Teaching Your Dog To Track...The Most Efficient Way Possible By Selecting The Right Dog - Page 1

"A good tracking dog must posses a very strong urge to chase, play with and carry objects, with vitality and intensity. The intensity of which a dog chases the ball or tug is important however, it’s the determination of which the dog clamps down with his mouth, holds and resists in giving up the object that is desirable. "
 
 

Really?  Do you really believe so?  Toy driven and possessive is a MUST for tracking success?  Dogfolk I've worked with in the past would primarily use food, via Joanne's methods.  The above description seems like a limited training methodology as any (IOW, specialized), perhaps geared primarily for sport tracking, and excluding particular breeds such as bloodhounds.

The best tracker I've ever owned did have toy drive, but she was not possessive of the toys. She just loved to play fetch. However, to me the key to her tracking drive was that she just HAD to have her nose into EVERYTHING! Telling her 'no sniff!' was like asking her not to breathe. When you took her into a hotel room she wouldn't settle until everything in the room had been thoroughly checked out with her nose. And yes, that included the crotches of any strangers!

I fail to see how toy drive can be so very important to a tracking dog!


The emphasis on footstep tracking in schutzhund also bothers me. Many excellent tracking dogs use both air scenting and ground scenting to track. Why should we limit our dogs to ground scenting only, and zap them with a shock collar every time they dare lift their heads? Each dog has its own style of tracking. My female doesn't put her nose to the ground if she's in long grass. She prefers to pick up the scent from the grass stems, so she tracks with her head high. I seen nothing wrong with that. The person's clothing brushed the grass stems. Why should that scent be inferior to the one left by their feet? 

"to me the key to her tracking drive was that she just HAD to have her nose into EVERYTHING! Telling her 'no sniff!' was like asking her not to breathe. "
 

Now that, I can wholly agree with!  The matter then becomes, how to communicate your directives, guiding the behavior.

It really depends on what your tracking goals are.  I agree with the Op's statement for a driven tracking dog.  SchH tracking, Trailing, SAR, area searching and the tracking we do with Police Dogs are all similar and yet distinctively different.  If you understand the purpose and reason behind SchH tracking it is a fun sport to train.  It is a tracking style and a training style.  Different training for different goals and objectives. 


it is too involved to go into the differences between ground disturbance, air scent and scent discrimination training.  Use whatever style works for you or a combination if that works best, just be consistent in your training. 


Jim 

  I believe a lot depends on the style of tracking to be conducted. As I train only PSD type tracking, not sport, the listed traits above are what I am looking for.

  Phil

I "understand the purpose and reason behind SchH tracking" to demonstrate a level of trainability, even if demonstrating that trainability is applied in ways counterintuitive to it's natural instincts.

A "driven tracking dog" can mean a lot, and while a possessive toy drive is understandably applicable for training article search, in what way would you apply that same sort of drive in your tracking goals?  Obviously, drive is relevant to motivation, so a toy/object is somehow intended as a tracking reward?

I never use a toy for tracking with my SchH dogs, I do however play with the dog after the completion of the track.  I use food to track and I do like Joanne Plumbs methods and use some of her techniques.  My SchH dogs are very highly motivated to track and are very driven to start and complete the track.  My dogs begin to whine when the see the tracking line coming out.  These are high prey, high hunt drive dogs.  My police K-9 and the other K-9 teams I work with are all also highly motivated to track.  We don't use food with these dogs we use a toy or a decoy as a reward.  Different training styles that can produce highly driven tracking dogs.      

Jim

  The same for my PSD teams withthe exception there will always be a quarry at the end. I want my dogs from the very first track to know he is hunting a human, not food or  a toy. How the quarry acts upon being located varies, but I want him using all his senses to locate the individual(s) at the end. Hence I teach articles off the track. I want the dog to either find the guy first, then attempt to locate the evidence backtracking.

Well then, I hope you can both clearly understand my failure to see drive and possessiveness for objects as somehow being a direct correlation of their aptitude for tracking, and instead are really just a means for motivating.  What that implies, is that it's OK to select for a specialized behavior that's conducive to one's training limitations.
         Ttth