David, here a quote from the original post:

 Quote:

Originally posted by carolyn marn:
I'm training toward a ScH1 with my first GSD.

which leads me to assume (although I could be wrong) that the dog already passed a BH and therefore knows what a "down" is.

Thanks for the responses, everyone. Just to clear up a few things, the dog has her Bh. Her down and down out of motion are very nice and when she is "on" she drops like a sack of potatoes. David's point on having a solid down stay is well taken. We need to work on that as she will still break on occasion. Perhaps it would have made it easier if I had waited until that was 100% solid under all conditions.

I taught the articles motivationally following an article in USA magazine (don't have the issue but I think it was by Julia Priest?). It sounds pretty much just like what Lee and Renee are advocating.

Renee said:
However, your "regular down" is a command driven exercise, while downing on article is not--i.e. an article becomes the cue to down.

and Lee said:
it's about conditioning an EMOTIONAL change towards the article.

I think that is what I need to work on with my dog. I will follow the advice given to try to stay a little longer at the article and reward.

Not surprisingly, jump starts were a problem intially. I was giving the "such" command when she was watching me because I thought that would help with the control. I changed to giving the command when she was calm and looking forward on the track so she wouldn't jump over the first footstep or two. I now put a piece of food in the first footstep or two after the article to condition her to check these so she doesn't restart too fast.

I want to get a nice, happy down on the articles before I increase the difficulty of the tracks again.

Thanks again for all the great advice!

O.K. guys and gals, it's official, Trooper's tracking in is the toilet and I am border line nuts.

He seems incredibly distracted although there is no stim. that I can pick up on. Same two areas, same environmental conditions except for the much higher humidity. Typical high desert with very sparse vegitation. Footprints are just breaking the crust of the earth, often times VERY hard with a high sand content; this was done intentionally to avoid allowing or encouraging him to follow the track visually. Winds are S/E at about 2-3 knots. Somewhat over cast, no evidence of other animals, domestic or otherwise. We start at about 0530 and age the tracks for 30 minutes. Articles and food drops are intermitant with no immediately identifiable patterns. He is 3 years old this month. This was a dog running 800-900 meter tracks with multiple turns, corners, corkscrews, angles and the like; it SEEMS as though without provocation, he does not want to track. We did have an ant problem on a few of the food drops this week and last,I use grilled and cubed beef liver I prepare at home. We track with one of the guys I work with and his 16 month old GSD female ( who is NOT in season) and she does not display the same symptoms. I had plans of going for his Sch1 in Feb in Phoenix after achieving his BH at New Mexico in DEC (even if I have to write in the scorebook myself this time). Bite work and obedience, to include retreiving, has maintained and continued to improve with virtually no negative reinfocement, no more than in the past for certain.

Do I need to shit can my whole tracking program, which I might add is very acurately documented, and start from scratch? I realy like my dog and our relationship and would like to avoid force if at all possible. Do I simply need to take a break? I usially run 4 different tracks with four distinctly different starts and finishes, usually no longer than 150 meters apiece. Is the weather causing a fatigue issue I am not recognizing?

Any and all help seriously considered, I'm seriously considering laying on the certerline of I-40 when I go to work tomorrow.

Thanks in advance,
G.

 Quote:

Originally posted by Gordon Beyer:
I'm seriously considering laying on the certerline of I-40 when I go to work tomorrow.

No need for that, yet. Wait a couple of weeks.

There could be a million reasons why a 3-yr dog who was "running 800-900 meter tracks with multiple turns, corners, corkscrews, angles and the like" would shut down (I know it doesn't help you any <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> ).

You gave us a good description of weather & track conditions, etc., but you didn't tell us how often you track. If it's every day or every other day, it may be too much and your dog is simply losing interest. If he's been doing well, there's no reason to run him into the ground. Sometimes too much of a good thing can be a bad thing, especially in tracking. If that's the case, I would lay off him for a while and spend this time playing. Then I would make him real hungry and re-start by laying short tracks under favorable conditions, ending on a positive note. And take it from there....

Like Renee, I'm wondering if you've passed the point where the reward is worth all that effort for the dog. FOUR tracks per day, around 600meters worth, sometimes 900 meters?? That's nearly an FH per day. Even FH folks don't train like that - better to train/focus on specific skills for that day, but no need for such length. Also have you been diminishing the rewards as you prepare for trial? I find that to be a really common thought process for most folks - that they should reduce the food to very sparse or completely eliminate it cuz that's what the dog will see in the trial.

Can you be more specific as to the dog's behavior - what do you mean by "incredibly distracted"?

Like stated by Renee, there could be a million reasons. Did this happen gradually? Was his tracking getting progressively worse? Health issues can also come into play. If he is having ear problems or tooth and gum problems (ie: excess plaque buildup on teeth) this can affect his scenting ability. Just another point to ponder....

The most common reason a dog doesnt want to track is because the dog has lost its motivation to do it. Your main concern shouldnt be the distance and difficulty of the track but getting the dogs motivation back. If the dog thinks everytime its gonna track that its gonna be long and drawn out track with maybe a bare minimum of rewards, it could loose its motivation. I would suggest giving the dog a short break and starting back with a whole new look. Like short tracks with more food. Short tracks dont always mean straight ahead, they can be short tracks that come back near the start. In other words try and make the tracks totaly unpredictable and very rewarding to get your dog interested again.You can still run the long tracks but remember the distance isnt as important as the motivation you got to get back into it.