Finally started tracking advice welcome :)

emm0r

emm0r

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Well today I finally did it and started Caras tracking. She seemed to have got the hang of it really well! We only did 3 small straight lines and she was amazing! Has anyone got any tips ie. best type of ground to start off on and when should I begin to make things more difficult?
 
It's kind of hard to advise without seeing her in front of me!!

Remember IPO tracking is an obedience exercise, it's not like 'real world' tracking at all. You get points for calm, slow, focused tracking, nose down, in every footstep, no air scenting.
It's like watching paint dry for some people. It's a 'style' rather than a talent.

Also remember your equipment is important, 10m line which must run under the dog's belly, flat chain on the dead link or flat link with a a baucher harness are the only legal things to use.

When you're starting use nice lush pristine grass if you can find it (bloody impossible in sheep country!!) with as little distractions as possible (like litter or animal poo) and factor in the distractions later.
Later yes, track everywhere.
When I was training my older dog in the bleak midwinter, I would go to a farm down the road before work and track on crappy scalded grass and then at night, I had to go down to the village and track under streetlights. I think we failed TDII because he'd never seen nice green cattle pastures before :p
In Germany you will see people tracking along motorways, people tracking through forests or on beaches.

Use a short line in the beginning and lengthen it as you progress.
Use food that cannot be seen easily (you want them to use their nose, not their eyes), and place value in every footstep at the beginning. So small dark coloured kibble, stamped in. The dog has to associate disturbed ground with food, so make a big scent pad at the pole when you begin, stamp in all the food and do not let the dog move forward until all the food is gone.
Put the wind at your back so the smell of the food does not blow up the track into the dog's nose.
We are advised to use kibble to begin with.
Use part of the dog's daily allowance and ALWAYS track the dog hungry.
Use kibble because, if you NEED to up your game (like I have had to) on things like corners or articles or the end of the track, you can bring out the big guns like cheese or chicken!
So the dog doesn't think, pah, hot dog pieces? I get them all the time! It should be - kibble, kibble, kibble, article - WOW ARTICLE MEANS I GET A HOT DOG PIECE!

You can train the articles separately. Always big reward at the end of the track but never make the end of the track obvious or the dog will tow you there, like I said, place value in every footstep. Later you can vary the reward and remove the reward but the dog always has to think there 'might' be something there.

Also remember to train the approach to the track - nice, calm, wait to put the line on, present to the judge, heel to the pole, not start tracking until the command. You can only give one command to the pole and one command at the pole and then no more talking until the end when you ask for heel, leave the track, and report back/hand the articles back to the judge - so bear all that in mind when you are training and know what you have to phase it later.

Some people would say it is the hardest phase as you have no influence over the dog at all, even though you are holding a line, unlike in obedience or protection!

My dog would be a super police dog, but his IPO tracking is frankly appalling :o :o :o think waterskiing on dry land....

There are a tonne of videos on Youtube, check out Dusty van Tiekerhook tracking with no line on at the WUSV World Championships in 2010.
 
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CC you are amazing I never thought about the value of the reward I started with sausages!! But I was good and remembered to starve her! :) can you come and be my personal trainer?

So I was taught to just stamp twice drop food - next food and obviously think where I put my feet. Do you mean literally stamp food in?

You will have to excuse my lack of knowledge :)
 
CC your tracking sounds do different to mine ( I used to do UK working trials) so I am used to tracking using a harness and 40ft line. The dog does not have to go literally from footprint to footprint but is able to cast around for the track.
I used to train with an ex police dog handler so we did a lot of persuit tracks and multi surface tracks which were great fun. Unfortunately Lily is not allowed to jump the 6ft scale after her gastropexy so no working trials for her, just pure obedience
 
I agree Satinbaze, WT tracking is much more realistic/a scenting exercise. IPO tracking is always the same number of footprints, the same number of articles, the same number of corners, all at right angles.
As I've said, I've been told my dog would make an excellent 'real world' tracker but, er, that doesn't help :p :p :p
Like I say, while I like and enjoy it, a lot of people find it incredibly boring to watch.

Emma, I drop the food where my toe is going to be and then stamp on it. You can also put your foot down, then shove it back half an inch and drop the food in the toe. Your arse ends up amazing from all the bending over :o
When you're starting make sure YOU can see the footprints and keep the dog right.
Leave them for short periods in the beginning, then an IPOI track is about 20 mins to mature.

