How I start a dog tracking

This post is for Layla's mom and many others who ask how I start training a dog to track. There are many ways to start a dog tracking. Older school trackers don't use food. Many people start with a scent circle or scent pad. Some use food in their footsteps.

Personally, I don't really think the magic to a good tracking dog is in the method you use to start. Your goal is to use a method that clearly communicates to your dog that he/she follows the aged scent of the person on the start article. So, how does your dog learn other sports? What really rewards them? Some dogs don't learn with food, only toys. Some dogs need lots of food rewards to get through their learning process and others need very little food to put the pieces together.

The magic of tracking lies in the dog trainer at the end of the line. Dog training is all about communicating/teaching your dog something when you and the dog don't speak the same language. And two things make tracking uniquely challenging to train: 1) you are asking your dog to use a skill they have that far exceeds our own; and 2) you are asking the dog to lead the way through the test.

We as humans can really only guess at how our dogs really do scent work. We have a good idea on how they use scent based on how the dog works a track. And watching is the best way to learn how your dog works scenting. If the track goes along the top of the hill, what does the dog do? If the track goes down a hill, what happens? If the wind is blowing, what happens? Be a student of your dog and you will learn by their behavior how they work scent.

Tracking is one of the few dog venues where the dog leads. You don't know where the track is at a test (it is "blind"), so you must rely completely on the dog to get you from the start flag to the final glove. Since my very young dogs are tracking, I've had a lot of people say to me, "Oh I'll do tracking when my dog is older because it's an easier sport on their body."

Yes, tracking is not as physically demanding as agility; it is an endurance sport versus a sprint sport. But I always have a word of reminder for folks who take older obedience and agility-trained dogs out to start tracking. Our older dogs have always worked at the direction of their handler. But tracking requires the dog to lead and the handler to follow. Many older, well-titled dogs struggle with green handlers because the dog is looking for the handler to guide them.

Quite frankly, this is why Ian doesn't have a tracking title yet. Ian really enjoys tracking, and he learned straight lines very quickly. He had a ball out there, wagging his tail and bouncing and barking. However, when I started turns, everything fell apart. Ian would lose the scent and then come back to my side and happily look up at me wagging his tail saying, "Ok, that was fun. Now I have no idea what to do, so can you help me?"

So with that background, I will now answer the question. Personally, I start with food on a regular track. I prefer a low value food reward (I use kibble/dog food), so that it's easy to fade as the dog learns the game. I start with a 35 yard track. I put the start article at the flag and then step off on the track in a normal stride. After I plant my third step, I lift my heel from my second step and drop a piece of kibble right into the footprint of my second step. In this manner, I put kibble in every other footstep for the first 10 yards; every third footstep for the next 10 yards and every fourth footstep for the final 10 yards. Then I put no kibble for 5 yards, but I put a jackpot of kibble in the end article.

I like to drop one piece of kibble into the footstep itself, because I want the dog to have it's nose in the footstep/scent when it's rewarded. I spread the rewards apart to pull the dog down the track. I want the jackpot in the end article (not on top or below the article), because I don't want the dog to self reward. Eventually I want to transfer the value of the reward to the article itself and away from the food.

I may run two of these 35 yard tracks in one session. The next day I will follow up with very similar tracks, but with kibble starting every three steps instead of every two steps. My goal is to eliminate the food as quickly as possible. So I stretch out the spacing between kibble drops very quickly to every 5 yards, then every 10 yards then every 20 yards and eliminate them except in articles.

You as the dog trainer must read your dog to see when there is too much food and it becomes a distraction, or when your dog doesn't really get the game and needs the food help. If the dog is tracking along and then does a 180 and comes back to a food drop, that's a big clue you need to eliminate your food drops or spread them farther apart. If the dog is completely shutting down and wandering off, you may need a higher value food or put the spacing closer.

And now I return to where I started: the most important part of teaching your dog to track is not how many pieces of kibble are on the track. The most important part is that you teach your dog to pull you down the track. I start my dog on a 6 foot leash. If my dog is nose down on the track in my footsteps, I walk behind her. The instant my dog goes off that track, I stop. I hold my ground until the dog's nose drops back onto the track and then I move forward.

