by Craig and Kay Green

Tally-Ho: September/October 1998

In the first two parts of this series, an introduction to our tracking philosophy was presented, along with a discussion of goals and priorities. This final part discusses motivation and observation.

MOTIVATION

"So, Muffy, how do you want to be trained?"

"Well, since you had the courtesy to ask, I would prefer to find a big leather chewie at the end of the track, and I would like to sit there and finish it. Then, I want to go for a romp in the field."

"OK, if that's what it takes to get you to dedicate yourself to this sport for my own personal glory, I will pay your price."

When we learned to let our dogs tell us how to train them, we made a great leap forward in our tracking philosophy. Finding that special, unique, perhaps even goofy motivation is the key to getting a tracking dog to want it as much as we do. I know of one dog who has a pet flashlight (!) and is greatly motivated to find it at the end of a track.

Some dogs naturally track for the sheer love of tracking. Some prefer food. Some are natural retrievers, and just want to play with the glove or some toy at the end. Others may want something neither you nor I ever conceived of. Your job, Sherlock, is to find out what this is. An important aspect of our tracking philosophy is to start with what the dog gives us, and NURTURE it.

Many training methods attempt to fit each dog into a preconceived mold, which often creates unnecessary training problems. Within reason, we prefer to work with the dog’s natural tracking style, altering specific behaviors as little as possible. We particularly enjoy seeing the moments when the dog appears to say, "aha," as if he did it all by himself. We encourage growth, but do not enforce behavior.

OBSERVATION

"Is there something wrong with your dog?"

"No, why?"

"Well, she just doesn't seem to be able to concentrate today. Is she in season?"

"I don’t know. I hadn’t noticed."

While it is easy to say "observe and correct problems early," actually doing it effectively can take years of practical experience. Learning to read regular patterns in a dog's tracking behavior is a common skill that good trainers learn quickly. However, learning to read more subtle signals that indicate potential problems is not so easy. This requires not only your unique knowledge of a particular dog, but also an awareness of body language and other signals that is sometimes intuitive or almost mystical in nature. Your "gut feelings" about your dog can be completely erroneous guesses, but as you gain more experience in training and learning about your dog, these feelings may become more reliable problem indicators than more rigidly defined behaviors. As with any success, constant testing and feedback are the most important tools you have, if you will only learn to SEE and LISTEN.

When your dog has a problem that you've not seen before, one of the first things to do is to figure out whether it is due to some unusual situation, or an inherent problem with the dog. An unusual training distraction unlikely to occur at a test may not require changing your approach. Focusing on problems likely to be encountered in your chosen tracking activity and location may be wiser than bludgeoning the dog with every conceivable distraction. Trying to add obscure skills may jeopardize more fundamental and important ones. Keep focused on your goal(s). Overtraining is a chronic problem for some dogs, especially hounds, as some trainers seem to think more is better. It all depends on the dog and situation.

Often, just tracking through a particular distraction teaches the dog to deal with it next time. However, it is important not to throw too much at the dog at once. We prefer one new thing at a time when possible.

Another example is brutal weather conditions on a particular training day. We sometimes cancel training sessions due to weather, even though we would track through that type of weather in a test.

While we MIGHT decide to track a "trooper" through such weather, the problem or marginal dog stays home that day, unless it's part of the plan. Our dog's first experience with wind WILL NOT be gale force.

If conditions aren't right for today's tracking goal, we turn around and go home without tracking.

"If you beat up your customers, they don't come back." - a business proverb

CLOSURE

The few points we’ve made in this three-part series are an attempt to present an overall framework of thinking BEFORE adopting or developing any particular training method. We hope this first draft of our tracking philosophy is helpful to others. We welcome any and all comments.

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I ask my friend with the magnificent nose,
"What manner of scent is this?"
He tells me as clearly as sniffing a rose:
"What difference, but that I not miss?"

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