Pre-tracking games - Page 1

We have a new candidate for our SAR group who still has a fair amount of requirements to meet before he can bring his dog into the group for evaluation.  He wants to know some tracking games to play with his dog in the mean time.  Many of the games he has found on the net tend to be more air scent oriented than tracking/trailing.
Does anyone have suggestions? If it makes a difference this is not a puppy but is an adult dog.
It would also be helpful if they were more tracking oriented than trailing as we start our dogs on tracking and then transition to trailing.
Thanks in advance,
Dawgs

To start, short straight tracks with a toy at the end for a reward.  I don't like this for SchH dogs, but I do like it for teaching tracking to SAR or Police dogs.  A lot of praise at the end a brisk game with the toy.  Then extend the tracks adding serpentines and  turns.  This will give his dog the ability to switch between the strongest source of odor later on; ground scent or air scent.  It is really interesting to see the dog switch from one to the other and work the strongest scent trail.

FWIW,

Jim   

Thanks slamdunc. I'll pass that on.

I had hoped to get more input from all the Sch. people on the board.

You must teach your dog to smell the ground not the air.   If the dogs does not learn to keep its nose on the ground it can't pass Schh trials.

Tracking in schH is footstep tracking and dogs look for a scent from ground disturbance not the track scent from person but it is practically impossible to seporate these scents and causing track problem .Police and S&R dogs actully trailling using more air scent and less track scent as schH dogs.Now if this person wants to do S&R he can use all the reward and play at the end so dog learn more importent things is happening when finds the end and other way in schH. If he puts alot of play at the end dog will mess up the track by going faster and oveshooting the turn. I never play with my SchH dog at the end of track just walk him away with a small tab on his shouler him know that I am happy with his tracking .

Allaboutthedawgs,
I also do SchH and have done SchH tracking for years.  The way a dog is started tracking inn SchH is at first with scent boxes or scent circles.  Then a tail leading into the scent circle, then a serpentine between the scent circles connecting them.  Then you start serpentine style tracks heavily baited at first, food in almost every footstep to start.  Then varying the amount of baited foot steps.

The scent circles are about a 3' diameter circle, the inside of the circle is completely crushed vegetation and randomly baited with 8 - 10 pieces of hot dogs.  The dog is brought to the circle and allowed to search the circle with out help from the handler.  The dog can go in and out of the circle on it's own.  The dog learns that the food is inside the circle and the difference between the area inside the circle and outside is the crushed vegetation and human odor.  Once the dog begins to make the association, it understands that it is to follow the source of the crushed vexation.  This is footstep tracking which is required for SchH but is not real world tracking.  It does create a calm methodical tracking dog.  I actually started my Police K9 out this way as a puppy.  When doing this with SchH dogs, the reward comes from the track and I praise calmly at the end of the track.  But I don't play.  For the police dog, I want higher energy and higher drive so the reward at the end is play or a bite.

There is a whole progression for this style of tracking, if you would like more details I'd be happy to try to help.  

My dog is also trained in scent discrimination tracking and will track a specific individual across parking lots, down streets he'll actually track with his nose on the sidewalk.  If he hits a grass field, he will footstep track at a pace that I have to jog to keep up with him across the field.  The grass obviously retains the scent better and longer than concrete or asphalt.  He will switch to back to air scenting when he gets close to the suspect and his whole demeanor changes.  I tracked a  drunk, suicidal subject a couple of weeks ago.  The track was over an hour old, 90 degrees heat, and the guy was last seen running into the woods in a park. We tracked through thick woods, it started to pour, out into a neighborhood about 3/4 of a mile down a street, turned down a another street, back into the woods where we found the guy and got him transported to the hospital.  The whole track was nearly 2 miles. 

Jim