Ronnie Weiss
into the wind

Schutzhund rewards the points to the dog with the deepest nose, and most
methodical tracking behavior (foot step tracking). Allowing the dog to air
sent is counter productive, and will cause conflict later when he's
corrected for doing what he's been allowed to do wrong from the foundation
training. Air scenting dog loose corners, cut corners, drift off the track,
miss articles and early indicate articles.

I would start my puppy/young dog with sent pads, 2-3 pads at a time, that
would steadily grow in size from 11/2' to 4' circles using small pieces of
food so the dog has to search for them. To big a piece teaches the dog to
collect the food not use his nose to find it. Bring the dog into the sent
pad with the wind to it's back until he figures out that the damaged ground
contains the food. After a couple weeks start bringing the dog to the sent
pad at different angles according to the wind. If the dog leaves the sent
pad hold him tight trying to teach him leaving the sent pad didn't get him
anything and there wasn't any food hidden in the grass that wasn't damaged.
At the same time if the dog picks his head up at anytime make a verbal
encouragement, to get back to work. When the dog shows intense sent pad work
and starts dragging me to the pads I start laying tracks out of my circle
that lead to a small sealed container full of a special food, steak, egg and
cheese omelet, or pizza. Once the dog finds the container I down him and
open the container. If the dog doesn't show a desire to track I pick the
container up and eat it the food. After all I did work my ass to afford to
buy the steak. Why should the dog be able to eat what he didn't work for?
Tracking is usually the first phase of the day so I spend as much time as
possible teaching proper technique. With everything that can go wrong in
obedience and protection it's comforting to start the day with a 90+ vs. a
70. If you research the big events the top ten place dogs usually have V
scores in tracking.
Ronnie Weiss
Von de Sleghte Bruute
http://caninetrainingconcepts.50megs.com/

 

permission granted 12-17-04