Week 1 of our "Audition"

[DanL]

Gunnar had his 1st week where we are official "member applicants" to the working dog club. We did a little OB work, then he got 2 rounds with the decoy, and then we did a tracking session.

The ob work was uneventful, normal stuff- heeling, turns, sits, stays, downs, etc. both on and off lead.

For the decoy work, the 1st turn, they did the tie back like they did last week, for just a couple minutes. Gunnar clearly knew what was going on this week and was more than willing to engage, and was real excited the entire time, lunging against the tie back, giving his excited bark, and really going after the decoy. After the tie back, they had me hold him on his leash, and the decoy would get him to engage that way, and when he did his bite and they'd let him "win", we did what they call the prey circle, where I'd run him around in a circle, praising him up, while he was holding onto the bite sleeve and shaking it around. Then we'd let him hold it as long as he wanted, and when he dropped it, give an out command and then praise for the good out. The 2nd time around we didn't do any tie backs, just me holding, and this time the decoy also did some things where he would hide behind the blinds, cracking the whip, peeking in and out real fast to get Gunnar hyped up. He was really going after the sleeve this time around and was barking furiously, which is what they wanted to see.

Afterwards the decoy talked with me about what he's doing. He said Gunnar is biting well, nice deep bites, and if he doesn't get a full bite right away, he will regrip to get a full bite. He said thats good because it means he's committing to the bite. He's not front biting, and he's not showing any signs of avoidance when the decoy would cover his eyes, rub his head with the whip handle, tap him on the sides with it. He said he's not whining or anything while on the sleeve, which is another avoidance sign. He said that when he does the high pitch bark, that he's trying to get the "prey" to move- like if it was a rabbit, the bark will get the rabbit to run, which then starts the chase. So when he'd bark, the decoy would get him to chase after the sleeve and catch it like it was the rabbit. It was cool to have him explain what they were doing and why. Next week they are going to start him doing off lead stuff. It should be interesting! All I can say is Gunnar is having a blast, you can see it when he's carrying the sleeve off the field, how proud he is in how he's carrying himself. He's getting a lot more confident and the next few weeks are really going to be rewarding for us, I can tell.

The tracking part was cool. He did the one big no-no though, he marked on the track. He wasn't interested in the bait, since they used kibble. I got some great pointers on what to do at home with him, like laying the track depending on the wind direction, how to start him and end him, how to use his toy as the reward (put it in a zip lock bag with whatever we are using to bait the track so it smells like the bait- a great idea!) so this is something we can practice on our own.

I'm glad we got Daisy, because one of the other members had 2 GSD pups that he has left from a litter. Both all black, a male and a female. The female looked great, but they have not been well socialized with people, and she was reluctant to play with any of the tugs or anything. They are a little older too, about 5 months. But, the temptation was strong! Only having Daisy prevented me from bringing the female home!

[whatszmatter]

It appears that your helper has a good foundation in what they're trying to do and teach you and your dog. So many times people meet up with "schutzhund" trainers that tie a dog out, stress the crap out of it till it bites and call it training. It's refreshing to hear about your experience so far with this group.

I have one question on your tracking though, is this the first you've tracked with him? what exactly do they have you doing for tracking, what is Gunner's foundation? Maybe its just the way I read it, or I missed something before, but the way i'm reading it, I think you may have missed some steps.

[DanL]

I've done some basic tracking with him at home. Nothing serious. I got the "tracking in 10 minutes" lesson yesterday, just to give me the basics. The other work I do with him, having him search out his ball at home, is what he calls "trailing".

This is what I was shown, hopefully I have it all listed out right:

1: pick up some grass and toss it to determine wind direction, so you don't lay the track with the wind blowing the scent away. This guy likes to lay the track so the wind is blowing across the track.

2: make a stomp box with your feet, and drop some bait in the box. (my other trainer has me use liverwurst and grind it into the ground in the stomp box)

3: take a step, then make then next step's heel at the toe of the 1st step, and a few inches apart. Put a piece of bait under each heel as you continue. Go about 15 steps or so for a beginning track. As you get more experienced you can put in turns and not use bait on every step.

