| Subject: Re: tracking article 4 parts/crosspost from longwood |
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part2
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Date Posted: 20:06:51 12/05/08 Fri
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's message, "tracking article 4 parts/crosspost from longwood" on 20:04:33 12/05/08 Fri
LINE HANDLING
As so well discused by Johnson, "restrictive line handling" is an essential technique to keep the dog close to the actual footprints , especially so in any cross-wind. For a Bouvier, restrictive line handling means that the dog in taking up a new direction or in resuming a direction after showing an uncertainty should pull you so hard that you feel you could hardly remain in place or that your shoulder is about to be dislocated. For a medium sized dog, the dog should be pulling hard enough that your shoulder feels a lot of strain. For a little dog, the dog should be pulling hard enough that if the line were bearing down on one single finger, that finger would be under strain and in pain.
When the dog is on track and pulling steadily, I like to keep a bit of bend in my elbow of my main line hand and to rest the fingers of the other hand on the line just in front of the main hand. That seems to let me feel any changes in tension more easily. When the dog is really hauling like a freight train, you may need to hold the line in both hands and lean back as if you were being pulled on water skis. At the turns or loss of track, while Johnson's advice to hold the line up as high as possible to avoid the dog tangling it in his legs is a good method, if you find that uncomfortable then hold it at a more comfortable level. If your dog steps a leg or two over the line, in another momment he will likely step back over it and free himself. Most dogs get pretty adept at untangling themselves or are quite willing to work with the line running under one or more legs.
The purpose of the harness and the line is to make it easy for the dog to guide and control the handler. The handler is really just "along for the ride" and as a servant to carry all found articles and to carry water and food for the dog. In real police tracking the handler might have additional duties; likewise in Search and Rescue.
Now in the very first lessons, you will keep only the lightest tension on the line. You certainly do not want to inhibit the dog from moving foreward onto the scent. There is a real art to gradually increasing the tension without discouraging the dog. The dog's individual temperament , especially his level of determination (stubbornness), makes quite a difference. But you must cultivate in the dog an attitude that he will not allow you to fail to believe and follow him when he knows that his nose knows where the track is !!!
GOAL of the FIRST LESSON
The goal of the first lesson is for "the light bulb to go on" so that the dog "gets it" that this scent of disturbed vegetation and disturbed earth leads to something he wants to find, ie to the food drops or the retrieve toy. To focus the dog's attention to the ground and the scent on it , one usually points to the ground with ones finger just above ground level to encourage the dog to take a sniff. That's usually all it takes. In my experience, most dogs do "get it" by the third of the mini-tracks of the first lesson. Many dogs have gotten it by the second mini-track. I would only do one or two very short mini-tracks after the first one on which you see the light go on. Quit while the dog is still highly enthused. Always remember that tracking the scent of a recent pathway prey animal or tracking the blood drops of a wounded prey is an essential skill for the wild dog's and wolf's survival. Every dog has this ability and desire. Almost every dog finds tracking to be enjoyable. What we have to teach in Tracking is that the path created by a human is the one to follow, even though our dogs do not consider humans as a potential prey; and we have to teach them to "and dance with the one you came with" ie to stick to the original track without switching to crosstracks of more recent human passage or of whatever exciting prey animals (rabbits, deer) might have crossed by.
FIRST LESSONS and HEAVY LAID TRACKS
In the earliest lessons we want the track to be so strongly scented as to be screamingly obvious to the dog. This may actually be totally unnescessary, given that the dog has unbelievably keen powers of scent. Indeed some trainers think that overwhelming the dog with heavy scent may be less effective than beginning on fainter scented tracks. Some find that a track aged half an hour works better for their dog. I follow the common technique of using heavy laid tracks for the first few lessons, but I do it differently from either Brown or Johnson. I must add that both their methods work and so does mine; each probably has advantages in some circumstances and for some dogs and disadvantages for others. I think my method is a bit more versatile and also easier to use and a better one for teaching turns.
Johnson does heavy laid tracks by walking out to the end and returning back in the opposite direction; on turns he does a short section of triple lay (out, back , and out again) following the turn.
Brown lays a short track and then circles back to the beginning and lays a second track on top of it (using his flags for guides). For short tracks the time difference between the first and second lay is assumed to be of no significance. There is of course the possbility that the dog does notice and might be confused by this.
What I have done instead for the heavy laid tracks is to do what I call "instep to toe" walking. Bring the rear foot foreward so that its instep is fitted against the toe of the other foot (which was previously the front foot but is now the rear foot). The result is a double wide continuous track. You can do this toe to instep for the entire length of the first few lesson's tracks. In later lessons, in teaching turns, you can do it for the first stretch of track following a turn or following some other difficult section. You can make these tracks even more earth-disturbing by wearing some kind of cleated shoe and you can also twist your foot a bit as it is on the ground. However it is not usually nescessary to do so, except maybe when crossing an area that has very little vegetation. The next harder mode after instep to toe walking is "heel to toe" walking , ie the heel of the new front foot goes right ahead of the toe of the other foot. so you get a single wide nearly continuous track. The next level of difficulty is "baby steps", then a bit more normal a stride, then normal stride, and later on maybe some really long strides if that is comfortable for you. However, I dont think the extra long strides are needed and they may leave you sore muscularly ; I think dog who can do the normal stride of someone like myself who is short legged and thus shorter strided will also do just fine with a track laid by a long legged long striding person.
