SchH Question/Phase I - Page 2

Serpentine tracking puppies is the speed control. I believe that it brings calmness and also nurtures the hunt drive. The problem with serpentines is most handlers can't remember the track. Forced tracking is limited to those that can read a dog. They are in my opinion a scarce breed and should do the work in very private areas.

realcold

That's exactly what I did with her.  Plenty of serpentine tracks.  Make em' slow down and work!

Don Corleone,

I try to train with as little stress as possible. And I have thought tons about the stress we create on the track by forcing the dog to stop at articles. Doesn't make much sense to them until we make the track about hunting out the articles. With my one dog that I rewarded at the articles with hhis toy, I had made mistakes pushing him to his FH and he had lost some drive for the track itself. With him it worked great. With my next dog, it just distracted him from his hunt drive. I like to introduce the toy at the article at some point with my mature tracking dogs to see exactly if they can change focus from track to toy, to track again, but it depends on the dog if I will use it consistantly.

Realcold,

Yes, forced tracking should be limited to those who can read a dog VERY well, but not everyone who can read a dog well should be limited to forced tracking! Sepentine tracking is a great tool for slowing down dogs, but does not work on all of them. Every one is different. I have one dog who puts so much stress on himself and charged forward so fast, that sepentine's at a young age were impossible. He's teaching me tons about how to handle that line!

Changer. Have you tried a string for the line? Some dogs carry the stress of everything on their poor shoulders. I recently tried the very thin line approach and lo and behold just taking me mostly out of the picture allowed her to deal with the stress  she was putting on herself. I would not of believed it if someone had told me. Just another tool as when we trialed I went back to the regular line for more feel between us. It worked pretty good.

You know, having gone to a much longer and thinnner line, I realize he has been less stressed lately.  One of his problems is his resource guarding. He wants to get the food before I get it! (like I want the stinky stuff) Backing up on the line helped immensely.  Allowed him to concentrate and think more.