"Specific" Tracking Question - Page 1

     My male Shepherd is not yet two years old. He appears to be a 'natural', at tracking. He is VERY focused at the task before him. He does not get distracted. He loves it.
     I just was told to bring Duke up to the home of some very good friends of mine that train, Golden Retreivers for search and Rescue. Phyliss is the editor of a Golden retreiver magazine. She writes weekly tracking articles.She HAS titled German Shepherds for Sch., but it has been quite awhile, they now focus on Retreivers.
     I do want Duke to get a sch., title, but I really would like him to do search and rescue. He is a very fast tracker, "methodical' if you might!
     I've posted this question before,
     How do I seperate the differences in tracking,    for one: 

                                                 to keep my dog on a fast track for search and rescue; and second

to title him in sch; for breed worthy status /    Where/what is the seperation????

      In the showline pedigree's, his lines speak volumes. For working lines, I believe he would give ANY working line ...A RUN for THE MONEY. My DOG HAS IT ALL (and he looks good too,as in also!!!).

                I love this DOG!!!!

Schutzhund titles FIRST. Anything else LATER.
SAR tracking and SchH tracking have almost nothing in common.
Teach your dog to air scent and quarter and you can probably forget about SchH tracking afterwards.
JMO

SS

The smartest thing would be to pick one: either SAR or SchH.  They both require a tremondous amount of dedication, work and time on your part.  Few people have the time and energy to do one well not too mention both.  I do agree with Shelley, if you decide to do both, SchH title him first then convert him to SAR style tracking.  It is easier to go from ground disturbance or foot step tracking to air scent trailing then vice versa.  Your dog is almost 2 years old, you really need to get started soon on one of them.  He could be SchH titled or  working in SAR already.  Ground disturbance tracking (foot step) will make him a better SAR tracking dog.  You will need to have 2 seperate rituals and 2 seperate commands for each activity.  It can be done, but would be very difficult to near impossible to do both well at the same time.  I'm sure the SchH tracking would suffer more.  IMO, you need to pick one and just start doing it.  If you decide to do SchH you have about a year of training or more to get his SchH 1,  granted he is titleable.  This makes him 3 yrs old.  Then you could start SAR training.  So, times wasting get out there and train.

JMO,
Jim

     I have been out there training my dog. Everyday, I work with him. My dog Duke IS SO WILLING TO PLEASE ME. More important, HE LOVES doing it.I am very dedicated to my dog, and Visa Versa.

     Through no fault of the dog, I,(we) have suffered many stumbling blocks along the way.We will prevail!!!!

I would advise to pick one.  My  understanding is that most SAR groups are hesitant to work with a novice dog over the age of 2 so I would not plan on easily being able to go from SchH to SAR at an older age.

Good luck in whatever you decide.

I would agree that sport tracking would precede SAR trailing in the sequence of things. But guess you could continue to do tracking and work an area search dog [called air scent dog in the SAR community]  that is not a trailing dog.

But many SAR groups won't touch a dog with bitework - this has to do with the liability coverage the teams have to carry and the reality of the negaitve press if anything happened with a bite-trained dog and the uncertainly of what the dog would do if the victim and dog were out of sight of the handler and the victim took off running.

You have to consider if you want to do SAR with your dog that this dog could be seriously injured or worse doing it.  I knew several SAR dogs that are now dead dogs either from getting hit by cars or early cancers due to some of the places people manage to get lost. Also would you make the decision to forgo an important trial because you get a "call out". How would you feel if you did and you got  halfway there after driving 3 hours only to be turned around because the victim was found. We almost had a dog swept down a flooded river last week on a search. Are you prepared to face the risk involved to your dog? Just some considerations.

A novice handler would be wise to make a choice, one choice, and stick with that choice. Its hard enough to train for the sport of Schutzhund by itself, both for handler and dog. I, for one, cannot spread my time, effort, and skilll any farther than the hundreds of hours it takes to train for the 3 phases of SchH sport., even after 22+ years. To expand into other interests would only dillute my training efforts and confuse both my (stupid) self and my (smarter-than-me) dogs.
My BEST advice: Pick ONE thing. Throw yourself into with eveything you have till you are successful, THEN explore other options, IF you still have some enery and interest after that.

Novices! So often hell-bent to jump into the deep end of every pool they can find, especially the ones closest to home.
Argh

SS