IPO Tracking and AKC tracking - Page 1

Has anyone moved between the two? Is one easier than the other? If your dog has it's IPO 1 will it be able to pass an AKC track? Are there any significant challenges or differences between the two requirements?

In an AKC track, the dog pretty much only has to reach the end of the track, and find the items laid on it. How it does this, whether by ground scenting or air scenting doesn't matter.

IPO is totally different. The dog is dinged points every time it lifts its nose from the track. Given that scent is affected by air currents, temperature and humidity, I don't really think this is fair, but that's the way it is!

An IPO tracking dog should have NO PROBLEMS with an AKC/CKC track!

Train your IPO tracking first if you do AKC first you may not be able to train the IPO tracking

http://www.danika.com/library/trackdif.html

The hardest part is finding an AKC tracking trial, getting your dog qualified and then making the draw which can take a year or more.

BTW points are easily lost in AKC tracking too.

Ok, thanks!

An IPO dog may be able to do a TD no problem, but the AKC VST is nothing to sneeze at.

And it is incorrect that a dog "just has to reach the end of the track." Excessive air scenting is penalized and can result in failure. The dog must ground track, but some casting is allowed.

The levels are also very different. The IPO3 track is roughly equivalent (in distance, number of turns, and aging) to the AKC TD track. The AKC TDX is roughly equivalent to the FH1.

IPO tracking is more of an obedience exercise in terms of how the track is to be worked

Sunsilver has given an accurate description, Cutaway is also correct about the way FH and IPO tracking are taught in the USA and Blitzen is also correct about the difficulty getting into an AKC tracking trial.

If you would like your dog to be able to tackle the VST and FH2, on a basic level, you must somehow train the dog for foot scenting scoring, but with the tracks laid in the more difficult AKC style. According to the active AKC judges I know, in my region, most FH1/2 dogs cannot pass the VST, ever, no matter how many attempts, because the AKC track is laid differently (regular walking vs scuffling) and the AKC style cross tracks are almost always too hard for many FH dogs to deal with in a majority of cases. I see a lot of FH1-2 dogs get the TD and TDX, but very, very, few of those can pass the VST, despite earning the IPO3, FH2 and TDX.

On the flip side, I have seen dogs from Europe with the IPO-FH pass the VST. I strongly believe that they are doing something slightly differently than the american IPO club trainers. My assumption is that European trainers are somehow training their dogs on pairing the scent of the decaying rafts with a reward, while American IPO trainers are focusing too heavily on the nose down obedience, while almost completely ignoring the importance of the dog truly understanding how the track scent changes over time.

Also don't forget there is also the StP 1-3 (article search)