FACTS ABOUT TRACKING
PART I
Author: Andrea Dugan
Holistic Dog Training
www.k9connectiononline.com
Let’s get right down to the meat of the matter.
Tracking! I am totally amazed at how wonderful the canine nose is. I
really can’t stand opening up a tracking book and finding it filled
with fluff, tons of tracks, and other things that you don’t really
need. How can an author tell you how to plot specific tracks when he
doesn’t know the lay of the land you have to work with? How can an
author expect you to follow specific progressions without knowing
whether or not your dog is up to speed for them? How can an author
tell you to “correct” your dog when he isn’t able to see what is
really happening on the track? How can an author understand your
dog’s drives and sensitivities?
My training methods are built on facts. Facts about learning, facts
about the true nature of dogs, and facts about tracking! Plain and
simple! And, that’s exactly what you are going to get. No fluff,
just the facts!
WHAT IS TRACKING?
I believe that tracking is nothing more than giving a dog a problem
to solve. In our case, it is a “scent problem.” When I teach my dogs
to track, I teach them these three things in the following order:
• What I want them to find (the article)
• How I want them to indicate to me that they found it (I prefer
them to lie down)
• How I want them to find it (by following a specific scent)
Is tracking the dog’s ability to follow the human scent? Is tracking
the dog’s ability to follow crushed vegetation? Unless my dogs can
learn to speak English, I will never know exactly how they follow
the track. But, by using my tracking methods, it doesn’t matter if I
know what my dogs are following. I know how to teach them to “find
something reinforcing.”
Throughout this article I will be working with my dog Thunder.
WHAT IS MAPPING?
Before you step foot on a tracking field, I believe that you should
learn how to accurately draw what you see on the field and be able
to properly plot a track so it is to your dog’s advantage.
I use natural markers as much as possible. Natural markers are
anything obvious that I can see in the landscape. Examples are large
rocks, a specific tree or bush, an obvious tree stump, a tuft of
grass that stands out, etc. I utilize natural markers in different
ways. I can use them to mark turns, cross tracks, or as starting and
ending points. I could also use them to indicate where I put down an
article. If I use them for turns and ending points, then I don’t
need a flag or marker to be reminded of where they are. I don’t want
my dog Thunder to rely on flags for information. I am going to use
them as distractions.
TRACKING LINGO
In tracking, a leg is the length of ground Thunder covers from Point
A to Point B. On the following map, there are five legs. Each leg is
measured in yards. However, I do not take a tape measure on the
field and measure each leg. I measure my tracks in paces. This is
the approximate distance from the heel of my left foot to the heel
of my right foot when I am walking at a normal stride, and then I
translate that into yards. Pacing is going to be individual to each
person.
An article is the object I want Thunder to find. For a TD (Tracking
Dog title), the article is usually a leather glove. However, on the
TDX (Tracking Dog Excellent), it can be almost anything: a piece of
leather, cloth, a glove, handkerchief, or an old sneaker. One of the
articles that my dog Indiana had on her TDX was a very small beaded
change purse. Another was a key case.
READING A MAP
One of my tracking dogs is a Belgian Sheepdog named Wildland’s
Indiana Jones. Even though (as of this writing) she is 14 ˝ years
old, she still amazes me with her wonderful scent work. The
following is the track she ran to earn her American Kennel Club
Tracking Dog title.
The only two flags on the field when Indiana was ready to run the
track were the first two. The first flag indicated the starting
point, and the other one was 30 feet past the scent pad. The other
ones you see on the map indicate to the tracklayer where to plot the
track. When the track layer lays the track, those flags are picked
up. When you start your TD track, you only have the first two flags
to go by. The way I train, it doesn’t matter if there are flags to
show the scent pad or the direction of the first leg or not. The dog
will be taught how to find the track without them. Even though I
didn’t know where the track went, I didn’t track Indiana on blind
faith. I had all my faith in her!
The black line is the track and the dotted line is Indiana’s actual
path. Indiana started about 20 feet away from the TAR ROAD.
Leg #1
The starting flag was at the left of the scent
pad, and 30 feet after that was the second flag. Anyplace between
the two flags, I could restart her if I felt it was necessary. As
soon as she passed that second flag, there was no turning back.
After the second flag, Indiana started down a hill, and went
straight for 93 yards until there was a milkweek patch that was
obvious enough to be used as a natural marker. We were headed for a
hole in the woods!
Leg #2
Indiana turned left at the milkweed patch and
the second leg was 105 yards. This leg was going straight toward a
telephone pole and a topped tree.
Leg #3
She turned right for 58 yards and a large
sumac was used as a natural marker for the turn.
Leg #4
She turned left heading toward the center of a
sumac clump. This leg was 63 yards in length.
Leg #5
Her next turn was smack dab in the middle of a
gully. Then it was 106 yards toward a big dead tree where she found
the glove and lay down to indicate her find. What a smart girl!
Looking at the map, there is other useful
information. The tracklayer started laying the track at 10:47 a.m.
Indiana started to track at 11:30 a.m. and finished at 11:36. The
ground was dry, and the sky was partly cloudy. There was also a
light wind blowing northeast, and the article she had to find was a
glove. The total track was 454 yards.
So what things have Indiana and I trained for that we needed for
this specific track?
• She needed a scent to follow
• Two flags were used as distraction, NOT as direction
• Air change happens when going down a hill
• A gully can trap scent
• Wind can blow scent away from the track
• The terrain conditions were dry
• The track had been aged 43 minutes before Indy started
• She had to track for 454 yards
• She had to find and indicate a glove
I believe that teaching a dog to track is the easy part. Much of the
problem can be caused by the handler’s not being able to remember
where the track goes, incorrectly understanding and dealing with the
elements of the environment, not being able to read their dog, or
trying to steer the dog around the track.
In the next issue, I will discuss how the environment can create
problems.
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