Labor Day Weekend 2008

I was at a three day show all weekend. Sunday and Monday were in the same location. It was a very big area with places to walk on both sides. I had to make sure (or at least I thought I did) I did not place the track where I had been on the field. I certainly learned a lot from the first track.

For the first track on Sunday, I choose to start to lay the track along one of the fences that leads up a small hill to a walking path that a lot of people with dogs use. I had not been up there at all. He followed the track that I eventually got up to nine steps with the food at the ninth step all along the path. He got the right hand turn down onto the back end of the field near another footpath. He was going along the track and left veered off to the left and was adamant about sitting and staying there. I knew the track was not that way, so I guided him back onto the track. A few feet further he did the same thing. I couldn't figure out what it was. Then I remembered. That was the direction of the restroom that I had gone to a couple of times that day, but the place I walked up was further up into the middle of the field, but he was picking it up closer to where we were. I let him go and he led me up to the bathrooms, right inside. I rewarded and played with him like it was the end of the trail.

I decided to just walk back toward the track and see if he picks it up again. He did and then veered off again to the left in another direction across the field. This was direction I had sat in earlier to shoot some of the races. I rewarded him again and acted like it was the end.

We walked back again toward the track and he picked it up again and led me down back toward the parking lot where I had set his treat box. He got one turn along that way back toward the lot. Just before getting to the lot, he veered off again to the right and let me to the direction across the field where I had sat to shoot some races. These spots varied in time from one to several hours in time when I was there.

We got back to the parking lot and he found the treat box. He let him eat almost everything in the box! And then I played like crazy with his rawhide, which he has chosen is his most favorite, even more than the sqeeky toy.

I was hitting myself for forgetting about those spots that he found, but I was happy he found them.

For the second track, I found somebody at the show who let me borrow their whippet and I walked up the sidewalk outside the park. The owner said she had not walked the dog up that sidewalk on any of the days during the show. I walked the dog up to the end of the block. The dog pooped and peed all along the way. We made one deviation on the way up to put the poop bag into a garbage can and then we walked back up to the sidewalk. I wanted to see if Dino could catch that.

I walked Dino up the street on the other side of the street, crossed the street to where the dog had turned around to go back. I showed Dino the paper towel with the dog's scent, and he immediately started to run down the street in the direction of the dog. He ran right past the spot where we (me and the whippet) had come up from the parking from the garbage can. I was able to slow him down and stop so that where I was standing was at the spot where we turned. Dino came back to me and started to look around. He picked up the scent in the bushes where I had walked with the other dog. His nose was down on the ground trying to find the scent. I now think I won't let him run so fast when he gets going. If he is excited like that, I will slow him down and get him to focus more. Not correct him, just guide him slower.

He got the scent down to the garbage can, and then couldn't find it back up again in a "V." Eventually he find it, but he didn't go back up to the sidewalk. Instead he walked in the parking lot back in the same direction where the dog was waiting.

He appeared to be walking in the direction of my car, which was in the same direction where the whippet was sitting. I slowed him down as we got closer to the whippet. He picked up the direction where the whippet was, walked around the set of cars directly to where the whippet was sitting with the owner. He made a right hand turn and made a beeline to the dog and was pretty happy to find her. He was sniffing all over her. I gave him treats and played with the rawhide for several minutes.

Any thoughts or ideas? Should I keep up the rotation of some tracks are my scent with treats and some tracks are dogs or cats? I found that both gave him practice on two different things. Should I have other people lay tracks or just keep him focused only on tracking my scent and animals? Should I continue with my scent at this point or just focus on animals?

The Response:
I think the decision to stick with "just people" or add in animals is going to depend partially on who you end up training with. I'd make it a priority to find a group up in/near Redding, and let them know what your eventual goal is. If they're not comfortable working with animal trails, then just stick with human for now. Once he gets to 24-hour old trails, you're going to need to switch to *just* animal, so that his last 6 - 12 months of training are *no* human at all, so he's not confused at all when he gets to "the real thing." I know Loki still makes the mistake of following the human scent sometimes.