And here's another very valuable tracking tip: keep your mouth shut. At the very beginning, if my dog is tracking I may quietly say "good track" or "good dog." However, when my dog goes off the track, I simply stop and wait them out. I let the dog figure out his/her own problems; so I let the dog figure out how to get back on the track where the food reward is without verbal help from me.

A dog investigating off the track is normal. They are problem solving. They are figuring out where the track/scent is and where it is not. You aid this problem solving by not going with them when they are off the track. I cannot stress this step enough. One of the biggest mistakes I see most people make in tracking is to continue to walk forward when their dog is off the track.

When my dog is confident on short tracks without food, I'll transfer to a 20 ft. line with 10 ft. marked on it. I won't get more than 10 ft. behind her until she is very confident on much longer tracks. I will probably leave her on this 20 ft. line while I teach turns and slowly allow the dog more distance on the line as she gets more confident. Once they are confident on turns and I'm moving out to the end of the 20 ft. line, I'll transition to my 40 ft. line and work 20 ft. behind the dog. This is the same line I use in tests.

Once my dog is working confidently on short tracks with turns, I'll age the tracks up to 2 hours in 20-30 minute increments. I will not add any length to the track while I'm aging; I teach one component at a time. When the dog can do 2 hours, I will then start "ping ponging" the age of my training tracks between 45 minutes and 2 hours. This is the typical range for a TD test track, so I want my dog working randomly in this range.

Finally, I work length of track. When I feel I have a well-trained dog, I'll ask for help from others to lay me blind tracks. After successfully running three blind tracks, I'll call a judge and set a certification time.

How long will all this take? It all depends on the dog and the handler. Devon was my first certified dog. It took us 5 months to get from start to certification. However, Page ran a 2.5 hour old blind track (the first time she tracked someone other than me) at 16 weeks, just 7 weeks after I brought her home. Page certified easily at 19 weeks. I believe Devon and Page are equally talented tracking dogs; the difference in the time frame had everything to do with my education in tracking. I know a lot more than I did 3 years ago!

Updating Page's recent tracks

The day after Page certified on July 5, she did a TDX track. It was 500 yards long, aged 1 hour and 45 minutes. I gave her two articles on the track. She did an amazing job with the track; but for the first time in her little career, I saw her stress. She stressed at each article. She froze over the articles, then either walked away or started eating grass around them.

Seeing the stress, I didn't force the issue with the articles. I didn't ask what she had found; I simply walked up and picked it up and told her to track again. Once I picked up the article, she relaxed and started tracking again.

I had been saying that I would work the article game with her to solidify those indications, and it looked like this was the time. I gave her a day off, then spent Wednesday and Thursday last week working the article game.

I'd love to report that Page immediately understood what she was to do and everything was perfect ... but she's a puppy and that's not how the story went. I laid out a line of articles, put on her harness and let her loose. She found the articles, but after a sniff, she went onto the next one. So I started standing on the tracking line, not allowing her to move forward. This didn't make her happy, but she finally showed some interest in the article. Once she did, I clicked and treated. Hummmmm ... if this earns me treats, maybe I'll pay more attention ...

So over two days I got her downing on the articles and nose touching them. I decided this was good enough for now. Ideally I want her to retrieve the articles. This is Devon's indication, and for retrievers I prefer it. However, Page has always volunteered the down, so I'm allowing her to do that. I'm wondering what will happen after she's through force fetch and if she'll start retrieving the articles then. Only time will tell!

Page is certified!

Certified for tracking, that is! Yep at the ripe old age of 19 weeks, we have our four original certificates, and we can now enter AKC TD tests ... actually, Page has to be 6 months old before she can run tests so it might be a while!

On Saturday afternoon we were making plans to meet to track Devon and Archie on VST, and Steve (our local AKC tracking judge) asked if I wanted to do anything with Page. In the area we selected to track, I didn't think there were any fields big enough for TD work, so I said we could just lay Page a small VST track. Steve and Janet showed up 5 minutes late Sunday morning to our meeting spot, but they were grinning and said they found a TD field and Page's track was in!

I have to say on the way to the track, I was nervous. Steve said later he didn't tell me it was a certification track; but I know him well enough that if he's going to go to the effort to put in a track for a dog that's ready to certify, he's not going to do it twice! I started to get mad at myself and talk myself out of my nerves, but then I figured I'll be nervous at a test and Page will need to know what that "feels" like and work through it. Devon ignores my nerves in tracking and field, and I figured Page would too.

