7
Tracking: Schooling the Dog
The primary GOAL in Schutzhund tracking is to teach the dog to footstep track. Only a dog that puts its nose into each footstep and works carefully and determinedly can receive the full 100 points in competition. Accordingly, we must teach the dog to follow track scent, not air or body scent. We do this by associating the tracklayer’s footsteps, and thus the track scent, with small bits of food.
GOAL 1: The dog will work a short, straight track slowly and precisely.
The first step is to teach the dog to follow a straight track. We break this skill down into a number of simple concepts.
The vast majority of Schutzhund dogs begin their schooling in tracking when they are still very young, at perhaps ten to twelve weeks, and therefore much of the following information is described in terms of puppy training. However, the reader should be aware that we use almost exactly the same techniques to begin older pups and adult animals in tracking.
Important Concepts for Meeting the Goal
1. Searching on command
2. Taking a full scent at the start of the track
3. Taking scent in each footstep of the track
4. Correcting the dog back to the track
The first lesson in tracking can be taught at home, first inside the house and then later in the yard. The handler will need five or six small pieces of the puppy’s favorite treat (cheddar cheese and small slices of hot dog are usually well received). While the puppy watches (normally an assistant holds the puppy for the handler), the handler distributes the bait randomly throughout a small area perhaps eighteen inches across. He has his assistant release the puppy and, with a gentle but enthusiastic “Seek!” command, points the tidbits out to the animal, encouraging it to find them and gobble them up. The handler repeats this procedure perhaps three times each training session.
Once the puppy makes an association between the “Seek!” command and food, so that it drops its head and begins to search avidly upon hearing it and seeing its handler point to the ground, we make the game more difficult by moving it out into the yard. We pick an area with short but dense grass, so that the tidbits will not be visible and the puppy will have to search them out by sniffing among the blades of grass.
Once the puppy is eagerly snuffling out every one of the baits, we begin to increase the size of the search area where they are hidden, giving the pup more ground to cover and teaching it to be very persistent in searching out food. The handler ensures that the pup finds every one of the baits by directing it across the entire search area with his hand and the command “Seek! Seek!”
Each time the youngster finds a piece of food, its handler reinforces it with soothing praise words and gentle petting.
The impact of the start of a track cannot be overstated. Very often, the way that the Schutzhund dog starts will be typical of its entire performance. If the dog starts slowly, surely and with intense concentration, we can usually be assured that we are about to witness a fine track. On the other hand, if it rushes away from the starting pad without really taking the scent, or if it does not show strong motivation and drive by searching the scent pad eagerly, we can conclude that the dog will be lucky to finish its track.
After a week or two of careful work at home, our puppy has a clear understanding that “Seek!” means that if it drops its head and scours the area indicated to it, it will be rewarded. Searching a scent pad is only a minor extension of something that it already does enthusiastically.
While the pup watches from a crate or from the arms of an assistant who restrains it, the handler stamps out a scent pad on the tracking field about one yard square. He puts in a tracking flag or stake at arm’s length to the left of it, and scatters five or six small baits across it. As he “kicks in” the scent pad the handler talks to his puppy, encouraging and teasing the pup in order to excite it. Then, when all is ready, he returns to his puppy and walks it on leash to the scent pad, commands it to “Seek!” and directs it across the pad with his hand. While the pup searches out and eats the tidbits, the handler praises and pets it calmly.
The handler repeats this drill three or four times for several training sessions, at the same time gradually reducing the number of baits on the pad until finally there are only three, placed at the comers of a triangular scent pad. During this stage of training, the puppy makes the additional and useful association that it will be rewarded by searching to the right of a tracking flag.
Once the puppy thoroughly scours a scent pad on command, we are ready for the handler to proceed to tracking proper.
All the initial training, up to and including turns and articles, is done in optimal conditions. The tracks are laid on flat ground in evenly distributed grass that is about instep high (ankle high at most). The handler does not age the tracks any longer than it takes him to prepare them and then ready his dog for the start, nor does the handler work his novice tracking dog in very windy or inclement weather.
After laying a triangular scent pad with food in each comer, the handler departs from the apex of the triangle and slowly, with very small steps, walks perhaps ten or twelve feet. As he goes, he leaves a small bait in the middle of each footstep, and at the end of the short track he also places a food drop—a pile consisting of a handful of the bait.
Then he goes back to his puppy, walks the pup up to the scent pad and commands the pup to “Seek!” as before. The handler uses a finger to direct the puppy over the entire scent pad and then, before the pup lifts its head, out onto the first footstep of the track. Slowly and carefully, he walks the youngster down the length of the short track. He holds a very short leash to keep the puppy right on top of the footsteps and also to prevent it from rushing down the track. Gently, he holds the young dog to a slow, steady pace. He walks bent over beside the pup, running his finger along in the grass directly in front of the youngster’s nose, so that the pup works the track all the way to the end without ever lifting its head. When the animal reaches the food drop and begins to eat, the handler praises it enthusiastically.
Meanwhile, the assistant comes forward and takes hold of the pup; when the puppy looks up from eating the last of its food drop, it finds the handler already laying another short track a few feet away. The handler runs the puppy through three tracks like this in a row, and then plays with the puppy for a while on the field afterward. It is very important that the young dog understand that the end of the track means play and “quality time” with its master.