Hi everyone. I haven't been around in quite awhile, but I have a question that I hope someone can help me with. I have a 4 1/2 month old Lab/Shepherd/Chow puppy that I'm trying to train to track. Mind you I've never taught a dog to track before, but I remember seeing something posted on the board about a year ago about teaching a puppy to foot step track.

I've been laying a track by walking heel to toe and putting a small treat in each heel print. The puppy seems to have caught on very quickly. The problem is that he is in such a hurry when he tracks that he's missing quite a few treats as he goes. Any advice on how I can slow him down? Also, please let me know if I'm doing something wrong. Thanks!

Some general suggestions - lay your tracks so the wind is either at your back or going across your track, but don't lay it into a headwind. If you are putting a small pile of food at the end as a reward, he may be catching the scent of it early and rushing to get there. If that's not the problem, then consider changing your food treat to something more desirable so that he is motivated to get every one. Don't lay all your tracks as a perfectly straight line - the dog learns this pattern in a heartbeat and figures out to just rush forward to get to the end. If you're holding him back with the leash, try not doing that - holding them back makes them feel like you are pulling them away from their food so they dig in and pull against you and hurry. Also don't walk right up your pup's butt, stand back a meter or so and stop the instant he does to pick up food. If you keep coming forward when he stops, some dogs will feel rushed, like you are pushing them down the track.

I'm so glad this came up....

When do you switch to articles and how?

Thanks, Debbie

Teach articles away from the track till the indication is solid, then introduce them on the track.


I personally am one that needs to concentrate on my tracking, so I don't even fuss with articles on the track till both are looking good on their own.

I'm the same as Robert - I don't bother to introduce articles til fairly late; however, if you're unlucky enough to have fireant problems, it can useful to teach them earlier so you can use lots of articles as reward places. But I do want the dog to have a really good "platz" before I introduce them.

I teach articles "purely positive". I work in a very unstimulating place (my living room) and put an article on the floor and tap it "what's this, bud?". When he comes over and sniffs it, "platz", big reward while he stays in the down. Release and repeat. After a few reps, you can pick up the article and move it forward a foot or so and encourage him to come up to it and lay down again. Doesn't take long before you can pick it up and toss several feet ahead and he'll run to it and jump on it. Once you move this to the track, the dog will NOT usually recognize the article on the track in the same way cuz it's out of context from what he's used to, so don't get exasperated when he acts like he's never seen it before. Be very close to his hip as he gets to the article, don't allow him to go past it and help him just like you trained it. He'll generalize pretty quickly.

Thanks, Lee. I will try the things you suggested. The type of food definitely isn't the problem, because I'm using something he goes crazy over. I will try to refrain from holding him back. I've been physically trying to hold him back in order to slow him down. That isn't going over very well anyway, because he's VERY strong for such a young pup <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Better late than never. My 5 month old pup was also pulling like crazy during tracking sessions. I tried using a pinch collar to slow him down and it works like a charm. I do not induce corrections with the collar, the pup learned to correct himself. He discovered rather quickly that pulling hurts when he has the pinch collar on. His tracking is also better, he goes slowly through the foot steps and rarely blows by a treat. I remove the pinch collar immediately after he reaches the end of the trail and put his regular collar on and play with him as a reward for his work.