For an illustration of "instep to toe", "heel to toe", and "baby steps" , please click on Tracking Footsteps. Then please click on Key to Tracking Diagrams to see how I will be sketching the tracks for the rest of this article.
FIRST LESSONS and WIND DIRECTION
Wind direction matters on the early lessons. Whether the wind direction should be so that the track is going into the wind ("upwind") or so that the track is going with the wind at your back ("downwind") is a matter of debate.
Johnson likes the first few day's tracks to to into the wind, so that the wind is bringing the scent of food drops and articles, together with the scent of the crushed vegetation and disturbed earth , to be blown into the dog's face so there is no question that the dog will notice and tune in. While the dog might start out air scenting , with high head, after the first few lessons Johnson switches to wind from your back and the head comes down and focus should shift to ground scent. Brown does the initial tracks with the wind at the back, also called "with the wind", so that the dog has to bring his nose down to the ground to find the scent. This may give greater emphasis to the vegetation and earth scent, which is of course what we want the dog to focus on. I usually try the dog first with the wind at our back, but would switch to into the wind if the dog does not "get it" easily.
Now for the first several series of lessons, what you do want to avoid as to wind direction is to avoid a cross-wind. Cross-wind will blow the scent away from the track to the downwind side and will make it harder for you to get the dog focused on staying right on top of the footprints. If you do hit a cross-wind and your dog starts to drift off downwind, tighten up on the line to keep him closer to the track.
To test for wind direction, just drop from your hand either a shred of tissue paper or a piece of grass or a piece of dry leaf and see which direction it flutters. Of course the actual air currents at ground level might be somewhat different. And the wind may change direction between the time you lay the track and the time you run it. In early lessons, this time gap will be merely the few minutes it takes you to lay the track and to go get your dog.
THE FIRST LESSON SERIES : instep to toe straight tracks.
For my first lesson series , the goal is to have the dog start using his nose to follow an extremely strong simple track. In each day's lesson I do four short tracks, all laid instep to toe, each track laid as a single straight line leading to an article that has food inside it. Each track has several tiny food shreds in the starting scent pad, and has liberal food drops along the lenght of the track. Each track is run immediately after it is run. Ideally the dog has watched the track being laid; this can be done by having someone else hold the dog or by tying him up where he can watch. On the very first lesson, the first track is very short, anywhere from 10 to 20 feet. The second track is about twice the length of the first, and the third is about twice the length of the second one. The fourth track is about the same as the first one and has the dog's entire meal either inside the article or in a container underneath the article. The next day I will probably do a similar series but now the first track is twice the length of the previous day and the second is twice as long as the first, and so on. It is a judgement call whether to do a third day of this series, in which case again all distances are doubled, or to go on to the second lesson series.
THE SECOND LESSON SERIES : heel to toe straight tracks
For the second lesson series, the goal is to make the transition to heel to toe laid short straight tracks. On the first lesson of the second series, the first track is a very short instep to toe laid track with plenty of food drops and a food filled article at the end. The second track begins with a few yards of instep to toe and then continues heel to toe , with a greater density of food drops on the heel to toe portion, with total length about twice that of the first track. The third track begins with a few yards of instep to toe and continues onwards heel to toe, with total length about twice that of the third track. the fourth track is laid entirely heel to toe, and has a full meal at the end. The next day, the first track would be a short one, with the first few yards laid instep to toe and the rest heel to toe. The second track is the same , but with the heel to toe portion about twice as long. The third track is about the same lenght but entirely heel to toe. The fourth track is only half as long as the third but is entirely heel to toe, with less frequent food drops on the track but with a full meal at the end of the track. Whether or not to do a third day of this series is a judgement call. When the dog seems to be totally confident on heel to toe tracks, it is time to move on to the third series.
THE THIRD LESSON SERIES : baby step tracks and normal stride tracks
For the third lesson series, the goal is to make the transition to baby step tracks and then to normal stride tracks. For the first day of this series, the first track begins with a few feet of instep to toe and then continues with heel to toe. At the start scent pad, a pice of food is laid down and rubbed on the ground in several spots and then picked up ; all the food drops are on the heel to toe portion. The second track begins heel to toe for about half its length and then continues in baby steps, for a total length of about twice that of the first track; there are more food drops on the second half than on the first half. The third track begins with a few yards of heel to toe and then continues in baby steps, for a total length of about twice that of the second track. The fourth track is short again, about the length of the first track, but is laid entirely in baby steps. The next day, the first track is similar to the second one of the previous day. The second one is similar to the third one of the previous day. The third one is about twice the length of the second one but is laid entirely in baby steps, with the last few yards laid in a slightly longer stride. The fourth one is very short but is laid in a slightly longer stride. The third day is similar but the baby steps gradually lengthen into a normal stride.
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