I am currently trying to learn more about schutzhund. I have been meeting a couple times a week with a guy that has a schIII gsd to learn more and assist him in training his dog. Since our area does not have a schutzhund club nearby this has been helpful in seeing a real dog in action instead of reading or seeing videos on it.

I have a question about the tracking portion of schutzhund... does it have any real world application or is it mainly used as an obedience exercise. The guy I have been meeting with says it is pretty much an obedience exercise. So in real world tracking, do the dogs air scent more? I know that hunting dogs do more air scenting. To better understand this sport better, I am wondering why air scenting would not be considered an obedience exercise as well, with real world application? Just trying to learn more and the why's and why nots...

Tracking is not just an obedience exercise when you consider we are using the best sense of the dog. When you consider how many schutzhund trained dogs are being used as police dogs there is certainly a real world application. In real world tracking the need to train the dog to track and trail is a reality. The difference is tracking is a distrubance of the ground, and trailing is following the human odor ( skin rafts) falling from a person. Corrections can be given to the dog in tracking when the track is visible to the handler but human scent is not visible and therefore the handler should not give any corrections. A couple of excellent tracking books are Konrad Most "Training Dogs A Manual" and Wm Koehler "Training Tracking Dogs".

Alan, thanks for the reply. I understand now that the tracking in Schutzhund is the same kind of tracking used with K9 police dogs. Prior to your response, I was under the impression from the guy I assist that it was not the same. I may have misunderstood what he had said.

I will check out the books you recommended. I posted a message in the breeding section regarding any books that might be useful on dog genetics and breeding... would you have any books you would recommend for this area as well? Thanks again.

Tara,
Most ( but not all ) SchH handlers are training sport tracking in a footstep to footstep method, as your dog is graded on the track for it's intensity and deep nose - judges want to see a dog working a track and the dog should be shifting it's head from each step to the next step. A dog that moves too rapidly on a track, even if it's on the track, is penalized.
This is the basic way that almost all tracking dogs are trained, and for a SchH dog, nothing more is required.

In police tracking, the K-9's and their handler are moving at a much more rapid pace to find the suspect or evidence. There is obviously no requirement for the dog to demonstrate that it is placing it's nose and scenting in each foot print. The term used more often for this type of tracking is "trailing", at least in my section of the country.
The speed that is required from a K-9 handler while following a dog in pursuit or while trailing is the reason for strict physical fitness requirements by those officers.

Hi Tara.....as Will points out, schutzhund tracking and police tracking are not the same, sorry if you misunderstood me. I think schutzhund tracking is a good foundation for police dogs but then the dog must also be trained to trail a suspect too. Schutzhund is the high school, police is the college. The speed of police dogs then increase with the motivation to find bad guys. I also forgot to mention, Scent and The Scenting Dog by Wm. Syrotuck, which deals with more information about human scent trailing. As for breeding, I am not into breeding and genetics is confusing as well. My experience has been, it's all a crap shoot unless your breeding show dogs, then it doesn't matter.......

Okay, so just let me clarify what I am understanding...

Tracking is done in Schutzhund and it is more of the dog pick up scent by burying its nose in the exact area where a person stepped.

Trailing is more air scenting, similiar to what is exhibited with bird dogs? The dogs are sniffing for the scent in the air more?

Tracking is the beginning steps to what police K9's use then they move on to trailing once tracking is mastered.

Tara…. In the ideal world, every police dog would being it’s training with Schutzhund style footstep tracking.

To me, tracking is one activity, be it following fresh raft of the person on the ground with little track scent from ground disturbance OR following older tracks where there is little or no raft to follow and only track scent from ground disturbance. (I’m a Glen Johnson fan)

Once the dog has mastered footstep tracking then you would being to teach the dog area searches where the dog is scenting the raft and odor of the quarry as it blows down wind off of their person.

When you master both ground and air scenting and then start to combine the two into one activity you begin to see the finished product….. a dog that will footstep track until it reaches the point where it picks up the air scent of the quarry and then transitions to the air scenting. A good police dog must be able to do both.

EVERY good police tracking dog I have seen in my professional career has had it’s beginnings as a good Schutzhund style tracker. When you skip this step in the dog’s development you get a dog that never truly understands to put it’s nose to the ground and search out scent

I agree with the Grubb. The more tools the dog has in it's tool box the better.

I have a better understanding now of the tracking in schutzhnd, and the purpose it serves as an important building block later in police work.

Thank you all for the information that was provided, it helped get a better understanding of the importance of tracking in schutzhund. The info that Matthew provided cleared it up completely, thanks Matthew.