Today I decided to take on something new.  Yes, I know, with all my spare time (haha).  The pups and I will be venturing into the realm of canine tracking!  My plan for the day was to do a training video, or at least get one edited from video I have already taken.  However, once the kids and I started driving around looking at every field within a 20 mile range of our house, time simply slipped away.  I will be posting a log of what we are doing as this progresses, as well as taking short videos so I can watch both my handling and the dogs progress.  I am going to make mistakes and this is an opportunity for all of us to learn this sport together.

I have some background that should help me, due to my Search and Rescue training.  This will hopefully allow me to train tracking with no tracking group local.  I understand scent, how the wind, weather, terrain, etc cause it to change.  I also know how to break up scent training into steps.  I’ve read that you can and should train your tracking dog on your own personal tracks, not tracks made by others.  This will make me training this alone so much easier.  The reason, I am told, is because I should know exactly where I walked, and I wouldn’t know every single footprint of another person’s track.  The dogs seem to have no issue following another person’s track on test.  I’m excited to see how this all progresses.  I’ve watched trailing training for Search and Rescue, which allows the dogs head to be up and the move very fast.  For competition tracking they look more for ‘style’ and they do not want the dogs head up, nor the dog air scenting.  Merlot was an Air Scent SAR dog and after talking to a few people, shelved the idea of training him to track after teaching him to hold his head high and air scent.  He would have cheated on his test and gone straight to the end or article without following exactly where someone walked.   Because Jazz and Lincoln have no prior scent training, I should be able to progress with them quickly, with my learning curb being the hold up.

So my mission today, before I ever start teaching my dogs anything about tracking was to go out and make a log of all the fields in my area and mark them as “BASIC” “INTERMEDIATE” “ADVANCED”.  A basic field would be one that is flat, open, mowed  fairly short, and not heavily used.  You want your dog to not be confused by swirling scent, which trees, hills, or brush can create.  You don’t want to use a field that a lot of people or animals have crossed.  I found a couple places I think might work, now I hope to talk to the owners and make sure it is ok to train on their land.  Jazz better turn on her charm, I would rather not get arrested for trespassing.  <HAHA>