Saturday December 11th I will attend a Tracking Seminar for Young Dogs in Heemskerk, Holland with my young Laekenois female Nozem. This seminar lasts one day and there will be theoretical lessons as well as the "real" work. I have been interested in tracking for quite a while and I am very happy that I have found a training facility that is specialised in tracking. This seminar is especially for young dogs, between 5 and 9 months old.
I will tell you my experiences afterwards. That is if anyone is interested in them! ;)
I am not sure if I can manage to take photo?s since I am going there alone and I think I need all the time to concentrate on the tracking, but I?ll try!
Last Saturday I went to the tracking seminar. Because of the injury from Nozem, I had to take Sjefke, Nozem's mother. With tracking you have to walk a lot, so I didn't think it was a good idea to take a dog with me with a broken toe.
Sjefke was very surprised that she was the only one that could go with me! She seemed to be smiling when we took off! Normally when we go somewhere Nozem and Sjefke both go with us, or I take just Nozem with me (like to the shows).
At the seminar we were with 7 people and 7 dogs. 3 Were Dutch shepherds or Dutch shepherd mixes, one was a Mal/German Shepherd mix, one a Shepherd/collie mix, one a Welsh Springer Spaniel and then my Laekenois.
First we got some theory about the tracking. That was already very interesting. In the morning we went into a nature reservation (don't know if this is the right word for it) and we learned how to make a small easy trail. We had to start with trampling the ground with our feet in the grass, that was the start of the trail. Then we had to walk backwards, and sometimes pretend to put our dog toy in the grass. At the end of the trail (first time it was a trail of about 30 metres) we had to hide the toy and walk back to our dog at the trail we had made with our feet. All dogs knew what to do without any hesitation! Except Sjefke this were all young dogs (one only was 5 months old) and yet they knew what to do. Sjefke was tracking a little next to my trail, but there was a wind from the side so she just followed the trail were it had flown to. Just perfect! She really enjoyed that!
The second trail we made was with a corner in it. Also no problem at all for any of the dogs. This was fun guys! The third time the trainer held our dogs for us and we had to hide, approximately 50 meters ahead, in the woods. I thought Sjefke might panic, because a stranger was holding her and I was gone. Normally she doesn't like those things. But she didn't panic and was following my trail very quick and easy.
After that the morning already was passed, so we got back to the "class room" to get some lunch.
In the afternoon we first did some search work. First our dog toy was hidden under a little roof, with two holes on the side where the scent came from. Sjefke found her toy immediately. We did this several times, with the toy under different roofs.
After that they had some crates with a hole in the top, 2 with very big holes in it, and 2 with smaller holes in it. First they had to find their toy in a crate with a big hole in it, so they could take their toy out theirselves. Sjefke didn't really like to put her whole head into the hole in it, so we had to give her a hand with that. When the toy was hidden in the crate with the small hole, the dog had to "tell" his master that by barking, sitting down, standing still or scratch the crate. Sjefke told me after a little encouragement by scratching the crate.
After these excercises we went into the woods for some more tracking. We had to walk into the woods with one of the trainers, while the other trainer held our dog. Then the dog had to search his master. We all did this 2 times, first time the track was a little less long and easier than the second time. The first time Sjefke found me very quick and secure. The second time the track was a lot longer, and had a crossing in it. At that crossing she went a little insecure and seemed to be panicking. She searched for security in the following group of dogs and owners. With a little help she re-found the trail and a little while later she found me. The trainer explained that the track was just a little too long for her, and that made her insecure. But with more training it wouldn't be a problem to get her more secure with longer tracks.
Although Sjefke was the oldest dog in the seminar, she did a great job. I am certainly going to do this more often!
I hope you liked reading this long report of my first tracking experience!
Suzanne, yes I did enjoy reading the report of your tracking, very much. I have been to a few tracking seminars, but none of the instructors used the dogs' toys. That is an interesting idea to me. Many dogs that practice tracking where I do are dogs that are not allowed to pick up food from the ground. So they can't be trained in the same way many beginning dogs here are trained, which is with pieces of food on the scent trail. For these dogs people may put some food in a sock, and drag that on the ground. To use the toy for a beginner dog to find, seems like such a good idea. When making the track, did you drag it along so the dog could smell it or just carry it to it's hiding place? Can you tell more about how the toy was used? Annabelle
I'll try to explain how the toy was used exactly, I hope you can understand my English.
First of all, the instructor of this seminar isn't in favour of using food to make the tracks. In his opinion the dog is concentrating too much on the scent of the food, instead of the human scent of the footsteps we leave behind while walking.
What we had to do by making the track for our dog, was the first time walk backwards, and just once every 10 meters or so put the toy on the ground for a second, but more to show the dog than to mark the scent of the toy. The dog has to follow the track by smelling the scent of the owner's feet (coming through the soles of your shoes) and not by smelling the toy itself. At the end of the track we hid the toy and were my footsteps stopped the toy could be found by the dog.
I hope you understand this teaching method. I thought it is a very good and logical way to teach your dog how to do tracking for human scent. They don't get distracted by any food lying on the track, and learn right away to follow the human scent. All dogs got the idea almost straight away, although no dog had much experience tracking yet, and they were (except my Sjefke) all very young dogs.
Very interesting. Do you know when there will be another seminar?
Did they also work with the scent of a stranger?
Saskia
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Very interesting. ?Do you know when there will be another seminar?
Did they also work with the scent of a stranger?
Saskia
There will be another young dog seminar in February, I am going there with Nozem (when she doesn't hurt herself again... ). You can visit the website of the training facility for further information and contact info. This is the URL: http://www.speurhondeninstructieschool.nl/
The website is only in Dutch unfortunately, but I think you can read that! ?
They also work with the scent of a stranger, but the dogs who had no experience with tracking yet had to work with the familiar scent of their owner. But the instructor trains dogs for all disciplines of tracking, and searching, like for instance looking for dead bodies.
« Last Edit: December 15, 2004, 12:57:17 AM by longfields »
Thank you Longfields for this report, loved reading it... you got me interested when I get a dog to at least try it (don?t have a dog right now).. maybe it will be fun.
Best regards, Raven
« Last Edit: December 15, 2004, 03:28:09 AM by Raven »
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Thank you Longfields, for explaining so well about how to use the toy. I like this idea and will try it with some friends who have dogs that will be beginning tracking in a couple of weeks. I think the food can be distracting too, Annabelle
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