keeping his head down

[turkeyhunter94]

I just started tracking with my dog. This is more of something to do than trying to get titles. We did 3 hides today and even tho he found the person he didnt have his head down and didnt follow the tracks exactly. Now like I said we just started anyone have any ideas?

[Elaine]

What kind of titles were you not looking for? AKC? SchH? Neither track to hidden people. Are you with a SAR group?

[debbiebrown]

you might want to read up on general tracking in order to train your dog to do it.......sounds like your trying to do SAR rather than general tracking.....

in general tracking you start off with food on the track which helps the dog understand following the smell of steps in the vegetation........

even if your just doing it for fun it would help to get more info on how to teach your dog to track........

[hunterisgreat]

tuck the leash under his leg and behind him so its pulling his head downward if he pulls forward.. that will help him keep his head down. Number 2, put a tiny treat in each foot step.. move his focus from the endgame (finding the guy), to the track in front of him (get some treats, ultimately find the guy as a result anyway)

[lhczth]

If you are doing this for fun to find people then don't worry about it. If you want to actually have the dog track than you will probably need to put food down on the track to help get him to track the ground scent instead of the air scent.

[turkeyhunter94]

no im not part of a sar team.....and even tho it is for fun i would still like him to do it the right way....this is more of a giving him a job and keeping me in shape

[debbiebrown]

get some small pieces of high value food, pieces of liver, or meat.......get a marker flag so you know where your track starts............stand at the start and put food down maybe a foot in front of the marker, then from there put food in every foot step........you should do articles seperately first, maybe use a glove, or piece of rug, or material, teach him to lay down on the article with food on it, ther are alot of article games you can play with him.........put the glove or article somewhere and tell him to "find" when he finds it make him "down on it" and reward him with food.........once he gets that concept, add the article to the end of your food track, there is alot more to it, but that is the basic way......you can also line articles up maybe every 5-6 feet and just go down the line making him down on each one with food reward........as you go some problems may arise, so i would suggest getting a more thourough education via books or info online....eventually you don't have to use as much food once the dog learns to follow the track associating the smell in the vegetation.......

[KittyKat]

Hey there,

We aren't part of a SAR team but could be used by one if we were requested. SAR dogs scent different than SchH dogs do. They air or direct scent, instead of scenting out every exact foot step.

Originally Posted by turkeyhunter94

no im not part of a sar team.....and even tho it is for fun i would still like him to do it the right way....this is more of a giving him a job and keeping me in shape

I wanted to know if its for fun then what exactly is "the right way"?

[turkeyhunter94]

Originally Posted by KittyKat

I wanted to know if its for fun then what exactly is "the right way"?

the right way would be to have his head down and following the track. I only had the one time where he was air scenting instead of having his nose on the ground. But i am new to tracking and wanted to find out what to do if it keeps happening

[turkeyhunter94]

Originally Posted by KittyKat

Hey there,

We aren't part of a SAR team but could be used by one if we were requested. SAR dogs scent different than SchH dogs do. They air or direct scent, instead of scenting out every exact foot step.

and so you know they do use trailing dogs in sar and there is more to sar that taking you do and tracking so if i had to bet a sar team just wouldnt call you up and say hey bring your dog