Working on cross tracks - Page 2

FH thank you!  I only had time to do one measly track but it was well worth it - it worked!  I think the other reason your method is perfect for me is I use plow lines when practicing, so it's easier for me to lock up.  Now I need to get out there and do it a bunch more times.  (You know,  my most favorite part of schutzhund is tracking, I really love it).  

Sue,

That's wonderful!  I'm glad it helped. :D

Mystere,

I think I understand what you're saying because I'm paranoid about not 'correcting' a dog for tracking but at the same time needing to indicate when a cross track is NOT to be picked up.  That's why I keep up close to my dog and lock up if they try to commit to the cross track, then praise big when they work it out and get back to the correct track.

GSPack,

Thanks for the tip though, I will definitely look around to see if I can find something similar to add to the 'tool box' :D

FH, Where do you do most of your tracking to allow for a change in terrain? I track often at parks and use walkways to start the "road crossing" ("graduating" to literally crossing a street). I have found finding places with real terrain changes to be a challenge.

 I have done only a little of this, lately, and as an experiment. So take what I say with a grain of salt. What I wonder is why someone just starting out would use their own cross-track? Surely, the goal is to teach, first of all, for the dog to follow the original track. That means it is following a particular scent. The second factor involved is age of the track, and, in this case, the cross-track. However, I am sure most of you have been out to track and noted a dog go out and track right along a track laid even days ago. It is following the scent put down and often I have seen my dogs, on natural turf which is very, very difficult tracking conditions, follow a track laid days before almost perfectly. So my point is this. By laying a cross-track yourself, you are putting down exactly the same scent and you are hoping that there is some difference in that track, mainly age. I suggest that age is not a good enough difference to rely on initially when a dog is learning to ignore tracks. And secondly, for some people, of course it may be difficult to get someone else to do the cross-track. 

I think that teaching the dog first to ignore a different scent is the most important factor in teaching dogs to do the FH and even SAR tracking. Secondly, if, and only if a dog is sound in that regard, then perhaps it is possible to go back and really work on trying to teach a dog to discriminate by age of scent. I am certain that it can be done, but in the FH, the dog will have to ignore a different scent will it not? And working first to teach that discrimination would seem to be more logical and provide better results. 

I just know from observation that scent, under certain environmental conditions, will remain strong much longer than we like to think. Therefore, I think one must be careful about how to use the "aging" factor as a chief determinant in the process of teaching the dog to track.

Just my two cents. I will look for some literature that speaks to scent age discrimination issues.....

Hodie,

For Schutzhund tracking, the dog should be following the scent of disturbed earth not a body scent.  Thus, the dog should be recognizing the scent of a certain level of age on the disturbed ground vs the 'new' disturbance.  It should matter if you, a stranger, a deer makes the cross track, the dog should committ and continue on the level of disturbance he started out on.

This makes practicing a lot easier because *you* know where you laid your cross and can keep a mental track of the lay so you can be in position to correct or assist as needed.

Mystere,

I'm lucky that I have access to open fields that have grass, small bits of woods and dirt roads to work across.  My biggest challenge is always in finding somewhere for asphault to work across but my neighbor has helped me out big time and allows me to track from my yard, across our road and into his yard.

I've made more friends with the landowners around my area from tracking than I have at work I think!

FHTracker,

For what it is worth, there is serious disagreement about just what a dog follows when following a track. Dogs can discriminate between many, many separate scents and at very small parts per million in some cases. But just what the dog actually follows while tracking is debated. However, the science behind it suggests that the dog is following scents of people.

Of course, I know about Schutzhund, having titled several dogs, to SchH 2 and 3 and others for tracking etc. I don't particularly like to track because of an injury which makes it difficult to walk. However, again, whether it is disturbed ground, vegetation damage or human scent is debatable. I personally believe the dog really does follow the scent of the person, and this is why training with cross tracks made by others makes a lot of sense. There is no proof that a dog can discriminate between aged scent when more than one scent is present, but there is plenty of evidence to suggest that dogs discriminate between various scents. When I have time I will post some interesting links on canine tracking from some scholarly journals. My point is that people who train for tracking should often use someone else to lay a track and especially where the FH is concerned, have someone other than the main track layer doing the cross-track. Of course it is, to us, aged, but to the dog, it may be that age makes little or no difference.

Hodie,

I will have to respectfully disagree.  This is the style I've developed over the years and I have had it work with numerous different dogs.  Of course, all things in moderation and it's good to have other's lay a track simply for the practice of different foot fall, different way of laying an article on the ground, making a corner, etc.

But once a dog is trained to recognize a cross track and continue, I've never had a problem whether it's been laid by me, a stranger or men from Mars. :)

Whatever works is what one should do.......