Tracking Again

Kane and I have 4 things (plus polishing this and that) that we need to work on learning before the trial in November:

Tracking:

• Get to "the end" and track with no food.
• Articles

Obedience:

• Retrieves (flat, jump and a-frame)
• Send out

Protection:

• Need to polish up a few things such as grip, outs and escape bite.

So we have started tracking seriously again. I have to track in the mornings because it is way to hot in the afternoons/evenings. So I've been tracking with Kane on both Saturdays and Sundays and at least once during the week. It's just hard to get my butt out of bed before 6 am!
We're up to hot dogs every 7 steps and things are going well. I need to get better at remembering where my track is, so I don't confuse him. In my head, I start going "where is my turn? I don't see it! Is this it? or is it over there?) and it's pretty clear that he senses my nervous in-head talking and it rubs off. There won't be any markers at the trial! :-)

Wallace Payne Seminar - Tracking

Kane, myself and my fiance spent the weekend at Metrolina Hundesport Schutzhund Club in Wingate, NC and attended a Wallace Payne seminar. It was great, and I feel like I learned a lot. I really enjoyed how the seminar was structured, and although we never made it into protection, the pointers that Kane and I got in tracking and obedience will really help propel us forward. Wallace's seminars are laid out very well, and he takes care that everyone shares their experiences and it's not only a one-on-one teaching. He first lets you do your own thing, be it tracking or obedience in this case, then he critiques everyone, people ask questions, and then you do it a second time around with his pointers, help and suggestions. The next day goes the same way. Here are the top 5 things I learned about tracking (in no particular order):

• Make corners 5 step corners. That is fine in trial and how most track-layers lay tracks.
• Stop marking corners, remember where they are (ugh!)
• No need for long line, 6 foot leash ok until your dog can track with no food
• How to properly approach and ready your dog for the track
• How to correctly hold the leash, position my body and how to move with my dog when he moves

Since tracking is one of the things I have trouble understanding, I really appreciated the feedback and the chance to learn.

Ok, remember where you made that corner....

Wallace told me that 5 step corners is how tracking is done at trials. Hardly ever do you see a 90 degree corner. Wallace starts corners immediately when teaching tracking, no need to wait until the dog can do a longer straight track. While using food, there should be no food at the apex of the track, only right before and right after. When I make the corner, I should remember to make the corner on the inside foot, so that I don't confuse my dog with an outside footstep and an inside corner. I need to get better at remembering where my corners are. I am not good at that, and I think I confuse Kane a lot at the corners because I'm unsure and he can feel it through the leash/line. More practice, I suppose.

The approach is handled with leash near collar in a fist in my left hand. Approach at slow to normal pace (for me...lol). Stop right before your scent pad and slowly pull up on the leash to make the dog sit (without command).

Transfer the leash into my right hand, while keeping the leash above his head so that he does not drop down (to scent pad). Grab the dogs right leg (above ankle) under the leash, and wrap the leash around the leg. Keep the head up. You can verbally give an "ERR" if the head starts to drop. As soon as the leg is let go of, and hits the ground, give the command. "SEARCH." This seemed to calm Kane, and gave us a much better start, he went right into it and there was no need for whining etc.

The leash should be wrapped around my right hand and held in a fist at the end of the leash/line. The fingers of my left hand should rest on top of the line, sort of as a guide, or to feel the tension and make sure the tension is correct. The left hand should NOT press down on the leash, since the dog can feel that and can subsequently pull back.

While tracking, I should move when my dog moves. When he stops to eat (later on he won't stop of course), the leash should have no tension at all, let it hang loose. Then when he starts moving, the leash will tense up and I should feel it in my hand that he pulls me forward. My shoulders and elbows should be relaxed and my left shoulder should be in front of the right one

If Kane leaves the track, I can give a verbal "ERR" and then the "SEARCH" command again. If he fumbles around too much, starts spinning etc., then I can hold the leash in my left hand near his collar, point to the footstep with my right hand and give the "SEARCH" command, wait until he sniffs and moves forward, let the leash run through my hand and correct hand-position again.

At the end of my last track, I had 5 steps with no food. If he did that well, that's an indication to start leaving food in every 5 foot steps. This is how you progress.

I'm excited to start this new tracking routine, and now I need to find some good tracking fields!

