Lucy (beagle) is coming along nicely as a house dog. I want to begin later in the spring on tracking.

So far, we have worked on leash manners--walking without breaking off (read hitting the end of the lead) to sniff the world. I have used (verbally) "walk" for leash obedience, "work" for permission to smell and trail, and "hup" to break off and come to me. (Hup being the hardest command to learn.)

She learns quickly. I think I should use the puppy lead (6 ft) as a "command" to walk without breaking, my 20 ft lead to "work" and continue "hup" to keep her aware that I control the situation.

I do change it up. When I ask her to break off, we sometimes break for good, or we circle around and find the trail (deer, rabbit, etc) on the "other" side and continue. I want her to anticipate the "reward" but not always expect it.

I don't have the book " training the competition tracking dog" yet or a DVD, so I hope I am not screwing anything up. We do no formal tracking right now, just fun tracking for bonding and trust.

If I need to change something now so she won't have to relearn later, any suggestions are welcome.

The golden rule of rewards:

When you first start training, you are a vending machine.
Put money in, get something out. (ie, dog performs, dog gets reward)

As training goes on and the dog shows real understanding, you become a slot machine. Put money in, and sometimes you get something out.

Great visual. Thanks, Alyssa!