IPO 2050 .. What Must Change ..Tracking - Page 2

Don´t you think that there are enough "trendy fun sports" already?
Agility, obedience, flyball, dock diving ( I can´t even remember all the names of awards you are able to achieve within AKC ).
Mondio, French ring, whatever... ( almost no paticipants of these sports in your country, although no tracking involved...)

In Germany there are almost no people playing football or baseball, might be a lot of fun, but we are not used to it - the Americans as a whole are not used to dogsports, they are simply not interested, they are not willing to spend time and money in it, as long as it doesn´t pay back.

Schutzhundclubs were not made up for spectators, but for people training their dogs, and for breeders evaluating their stock.
Tracking - at least over here - is the least problem we have.

Not the routine makes people unwilling to train in IPO, but

• the huge amount of money they have to pay in your country for ten minutes of training. It´s too expensive, because almost everybody wants to get paid - the trainer, the club president, the helper...( the few "real" clubs do have enough members and good dogs)
• Not every dog is suitable for this "sport", but most people don´t want to acknowledge this. A "breeder" who failed in a trial with his "breeding prospect" doesn´t look good, better to do nothing - nothing to proof...

The "modern" clubs of the future will need to find a way for all people, and for all dogs, but again, the real problem is not tracking, it´s the law, bitework as a whole will vanish sooner or later for "private" people, not only in Europe.

bubba I don't disagree but why target IPO?  Just do one of the sports you're talking about, they all exist already, or if they don't in your area, start up a local chapter rather than convincing IPO people to give up their style of tracking. Scent detection is getting popular with the "public" and pet crowd, they call it "nosework".  There used to be no trials in our state (MI, so we'd have to go to WI or IL if lucky) and now there are several each year and growing. I was able to enter a NW1 trial only an hour from home with my dog about 5 months after we started training.  My original instructor starts a new "intro" level class 3-4 times a year, new people starting all the time.  We have SAR teams, we have AKC tracking people, we have people into VST tracking, there is SDA tracking (the T1 is basically a SchH1 track but the higher levels are more like FH with variable surface), there is NACSW, CWAGS, and UKC Nosework.  Lots of scent or tracking stuff available if one can't stand IPO.

I hate tracking too, if I didn't want to do it, I'd stick with mondio or any sports out there.  I don't understand why those that never have, and never will have such an opinion of something they'll never do?

The point is not to target IPO .. the point is if IPO does not change and evolve it will die, and it is dieing now.  The proponents of IPO use the term "working" dog as a code word for biting with no real reason to include IPO tracking or focused heeling as related to any kind of real work done by service, tracking, or police dogs.  Football added the forward pass and many said that would ruin the game.  Perhaps it did but ever watch a football game with little or no passing??  Instant replays were blasphemy .. the judge is a God .. some said.  Football, basketball, and now baseball realized that the judge or umpire or referee is not a God and they make mistakes.  When the game is won by a decision based on a judge's false interpretation or enforcement of the rules the sport suffers.  Sometimes the mistakes are honest and sometimes they are based on bias and favoritism as we saw at the WUSV qualifier 2013.  Video taping and instant replays if needed should be added to IPO with limitations as they are used in other sports or games.  IPO is a game created by people and it can be changed by people to fit the times and the technology.  The six foot wall was changed .. did that cripple the sport or make the dogs all cream puffs .. hip and elbow x-rays and certification made the 6 foot wall a relic that got more dogs hurt in practice and in competition than was worthwhile given that we had technology to weed out bad hips and elbows.  IPO does need to add more speed, endurance, and agility to the tests but that does not have to all be on a bite sleeve.  Reworking the tracking portion to something more useful and more accessible to the trainer and dog or focusing more on scent work could add more speed, agility, and excitement to the tests without giving up anything related to breeding or breed worthiness.

we get it, you hate IPO, you should be glad it's dying, now run along.

Bubba,

I feel I can offer an educated opinion to your suggestion because I have worked and trained a dog (the same dog) for both IPO and practical application work....SAR.

I have attended club level trials and the WUSV twice and I have been on numerous K9 SAR missions. In addition to testing your dogs skills, IPO tracking is an excellent foundation for practical application tracking such as SAR or service work.

From a monetary stand point......I'm the secretary of our club an I can tell you that deleting the tracking portion of a trial would not save us enough time or money to to justify deleting an important part of this sport. The judge still has to stay overnight and he/she is still going to charge you for that extra day regardless.

Yes, I agree watching someone else track is like watching a bass fishing competition.....boring for the spectator. Have it run simultaneously will not change that. Heck, even OB is boring to some. Why do you think agility has become so popular? It's fasted paced and fun to watch.

Our club does not discriminate against breeds, all are welcome. If some one wants to learn how to track with their terrier come on out. If fact we have two Yak (Jag) Terriers in our club that do OB and tracking. They are fun to watch :)

If someone says they have a hard time finding a place to train for tracking...IMO...they are making excusses.You don't have to have a field to train for tracking...any park, soccer field or baseball field will do for the foundation training. For that matter, any large area, be it dirt or weeds will suffice. People get hung up on the opinion that the field has to be just so. I know...I live in the desert. We don't have plowed fields to train on.

If we want the sport of IPO to grow we need to educate the public......take the stigma of biting sport equals aggressive dog away. I am always trying to educate people and reverse their opinion about protection work, because I hear it all the time..."oh, that dog is so aggressive, look how it bites the sleeve".

Secondly, someone said to add purses for winning. I agree...this is an expensive sport... both for the participants and the organizers. If we add a monetary factor to it I think more people would become interested. Let's face it folks, at least here in the US, people are more interested in the prestige of winning than the true meaning of the IPO trial/test. 

What I hate about IPO is the cheating and lies performed in the name of winning is everything.  The sport could be nice if many of those participating in it were not selfish egotists that value titles (for themselves) and winning a no expense paid trip to France over their dog's interests, better dog breeding in the USA, and treating others in all dog sports fairly!!  I am not glad IPO is dying but it would be better for the majority of GSD owners and dog owners if IPO was as dead as fried chicken as currently practiced.  If IPO can't change and stop being a thuggish Truck Nutz owning group that places no value on fair play or sportsmanship, just screw everybody except us and then screw the folks on the West Coast that ain't with us on the East Coast, and then screw the folks in the North that aren't with the Southern branch and on and on.  Every year the total number of participants in IPO goes down and the average age of participants ( the human ones) goes up.  Even a Norman Einstein such as yourself Zdog must have some glimmer of intelligence and know how that story ends.  However and whenever the IPO story ends I will either be dead or raising my GSD until that day and I don't care about IPO because IPO is a dead end without a future.  

If it's going to die then let it die. If you don't like it, then what's the problem? If it dies, there are plenty of other opportunities for tracking, scent detection, and SAR.

IPO is not for everyone, take up a sport that you like, don't change ours.

I think this is where the fire and brimstone starts in the tale of Sodom and Gomorrah which is quite a popular tale appearing in the Bible, the Hebrew Bible, the Qu'ran and the Deuterocanonical books.  I am not a biblical scholar I just have Wikipedia to guide me.