For those of you who like to know these things, the track was aged 1 hour and 5 minutes when we started. Page went to the start flag well, but she stopped 6 inches before the start article. I put my hand on it and then let her smell it and she just looked at me. She's never stopped short like that, so I'm curious about it. Maybe it was my nerves she sensed that were different?

However, when I told her to track, she trotted off like she normally does. Halfway between the start flag and the 30 yard flag, Page got the line wrapped around her neck and I had to unwrap her and restart her. She was a little confused since we haven't really practiced that, but once she got going again she locked into the track.

I think I was most worried about getting past the first turn. Page showed loss of scent as usual and locked quickly onto the new leg to the left. At this point, I knew we would be fine and my nerves went away and we were tracking. On the second leg Page found two large feathers she was interested in, but as soon as I said "track" at the second feather, she left it and tracked on like a big dog, handling the second turn with ease.

The only difficulty Page had was on the third turn. When she showed she had lost the scent, she circled all the way around me twice looking for it. This is very unusual for Page, since she shows loss of scent so quickly on turns she doesn't have to go behind me. When she started working her way backwards on my right, I knew she was past the turn and more than likely I was too.

This is when I was very thankful for our Thursday track when this very thing happened to us and Page worked it out. I backed up, and when she locked onto the track, it was 6-8 ft. behind me and to my right. I could tell by everything she gave me Page was locked onto the track and working, so I stepped in behind her. I was confident, but I also gave a little peak over my shoulder to make sure our judge was following us. Steve was following and was grinning from ear to ear!

Page handled the rest of this track with ease. Halfway along the last leg, she saw a large plastic bottle off to our left. I knew it wasn't an article, and when Page wanted to pull to it I held my ground and she came back to the track so we could walk forward. As soon as I was confident we were on the track but close enough to let her investigate it and rule it out as something she should find, I let her out on the end of the 40 ft. line to go see it. As soon as she got there, she knew it wasn't for her; she turned and came right back to work.

However, the distraction had pulled us to the left of the track just slightly. She got back on it and a few feet from the glove winded it and circled right. Once she was back on the track, I saw the glove about the same time she did.

The track was 490 yards long with 5 turns. The legs were 95 yards, 75 yards, 60 yards, 110 yards, 60 yards and 90 yards. It was low cover and the day was cloudy, damp and cool with no wind. Perfect tracking weather!

After we found the glove, Steve's first comment was that she was an incredible problem solver. He said for a 19 week old puppy to problem solve the third turn when she was so far beyond the turn and to work backwards to lock onto the track was impressive. He also said when she was on it, Page was footstep tracking and when she angled off, she corrected herself to right on the line.

Janet brought Page's reward with her when she followed us. Janet brought the feather Page wanted on the second leg, so Page got to carry that back to the vehicles with us. She was very proud!

So we will maintain Page's TD skills for the next 3 months as we work TDX and VST tracks and shoot for a test later this fall. I am super proud of this incredible girl!

How a hawk can change your mind about tracking

I gave Page a TD track this week in anticipation of certifying her sometime soon. We've been doing TDX and VST tracks, so I thought I should again remind her what a good old fashioned TD track was.

The field I used was a little more sparse than I anticipated, but I thought it would still give Page a good lesson. I laid a 500 yard, five turn TD track, and I planned to start it at 30 minutes. I say planned, because Page almost didn't get to run this track after all!

As I took Page to the start line, a Red-Tailed Hawk came soaring out of the woods behind us screaming. This hawk was in full hunt mode, and I thought a little gold dog at the end of a tracking line might look too much like a rabbit for my comfort level.

After a few minutes, he soared off to the next field so I started Page on the track since she was now lunging for the start article. This girl loves to track. However, Page wasn't more than 10 yards down the track when the hawk came back. I held Page and watch him, and he got closer and closer, circling and screaming over head.

That's when I picked Page up! I wasn't going to risk either of us getting hurt for this track. I reset the start flag and article thinking I could come back later and headed for the SUV. Page wiggled and squirmed because she wanted to track. Once she was tucked away in the SUV and I was just about to leave, the hawk left. After waiting a couple of minutes, I realized it was for good.

