Quote: Daniel.P.Hughes

Follow question re:this WEBSITE website and their titles. Is this the only way to TITLE your dog in tracking. I know IPO has tracking but that is wrapped up in a lot of other training as well. I am just looking for options for titles in tracking alone.

Thanks

First, the website didn't show up in your post, so I was wondering what website you were referring to, but when I went to compose a response and quoted your post, it showed up on my end that you are referring to the National Association of Canine Scent Work. This is the part that's missing from your post:

url=http://nacsw.net/titlesdescriptions/title-parameters-nw1

Daniel, are you sure you understand the difference between the sports of tracking and nosework? Based on what you've already posted in this thread, you say you don't want the dog to search for "random smells" but rather you want to train your dog to "find humans." That's tracking! "Random smells," or what I would call odor identification, would be nosework.

The organization you reference above concerns nosework, only. That means you teach your dog to find three specific scents (birch, anise, clove) which may be hidden in containers, vehicles, indoors, outdoors, etc.

Tracking, on the other hand, involves the dog following a specific human's path through varied territory. (Tracking experts please help here with the explanation!)

If you want to title in nosework, the only organizations I know of in the US are the one you mentioned, NACSW, plus the United Kennel Club (UKC), and C-WAGS, which is a younger organization primarily in the eastern half of the US at this time, but growing. I'm not sure about Canada. There may be others; hopefully somebody else will chime in.

If you want to title in tracking, that is a completely different sport, and the only organizations I know of offering tracking titles are IPO, as you mentioned, and the American Kennel Club (AKC).

I have an outstanding scent detection dog who I:

1) decided not to do SAR work for several reasons
2) looked into tracking and found it to be boring (which you may not)
3) currently train, trial and have obtained several titles in nosework with NACSW and UKC.

Due to nosework I have trained Enzo to find (my) lost keys on a 3 pitch football field on several occasions (I swear I would be walking home and calling a locksmith if it wasn't for him!), find my iphone on a 5 acre parcel after participating in an exhausting full day of OB training, and to find my mother who gets lost when we go walking (not really lost but I do ask her to hide for us to practice "finding" her.)

As you can see NW can encompass all 3 disciplines given the desire to do all 3. But like Cheri said, know the difference in disciplines and then decide what you want to do. Even though titling in NW isn't something you might want to do, training for NW games is a ton of fun for the dog; whereas tracking is way different and methodical, and SAR is a whole different ballgame. Most serious SAR trainers (training) won't just let you join "for fun", that's serious business. They're training to save lives and don't want a weekend warrior dropping in "when they have time." Enzo would have been an excellent SAR dog, his motto, NEVER give up, NEVER say DIE! Too bad he wanted to eat whatever/whoever he found :-) (he wouldn't do that now but it has taken us 5 years to get there!)

Anyway, have fun in whichever venue you chose to join. Nose games are amazing fun for the dogs.

Thanks for the post Tanya I found it refreshing.. Nose work of all types is springing up more and more all the time.. The more serious SAR, or law enforcement applications are what we first come to think of, when we are visualizing and reacting to the term "Nose Work." But all kinds of things related to the training of dogs to use there nose for fun, as well as other related nose work offshoot's are popping up all over the place right now..

There is a thriving bedbug detection business for example, thats going on with full certification in the profession of bug extermernation right now.. Have a good friend with a thriving business in this area here in LA, that is well astablished doing all kinds of nose work, even going as far as training a Peanut Detection Dog recently for a client that is deathly allergic to peanuts and or peanut oils.. (Link won't work, look up Lola The Peanut Detection Dog for more on this one.)

Nose work is becoming quite the rage..

Again thanks for the post..

MF.

Realizing that my explanation of "Nose Work" as defined by the growing "Fun Sport" of a dog using his nose for sport. The defined sport, is a lot different than tracking and or search and rescue.. Sorry bout that, its what I get for piping into a thread like this.

Said while backing politely out of the room. :-)

MF.

Correction on IPO tracking...
IPO, for which there are several parent organizations (and many breed-specific clubs, which are usually affiliated through the parent orgs), does offer five levels of FST (TR1,2,3, FH1, FH2) and a series of titles for locating articles away from a track (STP1,2,3).

The prerequisite for tracking in IPO is only a BH, which is similar to and no harder than a CGC.

Thanks. Though I would love search and rescue I know my limits and I would rather give my dog a job and have fun. I prefer the idea of tracking but the nose work sounds like it would be a lot of fun both for dog and handler.

The CGC has no off lead work while the BH has the same heeling requirements as the I, II and III level of Schutzhund/IPO.

 Quote: Bob Scott

The CGC has no off lead work while the BH has the same heeling requirements as the I, II and III level of Schutzhund/IPO.

Bob what is that in reference to? Are you saying one is better for nosework?

They are totally different types of nosework.

Scchutzhund/IPO is searching for a man through the use of disturbed ground scent. The dog looses points for not following the track with it's nose in each footstep and for cutting 90 degree corners.

There are also articles on the track that the dog must find and alert the handler by doing a sit or down on the track at these articles.

Nose work as in the game is finding a particular scent and alerting the handler in whatever manner the handler tells the judge. The dog isn't following any set track. It can move all over the field/room/wharever the nose work rial is held.

With those differences the actual Schutzhund/IPO type nose work requires more training of the dog then just using it's nose to find a particular scent.

Both venue require the dog to use it's nose but Schutzhund/IPO can be looked at as more demanding for precise obedience.

Both are sport games but both can be a foundation for actual scent/nose work.

I've put CGCs on dogs as well as Schutzhund titles and real world SAR tracking/trailing.

Three different behaviors where the dog uses it's nose in different ways for different endings.

While the heeling pattern for the BH are similar to IPOI-1,2, and 3, there is no send-out, retrieves, or hurdles, and the out-of-motion exercises are much easier.

The STP-1,2, and 3 are more similar to nosework games than the FST titles are.

IMHO, a BH is a good foundation for any dog being trained in any discipline, and is not hard to obtain. Trust me, Sadie's off-leash heeling was atrocious that day, and we still passed.