Tomorrow I will post about the obedience part of Wallace's seminar. If you have the opportunity to go to one, you definitely should. It is worth the money and so much more. Thanks to Jeff Rentz at Metrolina for organizing this.

9/14 - Keep on Tracking

The thing with tracking is.....the more you do it, the better it goes. This tracking session was back in mid September.

On the advice of Julie, I was tracking Kane at close to 24 hrs hungry and he did SO much better than the previous weekend. He did not go swirling off the track anymore, his corners were better and the downs on articles were faster. I'm lucky in that Kane's articles have always been nice, straight and he does it on his own. :-)

This time, I had run out of hot dogs, so I tracked with treats and I had cut up pieces of smoked deli ham in the article rewards. It's good to change things up a bit every now and then.

Coming soon - a report from WUSV 2008 in Florence, KY. The Girls (Womens) Roadtrip to the World Championship in Schutzhund. Or as the sign said when we first got there: "German Shepherd Dog Show" LOL.

8/2 - Tracking Trouble

Ah yes.....we're having some trouble with tracking. This all started one Sunday when I drove up to Greensboro, NC to visit with Jackie, Julie and Carrie and do some tracking and obedience training. We met for tracking in a beautiful park with what looked like marvelous, "just-the-right-height" grass - perfect for a track.

So I laid my track, and waited. I walked Bronko's track with Jackie and Carrie and there were plenty of bad omens during that track. Bronko is (usually) a great tracker: deep nose, follows the footsteps etc. Right after the first turn, he inhaled some bees. We're not sure if they stung his mouth or not, but Bronko sure jumped and was very startled....and thus not concentrated on the track anymore (who can blaim him, right?). Well, then we also found ants on our hot dogs.

For those of you that are unfamiliar with Schutzhund tracking training - we use hot dogs as treats in our footsteps when we first start out. Gradually they get fewer and fewer hot dogs and eventually they track the footprints instead of hot dogs. Great in theory -- tracking is (I think) one of the more difficult areas of schutzhund. I find it hard to read my dog while we are doing this and there are so many intricacies to eveyrthing about tracking. You can have a great track one day and the next day your dog is doing horrible. All dependent on the track, conditions while you laid the track and conditions while you track etc.

Anyways....back to the ants. I guess if I was one, an ant that is, I'd like hot dogs too. They are moist and juicy and easy to eat. :-) And packed full of calories!!!!

This is what ants do to dogs when they eat/inhale some of them: They basically bite them and crawl up their nasal cavity while continuing to bite. Nasty little critters they are. Not fun. Needless to say that pretty much screws up a track as well....

Too make an incredibly long-winded story short - that's what happened.

Kane now flunders on the first leg of the track - he is all over the place, including stopping to look back at me, once we get through the first turn, he straightens up and starts tracking like he used to.


So we're back to many, many, many, many more, short tracks. All throughout the week now that the weather is a little cooler.

On a good note - we had a good protection practice! :-) I really need to get some more tracking pics. Haha...

"Ooooooeeeeeee!!!!!!"

Where we are at with…..TRACKING!

Deep Nose.

We just started articles (3 tracks). I’m putting treats (hot dogs) in a small container under the article and tell him down when he gets there. So far he lays down correctly and enjoys the marked reward.
We have been doing corners for about 3 months now and he is getting pretty good, he still falters a little sometimes. I basically stop behind him and make sure the leash is tight so that he cannot move too far – keep saying “search” until he goes the right way, and calmly praise when he first starts to move in the right direction. I still mark the corners heavily with connected footsteps and give a reward about 1.5 doglengths (about 6 feet with my dog – he’s an extra-long GSD! lol) away from the corner.
All in all, Kane is a pretty consistent tracker. He is fast, but not overly so. Keeps his nose down even if he doesn’t smell every footprint. He gets tired on long tracks, and I still bait the track with about 10-15 steps at the most in between baits (hot dogs). More towards the end when I know he gets tired.
I enjoy tracking, although I find it difficult to "read" what my dog is doing. I’ve read a lot about it, a few good sites are (of course) the Leerburg web board and this site. and I always walk with my team-mates on their tracks, when we track together, to try to learn as much as possible. Anyone selling stock in Oscar Maier? :-)