We restarted the track, and Page was very solid in spite of the weird circumstances. She tracked strong through the second turn, and on the third leg she was pulling hard and wanting to go faster than I've ever seen. But once again she reminded me that "speed kills." I missed the turn marker and she overshot the turn by 20 yards before she showed loss of scent. When she did, I realized how badly we'd overshot it since I was watching her track.

After a few minutes of searching, she got back on the new leg, but she was going slower and I had learned my lesson about speed! She tracked strong through the last turn and about 30 yards into that leg she hit a wall. That's the only thing I can figure happened. She was still "tracking" but she was searching wide and not totally committed. Several rescents and two water breaks later and she still wasn't strong. I let her work through it, and she finally caught sight of the end article and raced to it.

Looking back on her previous tracks, Page hasn't done that much yardage in a couple of weeks. I think the length got to her, but she didn't shut down completely. She worked through it, but she didn't track strong. It was good reminder to vary length as well as time and types of tracking in Page's future.

Page's tracking - WOW!

I am just amazed at how mature Page is in her tracking. On Tuesday she did a 135 yard VST-type track at a local church. I really wish I had it on tape because of her focus. The track had 65 yards of veg with a metal article at 50 yards, then a double lane drive onto grass on an island where she had a plastic article. Off the island she went across the double lane drive again, then back into grass for her final glove.

I only aged this track 10 minutes, and I had hand prints and one piece of kibble at the second hand print on both non-veg. As I was waiting for the track to age, a teen-aged boy drove up in a golf cart and started sweeping up mulch around the islands that were about 20 ft. away from Page's track. I thought, "Oh great, there goes our track. What 15-week old puppy is going to track past a person who might want to play with her?"

I got Page out and went through our start routine. Imagine my shock when Page didn't even head check the kid that was sweeping by her! She got right to work. In fact, when he got into the golf cart and drove past her to the next island and started working again, I was in awe that she didn't pay any attention to him - in spite of the fact he was watching her!

I was so shocked at her tracking that when she started to paw something in the grass I thought, "What is she doing?" I had totally forgotten she had a metal article to find, and she was indicating it! She wagged her tail and pawed at it, then laid down and waited for the treats! Amazing!

After her track, I let her go play with the guy and explained what we were doing. She played with him like a typical puppy once she wasn't working.

Today I wanted to really push her and see what I had. I gave her a 405 yard track in medium to high cover with four turns and aged 30 minutes. I put one article on the second leg, and I knew there was at least one deer trail as a cross track on the first leg. There was no food on the track or in the articles (mainly because I forgot it!). 

The first leg was 80 yards to a left turn, then 65 yards with an article at 20 yards to an open right turn, leg 3 was 70 yards to a right turn, then 40 yards to another right turn and finally 150 yards to her glove. I'll spoil the ending by saying Page handled this track like a certified tracking dog! 

Below is the first half of the track from about 20 yards through the cross track deer trail, first turn and to the first article.

I had to shut the camera off to pick up the article, so here's the second half of the track.

I'm really just amazed at her tracking abilities and her work ethic at such a young age. Gayle told me she loves to work (just like her mom), and she doesn't like "down time" and I'm finding that to be true. 

We do have things to work on. Clearly Page's article indication is gone now that there's no food in the article, so I have to work on that. Now I'm glad I forgot the food, because I learned something. Also, she has only tracked me. I think our next track needs to be tracking someone new. 

Way to go Beth and Denver!

Last Thursday I had the privilege of laying a blind track for my friend Beth and her 1-year-old Golden Retriever boy Denver. Beth has tracked by herself and was curious to see if Denver was ready to certify. I laid a 475 yard track with 5 turns that was aged 35 minutes.

I told Beth to go ahead and start thinking I'd catch up with them on the first leg; Denver was a green dog. Well, Denver was off like a shot, trucking down the track with his nose down! Clearly he knew just what he was doing and I had to jog to keep up! Beth and Denver have worked hard, and when he reached his article, I told her they were 95% of the way there! 

Beth just had to work out a little issue with Denver's confidence on turns. Occasionally when the going got tough, Denver wanted mom to help.  Giving your dog that little bit of "confidence" is really easy to do when you lay your own tracks and work by yourself. I've done it to all three of my dogs; if you look back to the beginning of the month, you'll see Devon and I had to work that issue out, too, on MOT turns!

