I just joined this site and find all the tracking stuff very interesting. I have never even seen an actual man tracking dog work let alone trained one, but I can not help but compare what you all do to the training I used to do with competition coonhounds. I know that the two subjects are very different, but the ability of the dogs has to be similar. I think the biggest difference is that my dogs were free cast (not on leash)where your dogs work with the handler. In training coonhounds, I found it to be a wast of time to lay tracks when training a pup. I usually started them off by leashing them to the bumper of my truck (while parked in a grassy field), and turning a caged coon loose. I would let the coon have a five minute head start after he disapeared into the woods (that forces the dog to use his nose not his eyes. I would then turn the dog loose and let genetics take over. I never worried if he zig-zaged or had to circle back, as long as he got under a tree with the meat in it he was good. My dogs tracked purley through their God given ability to put their nose to the ground and get treed. Once the dog is trained, you just take him to the woods and turn him loose. A trained coon hound finds the track himself, figures out which way the coon is going, and stays with the track until the coon climbs. We never worried about which way the wind was blowing or any of that. A good coon hound will cross roads, Rail Road tracks, swim creeks and swamps and come up with the meat. The real trick is breaking them from running other game. I am interested in learning more about what you all do.
Chuck

Really there are different types of tracking training for the working dog.

There is Schutzhund sport tracking, where precision is the name of the game. The dog should cling as exactly as possible to a foot step track. He shouldn't be distracted, but should be intensly focused and follow the track like he is on rails. This is done in order to show that the dog has the drives and focus necessary to do scent work. Schutzhund is a breed evaluation so those traits are considered ideal for the German Shepherd Dog. It can be argued, but that is what it is spose' to be. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

Then there is Police K9 tracking. Where the work is much more like what you do with your hounds. Many police service dogs start with a foot step tracking approach and then learn to trail and track. . .like a hound after a furry critter. . .using whatever it takes to make the find. There is an advantage to having a dog that can foot step track very well AND who can trail scent by whatever there is to smell. When tracks are older, when tracks cross different types of terrain (such as sidewalks, streets, through houses, ect) the dog can lose the airscent and my need to rely on just the footstep or at least have the ability to focus very intently on what he can smell on the ground.

But the ideal man dog will do both, whatever is going to work at the time. . .same as a hunting hound.

The other issue is being able to track a specific scent, not just one "type" of scent. To track one person or one track, with the distractions of plenty of other foot traffic in an area of other people requires IMO the focus that is learned from foot step tracking first, trailing (tracking through drive) second.

Another type of scent work is the type used in SAR disciplines. Where the dog will search an area for the scent of a person, or of any people, or of a cadaver, or whatever they are looking for. Still very similar to the hunting hound. A good SAR dog should be able to detect the trail or airscent of a lost person and then follow it to it's source. Perhapse even tracking a specific scent or looking for a specific scent.

No matter what, really it all depends on the dog's natural ability and genetics, same as a hound. Each good tracking dog needs the specific genetic traits to do the work.

BTW, I have had hunting terriers on and off since birth as well as working shepherds, so I relate to what you are saying.

It isn't very difficult to train a nice dog to track down a furry creature and get 'em if the genetic ability is there.


I had a Jadg Terrier who was just a natural hunter, she could scent critters underground I think and start looking for the holes to try to get at them. I've seen her romping in a field and then immediately put her nose to the ground and start following what looks like a trail and end up at the mouth of a hole. The tunnel in the hole always goes off back in the direction she has just tracked from.

Dogs rock.

Mr Van Camp makes a very important point relative to police type tracking. Experience with other police type trainers has shown me that footstep tracking is the normal method of starting police service dogs to track, followed by a lot of work in trailing. We are not so concerned about how we look asthetically. The most important aspect is that we find the person at the end of the track. I gotta tell ya though, as much as I like a good GSD on a track, that old floppy eared bloodhound can track a popcorn fart in a blizzard.

DFrost

I hunt with my Border Terrier and my Jack Russell Terrier. In addition, I have a Australian Shepard that is training for Search and Rescue. As Mr Van Camp said, His Jadg Terrier would scent through the ground over a den. The Jadg is also a better above ground tracker than either the Border or the JRT. As for keeping them off the wrong type of game, my JRT can man track but because of his background in critter hunting, he will abandon a man track if he runs across a game trail. My Aussie air scents live humans and cadaver. We prooff them off of animal scents by planting road kill, live trapped Racoon, Squrrel,etc. We've used goats to proof dogs off of deer and they seem to connect the two. This is one of the few times a SAR dog will get a correction. They MUST be reliably proofed off of natural game. I've seen SAR dogs find victims buried 10 feet down and also in 90 feet of water. If the genetics are there, it's just a matter of training in the right direction.