BethD
Junior Member
Posts: 15
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Post by BethD on Jul 18, 2003 11:11:20 GMT -5
I have a young male that tracks well. I did not imprint him myself, he came that way to me. He tracks good, but does not seem to take it serious. He like it, but there are times when he seems to be taking me for a walk, so to speak. He can track excellent one week and then the next may stop and lose a corner. Any suggestions?
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Post by Cheyenne Indians AST on Jul 18, 2003 19:21:42 GMT -5
Hello beth ,
First of all welcome to our board. To answer your question , i have a question first. Do you feed him that day , or the day before- and how much ? Maybe he lost his lust in tracking because he is not hungry enough to track that day.
Let us know , john admin.
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Post by Carina on Jul 20, 2003 17:25:21 GMT -5
Exuse my stupid question! Tracking what? The dog shall stay hungry? Carina
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BethD
Junior Member
Posts: 15
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Post by BethD on Jul 21, 2003 9:38:25 GMT -5
I do not feed him until later that night. He footstep tracks well, he just seems to lose the corners, especially when someone else lays the track. We have mock trials and that is when he messes up. Thanks.
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Post by Cheyenne Indians AST on Jul 21, 2003 11:43:43 GMT -5
Beth ,
When we teach our dogs to track , we always give extra attention to the corners , so that when they are really getting the meaning they do it properly every time. I make a corner and walk back again ...really putting the smell of my boots and the smell of the grass opened to maximum smell. Maybe you could put a small piece of food in the corner , that is if you make a very width one , when you make sharp corners try to put a piece of food ( cheese or what you use) just outside the next line - about half a meter from the corner .. Hopefully they keep searching and not only focused on the food. Do you put your items at almost the same place every time or are you changing ? Do you always make the same track or do you variate ? If you dont variate , well try to , the dogs don't like the same track over and over again.
john
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Post by Cheyenne Indians AST on Jul 21, 2003 11:46:29 GMT -5
Another thing we do is ..use your lines to stir him ..hold a bit back at a corner - that is if you can see it yourself , before the dog does. Holding back , or moving slower , so you can stir him around the corner. If that doesnt help , i like to read solutions from others to.
john
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Post by Cheyenne Indians AST on Jul 21, 2003 11:48:26 GMT -5
My question was , untill how late the day before you give him food ? Thats important - don't give him anything the day before , just water.
john
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Post by Carina on Jul 21, 2003 15:30:21 GMT -5
Hallo! The first time I try this kind of track was this spring with my amstaffmale, but maybe I can give a little bit of help from my experience of tracking wild animals (blood tracks). I believe what John write, don´t make tracks at the same place, be various.
When I train my dogs I always try to hold a good balance between easy/difficult track. If the track is to easy - the dog get bored. If it´s to difficult - the dog will maybe give up.
Obedience - is very good. I have three dogs with the Championtitle in tracking, they are very good tracking-dogs, but they will always fake with the corners, here I use the obedience. Beth, when your dog "take you for a walk", maybe a selution is what I always do: Special rutins for special work, changing collar for exemple trackingtime and more. Carina
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BethD
Junior Member
Posts: 15
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Post by BethD on Jul 22, 2003 19:12:23 GMT -5
Thanks for the suggestions and advice, I will try them. Also, Carina, did you mean to use obedience on the track with the corners?
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Post by Cheyenne Indians AST on Jul 23, 2003 3:33:58 GMT -5
Well what i meant was , when you make your tracks , some people always make the same figure. So when you change the form of the track , but with the same amount of corners , it wont be the same every time. Maybe it helps when your dog finds in interesting every time , tracking a different one ?!
You can use obedience in a track , that is true , but not easy when you can't or may not speak to the dog. Dogs track for food and there toys , when you dog likes to track , he has to be focused on the toy / treat , that is the key in tracking. Dogs really have to search for it , if they don't its harder to teach them.
john
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Post by Carina on Jul 23, 2003 13:15:29 GMT -5
Hallo! When we do bloodtracks there is an animalleg in the finish, that´s what our dogs focus at instead of food/toys on your tracks. We are not allowed to speak with the dog either, but to explain the meaning to use obedience in tracking: If you have obedience of your dog it´s more easy to learn them everything. If I train my huntingdogs, and in the woods when we practising there is a lot of real tracks from real animals I make them understand that we are not tracking them today... And when the dogs with good experience do the fake in corners I let them know that they must go in there... Hard to explain but maybe understanding. It´s happend once that an animal jumped right in the track, just when I was in a test. My dog get crazy, wanted to run after the animal, but I use obedience and he go on with the track. The judge was impressed. Are you tracking in woods or in fields? In woods a lot of things happening everytime. Sure at fields to. My Amstaffs will start on a test, bloodtracks,in august/september I will go further with the tracking you make, it´s seems fun, but when I start I have to make my dogs understand what we are suppose to do. New rutins and obedience, and what I learn here; hunger. We have to go on training! Carina
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Post by PitBullLeri on Oct 2, 2003 21:33:53 GMT -5
Nice helpful comments regarding corners, obedience during tracks and the information on blood tracks! Very cool stuff people!
Beth, what I've done in the past to help with corners was this....
From the scent pad, go out only about 10 to 15 paces and place an article. From the article make an immediate right turn and go out another 10 - 15 paces. Again, place another article in that corner and make an immediate left turn this time, going out another 10-15 paces. Continue while alternating left/right turns after every 10 - 15 paces. You want to end up with about a 100 pace track, depending on dogs age, experience level, etc. This also applies to how much food (if any) your using on the track, and, how many articles you'll place, again, if any.
I prefer to isolate trouble spots and work specifically on them all alone. I would do no serpentines, and no long legs. Just the 10, article, right turn, 10, article, left turn, 10, article right turn, etc. etc.
If the dog has CRAZY/b] food drive, and you are withholding, try feeding lightly immediately BEFORE the track. This will often slow down the most hectic of fast trackers, if they are indeed hunting for the food.
Good luck!
Leri
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Post by Cheyenne Indians AST on Oct 5, 2003 13:19:10 GMT -5
Do you always track on grass or on soil as well ?
I think that not feeding your dog for at least 24 hours before you have to track.
john
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Post by PitBullLeri on Oct 5, 2003 15:45:55 GMT -5
Hi John,
Not sure if your question was directed at me or not, but yes, I track both soil and grass. Almost all trials in California are on soil, but we always like to imprint and train in grass as well. Besides, in the city we can find much more grass rather then fields upon fields of dirt.
Regarding the witholding or immediate feed of the dog...that would depend on the dog. If you have a super fast, hectic tracker, and you are still using food on the track, by witholding we usually only make them more hectic. If we have a slower dog, that needs MOTIVATION to go down the track, then I agree, the dog MUST be hungry and we use lots of food on the track.
My first SchH dog had such wild food drive that if I withheld food the night before, she would be even that much more crazy searching for food and not really tracking at all. What we did with her was feed her normal the night before, and then give her a light feeding in the crate, while I (or someome else) layed the track. She would them come to the track, relaxed, focused and ready to really work. Each dog must be approached a little different IMO.
Leri
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Post by Cheyenne Indians AST on Oct 6, 2003 9:54:44 GMT -5
The question was in general.
We track on grass only , maybe thats why our dogs arent that good on hard or soil grounds. I have heard from someone that does national and international competitions , that they have problems with rocky and other grounds then grass or soil. This had costs many points on tracking thruout the years - german shepards -
john
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