I have an SVV1 dog which I just got from Slovakia. We bonded easily and she is looking at home after 3 days of ball play and food. She has great prey drive and extreemely ball crazy. Her protection phase was done reasonably well with calm bite and strong hold. I could not complain since she just arrived here for such a short time. I was trying out her tracking this morning and she was showing good results with good vacum nose and took the turns well but 15 pace from the article she suddenly show a sign of being startled by something and refuse to continue the track as if highly confused. I had no idea what had happened as there was nothing around that I can see or hear. This dog scored 96 in the tracking in SVV1. What has happened that could have caused this sudden startle or change of behaviour? Hope someone can help give me some pointers of what could be the possible cause and also perhaps have some methods to ensure good reliability on the tracks. Thanks.

I have found that when a dog acts the way you describe, and there are no apparent temperament issues then this is normally a problem with the article. It usually comes from the dog being pressured to hard on the article, and kind of still being in a conflict. I have found that normally it is not that big of a deal to correct with either simply using a nice piece of meat on a food drag to motivate the dog while tracking thus taking his mind off the terrible things that he normally thinks about when he smells the article. Also I would place a piece of food on the article and down her there. After she downs give her a lot of praise and make her a bit happy,.You can calm her down later if she starts to get too happy around the article and not indicating calmly.. Also keep giving her food on the article. Also work the article off the track, praising and feeding when the article and dog is in the correct position. If you are consistent you can see good results after about 30 tracks. I would also make sure the dog is hungry when tracking as an added motivate. One more thing, I would almost never for the next 100 or more tracks give any hard pressure (corrections) for the article. Keep it happy. Make sure, even when the dog is tracking well, that you always make the article is a really great place. You can also, if you use food on the track, all but eliminate the food except at an article. The dog will associate the article with food thus taking the conflict away

Mike,

I had actually used the ball as the article. I had thought that ball would make it more interesting for the first track since it was just a try out test. I'm not sure if this is a right thing to do. Anyway, I will go back to basics with this dog. Perhaps it could be under stress with new environment. Could it also be the smell of horse urine as the place I tested her has horses once in a while.

BTW, is it necessary to socialise the dog to the tracking field a couple of time before actually tracking there?


Also work the article off the track, praising and feeding when the article and dog is in the correct position. If you are consistent you can see good results after about 30 tracks. Just to make sure I understand correctly, what do you mean or how do I work the article off the track?

You don't need to expose your dog to the tracking field prior to using it. Practice your article indications away from the track by simply tossing an article down in front of your dog (in your yard, your living room, wherever) and asking her to indicate it. As soon as she does, release and reward. You can rapidly change her attitude about articles if she does have an aversion to them by making them a very fun thing to do. Only after she is excellent at indicating articles away from the track would I add them back to the track. Until then, do food tracking and finish with finding the ball and play.

Originally posted by Lee Baragona - Sch3FH2:
You don't need to expose your dog to the tracking field prior to using it. Practice your article indications away from the track by simply tossing an article down in front of your dog (in your yard, your living room, wherever) and asking her to indicate it. As soon as she does, release and reward. You can rapidly change her attitude about articles if she does have an aversion to them by making them a very fun thing to do. Only after she is excellent at indicating articles away from the track would I add them back to the track. Until then, do food tracking and finish with finding the ball and play. Thanks Lee. I'll do as suggested by you and Mike. One more question, If I use ball as an article at the end of the track is the dog expected to indicate or do I drive or play them immediately with the ball?

I have one dog that I put the ball at the end for, and I don't ask for an indication - seems to negate the purpose of using a ball in the first place. If I want an indication, I'll use an article. THe ball is incentive to finish (this dog's not a good tracker by nature) so the instant he puts his nose on it, I erupt in praise and play, end of the work.

Yes Lee,

I got you perfectly. I know how to proceed now. Thanks..... this is just great help to me. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />