There may be a forum already, but there is too many to try to find it...Anyway...

What is the feelings on laying your Police Dogs own track? I feel it's not good to do because how can I ask Ando to track a sent thats right behind him on the other end of the lead.
Any info. would be helpful.
Thank you, Brandi

I've only taught AKC tracking to 4 dogs but I've always started by laying my own track with food. It always worked! I just got Ed's tape, "Tracking thru Drive". Pretty <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" /> !

I make it a point to work my dog on a track once each shift. I'd like to have someone else lay it if possible and have them at the end of the track, but it's not always possible. I've watched people walk from the bus stop a few blocks and then drop a toy on the side of the road for a reward at the end.

My dog will track for toys so when I lay my own tracks I will attach a 20 ft. long line to a Kong on a string and lay it out at the end. When I get to the line I will pick it up and make the Kong "live" for my dog. I've never had a problem with the dog getting confused, he knows the game.

I've tried having the Quary walk behind me on a track but the moment we hit an down wind leg the dog will always pick up the Quary, turn around and alert on him.

80% of the tracks that my dog does are placed by me.
He doesn't care. Tracking is fun and exciting. Since scent discrimination isn't at issue who placed the track shouldn't be either.
The advantage is that you know if your dog is making a mistake. You can see the performance and make training adjustments without guessing and guessing always leads to bigger mistakes.
The dissadvantage is that some handlers cannot resist steering their dogs down the tracks.
Even if you have others place the track I will have them come with me to be my coach unless I've been in a position to know where the track was placed....this I do either by being in an elevated location of by double laying the track and leaving the track layer at the end, or another alternative is to have the track well marked with a variety of techniques.
Occasionally I test and have the track done without any knowledge of it but I always try to have a coach with me to make sure I don't have a bad experience.
Results: superb. Once I've initiated a track I seldom don't get positive results in real world deployments. They don't always work out as well as I'd like. Such as the suspect had a place to go and be sheltered by a co-conspritor, or the last one where I tracked for hours, ran out of flashlight on a very dark night in ther national forest and left a suicide attempt victim laying in a ravine until rescuers the next morning followed my footprints to where he had gone into a gully causing his odor to swirl and me to walk around him half a dozen times and not be able to see him. Happy ending though he woke up dehydrated and dissoriented and was able to respond to rescuers who were able to find him or they'd have missed him in the daytime.

Thank you for your replies. It was very helpful. I will use it for my future tracks.
Thanks again, Brandi