I have a three old male mal who has finished patrol school and has about 100 training tracks and numerous real word tracks(negatves)under him. I work the 11pm-7am shift. The problem is that when we are out on a track numerous times I have been tracking along and all of a sudden he begins to alert that the bad guy is around the corner or in the pucker brush. Once it was to the point of bringing up my back-up(once they caught up) and begin to give announcements and warnings only to have a cat pop out. Now I don't know when he lost the human and began tracking the animal. He also got a nose full of porcupine quills. I can't even count the field mice. In training it is hard to find critters in the area to duplicate and correct. I was reading a post about peeing on a track and how to not let him perve any other scent outside training. Now I begin to think I have caused this. A couple of mornings when we get home the neighbor's cat(I hate)is in the front yard. Half asleep I pop the cruiser door only to have him shoot out and chase the cat. He is gone before I even realize what is going on. I do have to admit that I giggled and gave "Did you get that cat" and I think I was praising him as I was putting him out in the kennel by doing this. Does anyone have any ideas on the problem that I think I created. In training we tracked in alot of fields and wooded areas. I know there had to be critters in there and it was never a problem and always found the man.

David,

You have a real problem that could potentially get you killed. One of our GSDs was the same way. This dog was tracking an armed, naked guy who we believe was about to do a home invasion and rape before he fled. The track started and the dog was on it at the beginning. Then he went after one of the many cats hanging around a dumpster. The bad guy very well could have been right there but the dog didn't care. Fortunately The bad guy kept running instead of hiding and the officer never had contact with him. Had the dog dragged the officer past the bad guy while chasing cats....well, I don't like to think what could happen. You need to fix this.

Howard

David,
I agree with Howard you need to address this problem, but don't think you have a unique problem. Every K9 officer has probably experienced this in one form or another.
First don't let him chase the neighbors cat anymore. From what you said in your post I think you understand that this is not a good idea.
Some things we do with our dogs during their intial training is alley walks. We walk the dogs in the alley at night to try and acclimate them to dogs charging fences, rabbits, skunks and whatever else is lurking in the alley. We basically walk the dog at heal and correct if he attempts to fence fight or go after an animal. This starts out as an obedience exercise and progresses into searching these alleys for decoys.
An important factor here is to try and make the dog neutral to the animals. Make your corrections only as hard as needed to break the behavior. Don't loose your temper and over correct the dog.
We also will take a cat and put it in a carrier and place it up wind of a decoy during a search. We start this in our box search training by placing the cat in a cage in an up wind box (a box the dog will hit first) and the decoy beyond him. The dog will be corrected if he hits on the cat, but will be rewarded shortly after the correction when he hits the box with the decoy.
You can also place the caged dog on the track and use the same procedure.
Sometimes as handlers we run tracks in sterile areas so the dog will not have a problem following the track. This is not real world and it shows up when we have to do a real track in an enviroment we have not trained in.
I hope these ideas help. They have worked for our unit. Just think about the problem and take small steps to train past the problem. Good luck and be safe.

We used the ecollar to fix this. We took the dog to our local humane society shelter where there are at least 20 cats running loose at any time of the day or night. We did what Steven suggested. Every time the dog even looked at a cat he was given a stim on the collar until he looked away. We got to a point where we could walk within 2 feet of a cat and the dog would look the other way everytime. Then the tracks started in the same area.

Never believe that once you have this under control that you can stop working on it. A dog that critters will revert back given a chance. Maintenance training should be done every 3-4 weeks minimum.

Howard

 Quote:

Then the tracks started in the same area.

In the same area as the previously "failed" tracks or in the same local area as the humane society shelter?

Thanks for the ideas! I have my work cut out for me. I have started with the local cat. I saw him alert on the cat and as soon as he took one step a verbal correction was given and it brought him back to me. Although he was not into a full chase, should I let him or just keep the instant correction before he even takes a step. So far I only have needed a verbal (Foui) and another quick command and his attention has come back to me. Its hard to find someone to let me crate thier cate and put it on a track...Thinks it won't come home.

David,

You should correct as soon as your dog alerts to the cat (or other animal) don't wait for him to take a step towards it. I would imagine that in your scenario a prong or e-collar correction should be used as you cannot afford any relapses of this in the field.

Don't know about you but in this neck of the woods cats are not to be loose and roaming either (same as dogs), so who's to stop you from temporarily crating one of the.. ahem.. "stray" cats roaming in the neighbourhood?