The dog may not watch while the handler lays the track. It is normally left to wait in a car.
After twenty minutes have passed, the handler returns with his dog and reports to the judge, giving both his name and the name of the animal. The judge asks the handler, “Will the dog point out or pick up?” The handler responds by telling how his dog will indicate the articles on the track. He need not be more specific than to say, “Point out,” despite the fact that the dog has three possible ways of indicating an article—sit, stand or down.
At this point the handler puts the tracking harness (if he is using one) on the dog, leads it to the scent pad and commands it to track. If he is not using a harness, the handler must attach the long line to the dead ring of his dog’s chain-link collar. (The use of a tracking line is optional in Schutzhund and some dogs work their tracks “free,” although this is not a common practice.)
The animal is allowed as much time as necessary to pick up the scent and, as it moves forward, the handler must remain on the starting pad until all thirty feet of the tracking line are played out and the dog has clearly committed itself to the direction of the track.
When the dog finds the article, the animal should either pick it up and retrieve it to the handler or point the article out. The dog who points out may sit, stand or drop near the article. The only requirement is that it indicate both articles in the same fashion. It is most correct if the animal makes its indication in such a way that the article is placed between its front feet. The handler drops the lead, goes to the article and holds it up for the judge to see. He then puts the article in his pocket and restarts his dog.
Many judges prefer that the handler return all the way to the end of the long line before restarting the dog. It is more common to pick up the line where it lies next to the animal and then to let it play out through the hands as the dog moves down the track.
Points are deducted for the following:
10 points—missing an article
1 to 4 points—faulty start, circling on turns, working carelessly or refusing to work continuously
1 to 8 points—tracking impetuously or urinating during the track
SCHUTZHUND II TRACKING TEST
The requirements for the Schutzhund II test are somewhat more difficult. The track is both longer and older. It is approximately 400 to 500 paces, laid by a stranger, and is aged at least thirty minutes. However, all other conditions are the same as in Schutzhund I.
SCHUTZHUND III TRACKING TEST
The Schutzhund III track is more difficult still. The track, again laid by a stranger, is from 800 to 1,000 paces long, has at least four turns and is at least fifty minutes old. The tracklayer drops three articles along the track. Although the pattern can vary, it generally follows the one shown in the illustration opposite. All other conditions are the same as in the Schutzhund I and II tests.
FH (THE ADVANCED TRACKING TITLE)
To be eligible for the FH title a dog must be sixteen months old and have a Schutzhund I title or a Traffic Proof Companion Dog title (VB).
The FH is the most difficult of the Schutzhund tracking tests, corresponding in difficulty to the American or Canadian TDX. The track, always laid by a stranger, is at least 1,000 paces long and three hours old. It contains a minimum of six turns. There are also three places where another stranger’s track crosses the original track, and there are also changes in the terrain—variations in elevation and vegetation and even dirt roads cutting the track. The tracklayer leaves four articles on the track that the dog must either point out or pick up.
As in Schutzhund I, II and III, the handler may work the dog with or without a long line. Points are deducted for the following:
4 points—faulty start
7 points—missing an article
4 points—indicating a wrong article
SCORING
To pass the Schutzhund tracking tests the dog-handler team must earn a minimum of seventy points out of 100. The point-total ratings are as follows:
96 to 100 points Excellent (Vorzuglich)
90 to 95 points Very Good (Sehr Gut)
80 to 89 points Good {Gut)
70 to 79 points Satisfactory (Befriedigend)
36 to 69 points Faulty (Mangelhaft)
0 to 35 points Insufficient (Ungenügend)
5
An Overview of the Tracking Phase
The use of scenting dogs in the service of humans has a long history. The ancient Greeks are known to have used dogs for tracking criminals and runaways, and the great Athenian playwright Sophocles even recorded the escapades of such dogs in his satire The Tracking Dogs.
In more recent times dogs have been used to search out the lost and injured on battlefields. In 1893, the German imperial army established an ambulance corps that used dogs trained to sweep an area looking for wounded soldiers. When the dog discovered a victim, it would find an article of clothing and return with it to its handler. The handler would then follow the dog back to the injured man. The dog sometimes had great difficulty in locating an appropriate article to take back to the handler, so eventually a device called a bringsel was introduced. The bringsel dragged from the animal’s collar on a short cord as it searched the battlefield. When it found a wounded man, it would take the bringsel in its mouth and retrieve it to its handler, signifying that it had discovered a casualty.
During World War I, in the mud and carnage and chaos of the trenches, ambulance dogs rendered great service to wounded soldiers of both German and Allied armies alike. The immortal Rin-Tin-Tin was reportedly a son of one of these ambulance dogs. Born under fire in the trenches of World War I (to a bitch said to have been captured from the Germans), he was taken home by a returning American soldier and finished his days in Hollywood as a film legend.
Later, during World War II and the Vietnam War, the United States Army made extensive use of the scenting powers of scout dogs in the Pacific islands and Indochina. These animals led patrols at night through the dense jungles, helping to locate enemy units and warning of ambushes.
For many years, search and rescue dogs have been used to find people lost in remote areas. More recently avalanche and disaster dogs have been trained to detect bodies buried under many feet of snow and debris. Search dogs have received international publicity in the last few years as a result of three enormous disasters. In the first, the eruption of Mount St. Helens in the Northwest, dogs went into the ash-covered and barren quake area to locate bodies. After the Mexico City earthquake in the mid-1980s, dog teams from around the world, including Schutzhund-trained animals from Germany, were sent to find survivors and bodies trapped under crumbled offices, hospitals and apartment buildings. Most recently search dogs received headlines again when they searched out victims of the Armenian quake, which killed 20,000 people.