Tracking question.

[Blayd]

Ok heres the story.

I started tracking with blade when he was about 4 months old, Just for fun/bonding and to see how he would go because he is my first gsd. I stopped a couple of weeks later because i thought he was a bit young. Just started again and he is 7 months old. (incase your wondering i dont have a dog/ shcutz club ANYWHERE near me)

Ok anyway iv been practicing laying tracks approx 100-200m long about 3 turns with treats along the way probably every 10 - 15m and an article at the end with food in it. lay the track when he can not see and when i take him to the track he follows it for the first few treats and then just runs straight to the article ( from about 70m away ) cutting all the corners. Today he did it 3 out of 4 times.

is this a bad thing? is he just guessing where the article is. i know he can not see it, ,maybe it is just a coincidence

[debbiebrown]

i would back up and start using more food on the track..........thats good that he likes the article, but he's rushing there to get the jack pot....but, he needs to stay on the track, head down following it until the article.........also, what are you using for articles?

other than using more food, if he still is trying to get to the article, you simple stop moving when you see he's doing this and redirect him pointing to the track....i really think more food should help........he's probably not ready for less food yet.......better to back up and add more food then to start bad habits......

[Blayd]

im just using anything random i can find as the article at the end. ill try putting down more treats thanks

[Castlemaid]

You have on your hands, a dog that is too smart for his own good!

Some dogs quickly figure out that the end of the track is a big jackpot of food or a ball, and will zero in on that as soon as they get a whiff. For dogs like this, you need to lay the tracks so that the tracking in and of itself is the fun part, with all the rewards ON the track, not at the end.

A few pointers for you to try.

1- no more bonanza reward of an article or food at the end of the track!

2- Debbie is right: start him off again tracking with more food on the track: use a food reward every 3 to 5 steps. Play around with this to see what spacing helps him stay focused and rewarded. Too much food, the track is too easy and he may get bored. Not enough food - too long stretches between food, he may find it not worth his while to work that hard for such little reward and will start raising his head to try to find the big bonanza at the end of the track (which won't be there, because you stopped doing that.

3- For now, track him on a line, and start him again with simple straight tracks. This will prevent him from bolting forward when he feels like it. If you have a "track" command, use it to get him back to tracking on the track.

4- The reward for him now will be the food he finds on the track. If you want to introduce some more rewarding activities for his good tracking, have a ball or tug in your pockets when you track. If he tracks well, pull him off the track and pull out your toy and play with him.

5- don't go back to articles for a good while. Get him to the point were he tracks consistently and calmly on whatever lenght track you have worked up to.

6- Now introduce articles again. Use some small things that he has to have his nose to the ground to find it. Not so big that he can see it, which will tempt him to raise his head and look for it, and not so big that he can smell it from the beginning of the track.

7- the article is not the end of the track and does not have food on it. When he finds and indicates the article for you, reward him with praise, or a treat or two that you give him (not treats that are on the track to avoid tempting him into running to the article). The track continues on after the article, so more food after the article to keep him working. The track continuing on after the article can be only a few steps. Now pull him off the track and play with him!

8- since you are tracking for fun, experiment with these ideas until you find something that works for you two.

Good luck, glad to see people challenging their dogs like this! What most people don't expect is that our dogs are so smart, they end up challenging us!

[debbiebrown]

not sure if your dog is getting to the article and downing on it and scoffing the food, i am assuming he is downing on the article and eating the food........Lucia explained and gave great advice......i would follow her proticol, then when you do introduce food and articles again, i would reward him by laying the food out in your hand acrossed his paw instead of the article when he downs on it.........this is used alot for article issues instead of food on the article......better to do it this way than for him to revert back to what he was doing in the first place...........have fun!