We don't get much snow here anyways. Can anyone explain to me how to keep him on track without corrections?

 Quote: Kory Fox

Can anyone explain to me how to keep him on track without corrections?

"I''ve been trying to think about the times when he gets off track. It is almost always very early in the track. I believe because he's so excited at first and because he's so food driven. Or else its in spots of 4 or more steps without food, which I agree that I probably did too many steps with no food too quickly. However I do think he gets it because if I do a second track he almost always does it perfectly. Also I have noticed recently that if he's eaten within a few hours before tracking he does better. I think that he's so food driven that if I track first thing before he's eaten, he's to wound up and can't focus."

What happened when you adjusted mealtime and backed up the number of steps without food?

Adjusting the number of steps without food made a difference in how often he got off track. However, he did sometimes stay on track even with 4,5 even 6 or 7 steps with no food. Tracking him after being fed rather than before seems to slow him down a bit and I think he makes less mistakes because he's not quite so driven to find the food.

only allow him to move forward if he is on track.

I would not be so quick to remove food from steps if he is not staying on the track. I would not remove the food in each step until he totally stayed on the track for at least a couple of weeks on at least 60-70 straight step tracks. I would want him VERY solid on the tack before I started skipping food. Even then I would go to every other step & move slowly from there.

I don't know what the rush is. You skip steps in ANY kind of training...you pay the price down the road.

How many times a week do you track. I used to track daily with 2 dogs, when I was doing Schutzhund training. The more often you track the faster & more confident & acurate the dog gets.

It is also easier for the learning dogs to track early in the day when the dew is still on the ground. It holds the scent better.

You need to find what works for your dog...some dogs need to be really hungry to search each step & some need to have a bit to eat first to calm them down. You need to know your dog. If you are doing SchH tracking....the dog needs to check each & every step or you loose points.

Edited to add....I would also go back to food in each step before & after any turns when I started adding them.

Anne, I usually track 3-5 times/week. My work doesn't allow time for every day.

I have always kept food before during and after turns. I only removed on straights.

I'm not trying to rush. I did what the TD suggested and he did fine the first time with the TD there. Then when tracking on my own he is when I started running into problems. I usually work on the day the club tracks so that's why I was asking for help here.

With my dogs I have no problem correcting with a "No" or AHHHH! Nothing physical. That's me and MY dogs though. Every one is different on how they handle that.
There are a couple of great tracking DVDs out there. The ones I like best are done by Joanne Fleming-Plum. She is very motivational and lets the dogs figure out how to track but also goes into when to correct.

 Quote: Bob Scott

With my dogs I have no problem correcting with a "No" or AHHHH! Nothing physical. That's me and MY dogs though. Every one is different on how they handle that.
There are a couple of great tracking DVDs out there. The ones I like best are done by Joanne Fleming-Plum. She is very motivational and lets the dogs figure out how to track but also goes into when to correct.

Ed says something like this on a Tracking Q&A page. "A firm (not mad or over powering) voice command of PHOOIE (never a leash correction) can be given .... "




I wanted to say that no one ever told me this good advice about multiple min-jackpotting, Ann!

"I would also be careful about always jackpotting the end of the track. You can cause a speed problem doing that. I would vary the jackpotting to several spots on the track, once the dog is doing a 30-50 step track, so the dog doesn't rush the track. I have also placed a jackpot a couple of steps after a turn to encourage staying on track after a turn."

Especially the jackpot a couple of steps past a turn!

Kory;
One thing I'm seeing in Bob's last post also applies to me... the corrections I use in tracking are not nearly the same as those that I use in OB.
To start with, I use a prong for OB but I use a dead collar for tracking. My dog knows that if I give her a little tap on the left side, I want her to try the left* (I'll come back to this), and the same with the right. I can apply backpressure while saying easy, and she understands that I don't want her to dogsled, even though easy is not a conditioned command.
The most significant correction I give is a soft, fairly sharp, "NO", followed by a "such" (command to search) when she raises her head from the track. This is more of a reminder than an actual correction, and she responds very well to this.

You are right... the less communicating on the track, the better, but I would never say "never talk to the dog while tracking". Your goal is for the dog to track confidently and self-sufficiently, so he has to know when he's right, and he may need help from time to time.

* I only suggest where to search when the dog is off to the side, such as in a strong cross-wind. One of the first things I learned was that
"The nose knows".
Several times I have pulled my dog off of a track when she knew where it was and I THOUGHT I did. Now, I don't want to see my track. I let the tool do the work. If she loses a track (which is very rare) and neither of us can find it quickly, I quit it. She's not going to feel successful if I down her and search for the track while she's laying there in drive, dying to track.
Usually she keeps looking and widening her head swings and gets back on the track very quickly.

Connie;

Although I've stopped trying to apply Gary Patterson's method (en tot) to my tracking, his book has an excellent outline for bait patterns and baiting tactics.