Carolyn A. Krause - Try Tracking!: The Puppy Tracking Primer

Try
Tracking!

The Puppy Tracking Primer

Carolyn A. Krause

Dedication

This book is dedicated to my dogs and to my husband, Mike, who have been wonderful partners in all my adventures in dog training.

A TIP OF MY HAT

Each of us involved in tracking owes a great debt to those who preceded us. Here is a tip of my hat to all those anywhere who have tracked dogs and have shared their knowledge with the rest of us. Glen Johnson, who was the first to develop a "recipe" for training a tracking dog. To John Bernard, former AKC Field Representative for tracking, who always shared his experiences, wisdom, and thought-provoking ideas with us.

A big thank you to Charlene, Larry, Barb, Lindsay, and Nate at Dogwise Publishing. Without their excellent editing and belief that this hook was "a real winner," you would not he reading it now. And to everyone who has authored a book, pamphlet, or article on tracking training and scent work that has added to our understanding of how to work with our dogsthank you.

A salute is offered to all the hard working individuals who devote time and effort as tracking test committee members, secretaries, tracklayers, and judges. These folks remain the heart and life of this sport. Thanks to the true experts on scent work, the dogs. Oh, how we wish we could experience the world of their noses for even one day! They are our greatest teachers.

My training club, the Springfield Missouri Dog Training Club, has a strong tracking interest. Members have earned over 140 tracking titles in the last twenty-five years. The SMDTC club members with whom I have worked most closely are Fran Ippensen, Laure' Young, Judy Asher, Tom and Donna Hacholski, Joan and Lee VandenBerg, and Cathy Hawkins. Cathy has been my partner in teaching many classes of tracking students. Kudos to Rebel, Gunner, Poppy, Miss Kitty, Buddy, Carson, Happi, Ouijt, Bill, Coco, Dodger, Deacon, Choctaw, Breezie, Reigel, Sara, Sassy, Chaca, Britta, Tort, Dillon, Chelsea, Trapper, Rocky, Babe, BeeGee, Chrissy, and Fern and many more dogs and owners who earned their "Ts" when the dogs were young pups.

To the next generation of tracking dog trainers and their dogs, remember these words of wisdom... "sunscreen, good footgear, dress in layers, and always carry plenty of water for the dog!"

WORKS WITH ADULT DOGS, TOO!

While my focus in this book is on puppy tracking, the techniques can work equally well with adult dog. It is, however, a bit more challenging to train an adult dog. The key is to give your adult dog a little more time to build his tracking confidence. Unlike a puppy whose mind is a relatively clean slate, an adult dog, especially one that has had lots of advanced training, may be mentally "locked in" to constantly looking to the owner for direction. This is terrific for many purposes, but it doesn't help a tracking dog develop the confidence to insist to a handler, "It goes THIS way buddy!" We simply have to convince the mature dog that he indeed is in charge and once you show him what to track he will learn to show you, the handler, the track and articles that are to be found

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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AN INTRODUCTION
TO TRACKING

WHAT IS TRACKING?

The tracking I will he teaching you and your pup involves the dog learning how to follow the ground scent left by a tracklayer along a pre-determined route. The tracklayer naturally creates a scent path along which the dog can track, be it around a field, across a parking lot, or along a road. Your dog's incredible nose-it has at least 300 times the scenting power of the human nose-gives the dog the innate ability to follow such a track, an ability you can enhance by learning the training routines and techniques laid out in this book.

WHY TRACK?

Tracking is great fun for both you and your puppy. For you, it offers a window into the mind of the dog. It's different from nearly any other aspect of training and living with your dog in that the dog is in charge. For the puppy, it develops his learning abilities, confidence and temperamental stability.

Tracking is a grand game for you and your dog. Once your puppy learns the "Find it!" game, it becomes one of the few areas of working and playing with your dog in which he gets to tell you what to do and where to go. When the dog or his owner needs a break from other training, a tracking session can perk you both right up. Tracking invariably helps the dog's mental/emotional development. I have seen shy dogs become confident. I have seen rowdy young dogs become steady and dedicated to the job of solving the tracking puzzle. It has shown me that mental exercise is just as important to a young dog's development as physical exercise.

At the human end of the tracking line, we must concentrate on things far removed from every day concerns. There are no IRS agents, bosses, or rebellious offspring in the tracking field. A friend says, "There is no such thing as a bad day tracking." Even if the tracking session does not go as well as planned, it presents an interesting puzzle for both of you to solve.

Tracking strengthens your relationship with your dog. Tracking success depends on concentrating on what the dog is communicating with his body language. This opens a new window in the human mind that leads to a deeper understanding of the "dogness" of our canine companions. On one occasion, I was able to use tracking training as a means to rehabilitate a dog that had become threatening to his owner due to a breakdown in the dog-owner relationship. That dog never earned his tracking title, but gradually he did regain his trust in his owner.

WHAT IS SCENT?

Every person (or animal) creates a certain level of scent as he moves about in his environment. Scent is defined in the dictionary as "a substance that affects the sense of smell." Skin cells constantly fall from our bodies and become part of the track scent. In addition, the pressure of footsteps creates a disturbance in the surface on which the footstep falls. On vegetated surfaces, scent is left on crushed vegetation when stepped on and becomes part of track scent. An example of this that humans can sense is the smell of a freshly mowed lawn or hayfield. But a dog can discern scent left by footsteps even on bare dirt or rocky soil. The scenting ability of most dogs is so acute that when checking out a newly encountered track, they can sniff a few yards in each direction and are able to determine which scent is newer and which scent is older. This allows them to discern in which direction a particular track goes.