the moment.
We were at the provincial park for the first time tonight, and I didn't lay a track, but boy was he tracking something! Faroh is OBSESSED with food, and I mean hell or high water obsessed, and he ignored the food I was offering, for the track of whatever he was following!
I have been baiting the toe. The reason I was taught this way is that the dog encounters the human scent of the footstep first, and the bait at the end. Just like marker training. The most meaningful scent happens before the reward. Otherwise they are just sniffing for the food and disregarding the human scent. I also read an article on this somewhere. I will try to find the link.
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