Remember when you are laying a track to use two markers to keep yourself straight, so a tree with a lamppost behind it, or the end of a hedge with the side of a house level with it - don't use a car or a sheep that might move away. Also look back and check how straight you are, you can also mix it up and do circle tracks. I won't go too much into corners or articles as people like to train different ways.

Also remember in IPOI you lay your own track and use your own articles - II and III, a tracklayer does it and uses sterile articles.
 
Glad she is getting the idea well Emma, they do love it. Freya hasn't done much recently because her knackered owner is suffering from vertigo - thus if I try and lay a track every time I bend down to place a bit of kibble I wobble and end up putting my foot down way off line, not helpful at all.
Satinbaze, IPO is very different to WT tracking. My friend has just started doing IPO 1 tracking with her 7 year old GSD who was working at TD level, and happily following a track left overnight. She is finding it quite hard to teach him the IPO method.
 
That's the protection phase of IPO (GSD breed selection tool/sport) - six hide search, hold and bark, escape bite, escort, re-attack, escort, disarm and long attack, escort and disarm. It's meant to simulate a criminal being tracked down and apprehended/disarmed.

Dusty is also a working service dog in Afghanistan.

He was second in 2010, I was there :D
 
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CaveCanem said:
That's the protection phase of IPO (GSD breed selection tool/sport) - six hide search, hold and bark, escape bite, escort, re-attack, escort, disarm and long attack, escort and disarm. It's meant to simulate a criminal being tracked down and apprehended/disarmed.

Dusty is also a working service dog in Afghanistan.

He was second in 2010, I was there :D
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Thank you :)

Really, really impressive stuff. Makes my working spaniels look very naughty indeed! I can see the appeal of this. I can imagine it being incredibly rewarding to train for this sort of thing.
 
Rewarding, annoying, frustrating, muddy, back-breaking.....

Actually I think Clement and Dusty may have been third - Sharon Ronen may have been second, she is also an army trainer in Israel, I think you have to work with dogs full time or have a very flexible job to make it to the top!! And Ronnie van der Berg, also from Belgium in first place, was a cracking podium that year!
 
CaveCanem said:
Rewarding, annoying, frustrating, muddy, back-breaking.....

Actually I think Clement and Dusty may have been third - Sharon Ronen may have been second, she is also an army trainer in Israel, I think you have to work with dogs full time or have a very flexible dog to make it to the top!! And Ronnie van der Berg, also from Belgium in first place, was a cracking podium that year!
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Just like horses then in all respects ;)

I'm not really a GSD person (they're sooo hairy) so I'll never get a go at it but would love to go and watch. Do they have lower level events you can go to?

Sorry OP, I have gone waay off topic!
 
Yep, the GSD League and BAGSD IPO groups run club IPO trials all over the UK and qualifiers for the WUSV world championships in the videos above. The League holds a British National Trial every year, I'm not as well up on BAGSD so not sure about their provision, they have a higher proportion of non-GSD breeds competing.

As mentioned, you might want to give the tracking a miss, not that interesting to watch :p and it usually starts first thing in the morning :p

Sorry Emma :p
 
Haha :) I know I know!!

I am just enjoying learning and having a go at it all! It is amazing and if my dog can do even a quarter of what those top dogs do I will be one proud mummy! It does begin to take over your life! I now have very little to do with horses and my partner is often lumbered with baby duty so I can travel the country to train! Oooops wish I could give up the day job :)
 
CaveCanem said:
Yep I haven't been on a horse for ages, dogsport can be just as addictive :o and dare I say it, a bit cheaper :p
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Ah but I can't have a dog because I live in a rented house and I work full time and so does OH. So no dogsport for me! Will have to stay with the ridiculously expensive horses I guess.
 
I too live in a rented house and partner and I both work full time but I go home every lunch time and she has a kong in the day time. And I have become addicted to training and just enjoying walking and letting her be a dog! :) 3 years ago horses were my life but not I just can't get enough of dogs! I want to buy a house and get some kennels up so I can have more :)
 
I really miss competing in working trials. To be on the end of a line when your dog completes a competitive track with all articles is a feeling second to none. After all we cannot scent the way they
can. However I do not miss trying to find land suitable to train tracking, somehow local farmers never seem to b able to help me but can help if a man asks!!!!!
 
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