Any Tips for Doing Aged Tracks? - Page 1

I now know why my dogs were so utterly clueless when we did the TD test 2 weekends ago. I now have the tracklayer's diagrams, and BOTH tracks were well over an hour old by the time we did them!  For some reason, I assumed the tracks would only be 30 minutes old, so that's what we'd been practising.  So, now I know why Ranger left the first leg of the track to check out a horse that was in the field, and Star wandered along chewing on grass blades until she got to the end of the first leg, then just upped and quit!  After we were DQ'd, the judge and tracklayer took us close to the end of the track, and gave Star a chance to find the article, so things could finish on a positive note. For the first time I can remember, she just blew right past it as if it wasn't even there!

So, last night, I laid a number of tracks for Ranger, aged from 15 to 45 minutes. He was fine until we got to the oldest track, and then it was like he was just out for a stroll in the field!

Both dogs do well with tracks that are up to 1/2 hour old, and Star, who has the better nose, is often okay with tracks up to 45 minutes, but nothing older. Any tips for doing older ones? It seems like you're defeating the purpose of aging the track to lay food on it!  Is that what I should be doing until they get used to an aged track?

Sunsilver,

I would definately still help the dog out with food.    Since you are trying to lengthen the age of the track, the dog still needs something as a mental reference point .     Since, the dog is the one that really has to figure out how the scent changes, your job is to provide the circumstances for them to connect the dots. 

If you trained your dog with food on the track, then it will be a great reinforcement of the correct or wanted behavior.  So, when the dog reaches a point in the track, where it starts to get confused or frustrated, or second guessing  the track, then having something they know (like food) will help the dog realize , it was correct in it's decision. 

Maybe , age just a 50 pace track  that is heavily baited with food.     That way you can allow success on the aged part. 

maybe , lay 3 short tracks with bait, and let all of them age for an hour, so that the dog can start to understand that the new or different thing on the track is the aged scent. 

I like to say make a 'ROUTINE OF RANDOM " .   

I still have a ton,  of knowledge to gain when it comes to tracking so, I do hope others will join in as well, this is a good topic.    

Yes, it's nice to see a DOG RELATED topic here for a change isn't it?

Jamille makes some good points.

Start stretching out your time for the age of the tracks keep them baited for now,

Eventually strech out the distance bait only certain legs and try to keep as random as possible.

I would even randomize your bait keep it  interesting between a few foods the dog
really likes

Keep a notebook of your tracks so you can keep things random and see where you are having problems

Another thing i would'nt want to run multiple tracks at this point.  Just do one track aged and baited.  You want the dog to associte tracking as a good thing, as something fun to do.  It is possible after you ran the other tracks the dog was getting tired as well.

Jeff

Habanero, it was just 4 tracks, and they weren't very long. It's a sort of a test that was recommended to me to see just where my dog is at, and what we need to work on. (We also needed to practise our starts, and this was good for that, as well!)

First track: 50-60 yards, no turns, food on scent pad and every 10 paces. Aged about 10 minutes

Second track: 60-70 paces, food on scent pad, and about every 20 paces. Aged about 15-20 min.

Third: First leg about 70 paces, food on scent pad and 10 paces past corner (one turn) Second leg about 30 paces. Aged about 30-40 min

Fourth: no food, first leg 80 paces, second leg about 40 paces. Aged about 45-50 min.

Also, it was getting close to sunset at the time, and was a cool day, so the dog definitely wasn't suffering, except from the $%^&*@#!! blackfies! (Handler was just as miserable...)

What Habanero said.

Forgot to say that this multiple track was a special thing. At this point, we're doing 1 or 2 tracks a day, and our instructor is insisting we draw maps and keep notes on all the tracks.

Last night, I did it with Star, with similar results. The aged track was the hardest, and I actually had to take her by the collar, and guide her along it at one point. I know when she's totally lost it: she stops to eat grass! 

Again, this was just a test to see where both dogs are at, and what I need to work on. Basically, the two things are starts and doing older tracks. So, it looks like my game plan will be to do several short tracks from 45 min. to an hour old, baited with lots of goodies!  Once the starts are going better, I'll decrease it to one or two tracks a session, and increase the length, then gradually decrease the amount of bait.

Sound like a good plan?

Ideally you want to make the dog as drivey for the track as you can.  To teach the dog to run an aged track you want the dog to associate the scent system of the aged track with when I smell something like this its gonna be an easy good time kinda track.

By baiting the less aged tracks more heavily you are reinforcing that the less aged are more important to pay attention to

start short and easy heavily baited  then gradually make more difficult with time

Basically do you hard training stuff  like multiple corners, serpentines etc on the newer tracks bait them very lightly if using any type of compulsion.

 

The older aged tracks should be easy and more heavily baited. gradually increasing the length and difficuly of the tracks.

You are trying to build drive for the aged track then

best of luck