I have never been to any IPO competitions (at least no champioships) to watch the tracking and how most of the IPO dogs track or how they are given points. Last weekend I was to a trackingcamp and my whole world about how dogs track was kind of changed. I understood that nice tracking is slow and precise, the dog should kind of smell in every footstep. (this is really different from scandinavian tracking ) Anyways, I saw a tendency that all other breeds at the camp (gsd, boxer etc) were precise and slow but all the malinois were "pressing" forwards, and this is how Warga also does. So I planned to start training a bit different and trying to make her track slow and in every footstep. Is this common or are the malinois often "in a hurry" and is it still ok from a point view? Mean we were tracking kind of slowly before, but that was only due to that I was holding her back with a leash.
As far as IPO goes, speed in the track is not to be faulted so long as the dog is consistent in its speed. Of course, a fast dog is much more likely to overshoot a corner or otherwise make a mistake than a dog that is slower and more methodical.
I have seen Malinois track that are very fast and also those that are slow and methodical. It may be that Mals tend to be faster since they tend to be faster at everything else too.?
In teaching your Mal to track slowly, holding it back may exacerbate the problem of speed. Since holding the dog back will elicit an oppositional reflex, i.e. the dog will begin to pull more. I have found the best method to teach a dog to track more slowly is to teach the dog that tracking is not necessarily going forward and that every portion of the track is important (do not put big rewards at the end of the track) and to teach the dog a command that means 'slow down.' All of this is done with lots and lots of food on the track. My experience is that many handlers do not use enough food on the track. E.g., with a puppy, I start for 3 months with scent pads (to teach the pup that tracking does not necessarily mean go forward) and then I put food in every footstep of every training track until the puppy is one year old. During this time I teach the pup to eat each piece of food and I teach it the 'easy' command (go slow). My goal is to deeply condition the dog to track in a precise way. This takes a lot of work and is hard on the back (putting that much food down for that long of time).
Tracking in IPO, in my opinion, since it is so stylized is all about training. If you can train this phase well you should be able to get V scores at big events.
Thank you Danny for your answer I have started putting small pieces of food in every footstep and not pulling back. If I walked a few steps without food then she was back to her normal speed again. So I will continue with food in every step for a while to see if she can get a habit to check every step slowly. It was a godd point you made that no big reward in the end, think that's a problem when I have the nices reward in the end. Nice to hear even mals can track like that and I'll try if it works for us, Warga's already soon 3 years, so I don't know how easy it is to retrain her in tracking, but interesting to try
You're right, it is very difficult to reshape an older dog's habits without harming them in some other area. I think the only way possible for Warga to understand what you want is to teach her an obedience command which means 'slow down and keep going slowly.'
You could put a line on her harness and a second line on a pinch. Keep constant gentle pressure on the harness line and slack on the pinch line. As she eats food in each footstep gently give her checks on the pinch line so that you condition her to understand that a check on the pinch collar means put your nose down, move slowly, and eat. Basically you are pairing the checks with each footstep which has food in it. While she is doing this you can calmly, warmly give your 'slow down' command to familiarize her with it. (I use the word 'easy'.) You must do this for quite some time.
Then, when you pick up some food from the track and she starts to speed up over the steps that have no food in them, you can check her while at the same time using her 'slow down' command. She will understand what the check means and not get conflicted. As you know, clear communication is the key to effective training.
Of course, with all checks or corrections, this must be done with feeling and may be as light as a gentle tap on the shoulder is to you or I or more if Warga is all drive. The checks or corrections must be in balance with Warga's drive state.
Essentially, rather than imprinting her as you would a puppy, you are teaching her an obedience command that she incorporates into her tracking behavior.
Hi! I have almost Zero experience in tracking but here is a discussion on training and want to join in. When teaching dogs to search for drugs or hidden "bad guys" they often go crazy and too fast. With my dog I just let her go and she learned to work it out herself. After the intial "hurahh" she settled down and had to think about what she was doing. I don't think that would really work for you but....
You could put a line on her harness and a second line on a pinch. Keep constant gentle pressure on the harness line and slack on the pinch line. As she eats food in each footstep gently give her checks on the pinch line so that you condition her to understand that a check on the pinch collar means put your nose down, move slowly, and eat. Basically you are pairing the checks with each footstep which has food in it. While she is doing this you can calmly, warmly give your 'slow down' command to familiarize her with it. (I use the word 'easy'.)Of course, with all checks or corrections, this must be done with feeling and may be as light as a gentle tap on the shoulder is to you or I or more if Warga is all drive. The checks or corrections must be in balance with Warga's drive state.
Essentially, rather than imprinting her as you would a puppy, you are teaching her an obedience command that she incorporates into her tracking behavior.
I like this alot!! ? I have never seen it done but sounds great! You are teaching technique and using obedience to work for you. I like to see this in bitework as well. My suggestion would be to teach the "easy" or "slow down" command outside of the tracking. When your dog understands the command outside the work; I think it is easier and clearer to the dog than trying to teach an OB command and tracking technique at the same time.
My 2 cents. Wish you success!!!
Christian
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Thanks for the answers Before I was giving a constant pressure on the line but I think this made the opposite effect i.e. she was pressing forward even more. Teaching "slowly" might work, I'll try that. Well, I'm gonna make a track soon and put food in every step and see how it goes again
Dog pulls against the pressure - you can see it when teaching dogs not to pull during walks. If he starts to pull and you just hold him back it makes him to pull even more. I have also heared they use this 'trick' when teaching young huskies to pull the sled - just by pulling them back at first.
Even my tervs can track slow, and I didn't made any tricks with them. Belli is also slow tracker, same as my friends' mals competeing international events and our national circuits.
But thats what they said here in Finland also earlier, when BSDs started to work more. They say that no more.
Maybe it is different in Europe?
J
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? I have never seen it done but sounds great! You are teaching technique and using obedience to work for you. I like to see this in bitework as well. My suggestion would be to teach the "easy" or "slow down" command outside of the tracking. When your dog understands the command outside the work; I think it is easier and clearer to the dog than trying to teach an OB command and tracking technique at the same time.
Then I went to magistry. 
