Cathy
Middle of the road me. NO cattle prod, but if she does well every place else. The kaptain is part right. Prong correction, She has a job to do and thats not raising the head. But first I would as sugested lighten up on the trenching, use food just before and after the corner, and DO NOT let her eat anything for 24 hours befoe the track. You make her hungry and put food down and the nose will stay down.
Ron

If the dog is still knew to tracking and just learning turns I dont think it is time to start with prongs on the corners because the head comes up.The dog should have already been taught to put its nose to the ground on command during the tracking box stage prior to doing the straight lines.If your trenching the turns and going into the wind I would say you are definately overwhelming the dog with a sudden overwhelming bunch of scent.I think making turns away from the wind keeps the track on the ground making it more clear to the dog what is going on.Avoiding a sudden face full of scent.Ofcourse the dog needs to do both but I would start making turns away from the wind and see what happens before I started getting tore up over anything.

David : Cathy lives in Kansas and the winds there come from all directions and some times you do not have a choice ,right or left. Looks like the biggest problem is corner over load with food and scent,and wind .Peter

David : Cathy lives in Kansas and the winds there come from all directions and some times you do not have a choice ,right or left. Looks like the biggest problem is corner over load with food and scent,and wind .Peter

Got a couple of probs, and need some advice. Here in NE Arizona, the ground is dry beyond comprehension 95% of the time. When we get ANY moisture, it is the perfect time to get some tracking done in a different type of ground condition. When we have a moist surface, the dogs seem to lift their noses somewhat and seem to have difficulty concentrating FS to FS. For the mean time, I tried to counter this with a slightly heavier concentration of food in each FS and generally more food more frequently through the entire track. Under what are normal conditions for us, we have 600-800 pace tracks over 50 minutes old with 100% article indication ( except in snow, when 'precious' doesn't want to get his little tummy all chilly). This seems to bring concentration to a higher level but I'm concerned I am treating something syptomatically without addressing the fundamantal issue(s). Secondly, I am having trouble with Trooper racing off of the scent pad when there is no food in it. In the spirit of keeping things varied, he may or not have food in the scent pad. When he does, he is worse that a porker on truffles. When there is no food in the scent pad, its like Vancamp is behind him with the oft mentioned cattle prod. I think I have developed a bad pattern, evident by the behavior, but can't figure out how. I have caught myself making my first turn in tracklaying a left turn, almost exclusivley, so there maybe another issue similar to that. Thanks for the help in advance. G.