Opinions from the gallery.... tracking has gone well with the boy... he is tracking my daughter and her friends 4 times a week. There is no food reward, just his favorite jute tug at the end of the track. I noticed a week ago that we would get about 20 yards into the track, the boy would stop... "go" and then keep on tracking with high motivation. Today he started to break track to mark trees. He got a little "no" from me followed by "track" and kept going only to repeat another 20 or so yards later. I'm afraid too much correction this early in his tracking would be detramental. He's 14 Months now (explains the wonder he finds in the fact that he can raise his leg) Suggestions for stopping this behavior?

You are right on the age edge of "tracking through drive" which I assume you are doing.

I would question how much time you took to BREAK your dog before you tracked. If it was indeed done properly then this is a drive issue.

Back your training up - let the dog see the kids run off - make the track easier (straight legs) - make the fun at the end of the track a bbigger deal.

In addition to all of this - the dog needs to be told that this is not appropriate behavior on the track. But too hard of a verbal correction results in a dog not tracking at all.

I assume you have my tapes that I did with the RCMP in Canada. They use these tapes in their school. If you do not have them - get them

I have both tapes and you could not ask for better information. Hope you get them . They have help me know when to do what and how and when. Plus you have this board to help . Gods bless. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Not knowing what stage of tracking you have succesfully completed, and what your training environment is like, or the specific levels of drive your dog posseses, makes this a difficult question to answer definatively.

He is still young and his concentration levels may not quite have developed to a larger capacity. As a result his natural curiosity to display investigative behaviour may still be interfering with his levels of concentration. Your boy may need a couple more months to successfully complete the standard of tracking you are attempting with him now.

If this is, or is not the cast I would still do the following three things.

Firstly, consolodate your training. Take a step back. Rome wasn't built in a day and a good foundation in the early stages of tracking is essential.

Secondly, I would ensure your training environment is as best free from pollution as possible. This especially includes anywhere where members of the public may exercise there dogs. You can introduce these distractions much further into the training.

Thirdly, I would limit your dogs behaviour outside training exercises with regard to what I would describe as "perving". Do not allow him to investigate or "perve" on any scent other than the human scent he would find on a track in a training exercise. Set the ground rules to eliminate this unwanted behaviour outside the training environment with consistently correcting him for it, and he will learn that not only is he not allowed to "perve" on unwanted distracting scents outside the training environment, he is especially not allowed to do it in the training environment for tracking.

Best of luck,
Tony CHIVERALL

Matthew : sounds as if your dog is at the early stages of training and development ,peeing on the track should be corrected,but as someone had said before train where you dog is able to focus on the main scent that you are trailing,and use areas that are less used by other animals and humans ,but you know that is getting harder to find depending on where you are located ,While living in Kansas a while back training with a local Police dept ,we had lots of areas off out the way to start trailing the dogs . The increased drive and desire for tracking will decrease some of those adolesant behaviors . Have fun Peter