Beth did her homework, and so did Denver. On Saturday, she met Steve and Janet Ripley out tracking. Little did she know, Steve was going to pull a fast one on her! He laid a blind track as she'd requested. Denver and Beth did a fantastic job and when Denver laid down on the final glove, Steve asked Beth when she was going to start entering tracking tests. Beth said, "Well, I have to get Certified." Steve grinned and said, "You just did!" Steve laid a certification track for her but didn't bother to tell her. Why get her all nervous?

So congratulations to Beth and Denver. You worked hard and it all paid off - now go enter some tests and make us even more proud!

Shaking off the rust on Ian's tracking

Ian loves to track. I remember telling his breeder for the first time that I laid a track for Ian, and she thought I misspoke! In fact, most people still can't believe I'm tracking Ian. However, Agile Gold knows why I'm tracking Ian. When I got him out of the van, he was so excited to track (and yes, he knew he was tracking), he couldn't contain himself. He was all tail wags, moving black fur and excitement. I asked if Kathy had ever seen him this excited to do agility, and the answer was a resounding no. Ian likes to track better than he likes agility - and that's saying something!

Now, the key is for me to be able to read him well enough for us to get somewhere! I laid a very straight forward two turn track for Ian. The track was aged approximately 35-40 minutes. It was 60 yards (with a 30 yard flag), left turn (which was triple laid) onto a 50 yard leg to a right turn (which was single laid) and 50 yards to the glove. Now, I could have been nice and actually put some food on the track since Ian hasn't tracked since October. I could have also done only one turn, since he's only done three single turn tracks in his life. But I guess I wasn't worrying about the details!

Ian did a nice job on the start. He does circle a lot, and he drives me nuts by pottying on the track (he does BOTH - boys!). However, he does nose down track and really pull me. He knows his job and clearly the age didn't bother him.

However, having a single follower behind him did bother him. Agile Gold is very good about not being bothered when a big black furry beast turns and barks at you ... three times! One would think he'd remember she was back there, but as my mother can swear to, he has a very short memory. In the past he's been a demo dog for my Introduction to Tracking Seminars. While he noticed the gallery watching on those occasions, they were farther away and not "stalking" him. Clearly if we ever make it to certification, this will be an issue. 

Ian again presented the same behavior on turns as before. He gives nice "loss of scent" indication, and he circles to find the track. At some point, I believe he locates it; however, I'm not reading his indication. I wait and wait and wait. Finally, Ian stalls out always pointing in a 45 degree angle directly on the line of the track and he looks at me. I'm sure he's saying, "Hey lady, I've already told you three times it's right there, but you aren't following me. Since I don't really know this game well, and I won't go anywhere without you, I'll just stand here until you decide we need to go down that leg." If I take one step in the direction of the new leg, he goes nose down to the track. Clearly, we need to communicate better than we are! 

Janet gave me a good suggestion today to use rewards to get him pulling around the turn in a way I can read him. I like this idea. I also think I just need to work with him more (what a concept) to really learn to read him. I've also thought about asking others to follow us (which will help get him used to that) and observe him to help me see what I'm missing. Reading Ian is much more difficult than reading Devon. However, if I'm actually going to be a good trainer, I need to figure this dog out.

I remember one of the first things a very good dog trainer said to my friend Linda Smithberger when she got her OTCH on her Novice A dog Max. Linda was told, "Congratulations! Now let's see if you can do it again!" (BTW, she did do it again.) To me, the hallmark of a good trainer, is that they can repeat their success with multiple dogs. I have an incredibly talented tracker with Devon. She has taught me more about the sport of tracking than any text book. Now let's see if I can "do it again!" 

Tracking Connor

Connor is back to “normal” with his tracking – he’s really enjoying it. He’s been nose down, right on the line tracking every since our failed certification attempt last month. I believe he’s not certifying because of the pressure and the bad emotional feelings he’s had at that location when we’ve failed the last three times.

I like it better when Connor’s happy about doing something, and that’s the way he’s been in training. Therefore, I think I’ve given up on the idea of getting him certified and getting his TD. I’m still going to train and track him. I’m still going to try and “fix” this turn problem we have. But if he never earns his TD and just has fun tracking, that’s fine with me.