4: at the end, make another stomp box and put the bait in there as a reward. This would be where I could use a toy or something, scented with the bait smell.

5: jump away from the stomp box so there is a wider separation from the box and your track going away from what you just did.

6: get your dog, keep his head up until he gets to the start of the track, have him sit or down, step out to the side, and give him the command you use to start tracking along with a hand motion near the start of the trail. Continue on the track, step by step. At the end give him his reward, and walk him off with his head up.

Another good hint that I didn't know, put the dog's leash under his front leg, this way, if he starts to look up, if you correct him, the leash will pull his head down into the track, rather than up and away if the leash is on top of him in the normal position.

I'm sure there is a lot missing here, we only had a few minutes to go over it, but it's enough for me to get started.

edit to add,

Yes, I like how the guys are explaining why they are doing things, how they are trying to use the prey drive by making him go after the sleeve as it passes by him instead of shoving it at him, how they are keeping the prey drive up, how they are gradually introducing the defense drive by hiding in the blinds. It makes a lot of sense when they explain it, and it helps me become a better handler because I know what they are doing and what the expected response from Gunnar should be.

[whatszmatter]

for the tracking, i'm assuming you want to do competative Sch tracking? I would ditch the tracks for now. Just do the scent pads. Usually we do this with puppies, imprinting for a few weeks, but since Gunner isn't a puppy anymore, you'll do it with an older dog.

Imprinting is very impt. Trust me, you don't want to skip this step, and it makes everything else easier down the line. Sure some dogs can skip this step and be alright, the majority that skip it, have problems develope later.

Just do the scent pad. about a 2-3 foot box stomped down really well and marked with a falg at the corner (bottom left) and sprinkle food throughout the box. I he has good food drive, use about half his daily food. ( I feed raw and either use the natural balance rolls cut up, or the strips of beef heart cut up) NO food goes outside the box.

Take him out, give him your command to track and point down to the box. Some dogs vary in how much help they need at first. But I always just sit back and watch where food his he's not getting. WHen he's really down in the grass working with his nose, praise "good......"

when he starts getting down to the last amount of food, you can help him by pointing out any you see if he looks up at you, but if at any point after the first couple sessions he loses focus, stops to go to the bathroom, gets distracted by some birds, animals, kids, whatever, you pull him off the scent pad and quit. Put him up and be done for at least an hour.

It is also very impt that you do NOT feed him again right after tracking in the beginning while doing imprinting.

The other half of his food should come hours later. I usually put the whole meal on the scent pad during this time, cause I only feed once a day anyway. They quickly learn some very important things, and you don't have to worry about wind, terrain, or taking all the time to lay tracks, scent pads are easy and you can do them in your yard.

But they learn, that disturbed ground is what they're tracking, no food is outside the box, no reward, no motivation to go outside the "box". So the connection is made between disturbed ground and food.

They also learn that their food comes from the track. they don't get fed if they don't work for it. It doesn't take long for that connection to be made at all. This is also very impt because the track itself will become the motivation for the dog in time. Dogs forced to track are not happy dogs. At times some may need to be forced, but the foundation never should be.

They learn that losing focus, peeing, pooping, stopping to look around, will remove them from their drive satisfaction. they learn to stay intense and focused.

I usually do these scent pads for 3-4 weeks 5 days a week. When I finish with each one, and I see there isn't any food left, (you NEVER want to leave him searching on the scent pad for food, when there isn't any) I pull out a ball, tug, whatever, and get him off the pad as quick as possible by teasing him and then playing away from the scent pad.

After the 3-4 weeks of this, I do nothing for a month or two, then start up again. I give my tracking command and their noses hit the ground so fast, its so clear, and they're very intense.

as they get better with this you can do a scent "square" I don't know what else to call it. Its the box without the middle "stamped out if you know what I mean. This is done further along depending on the dog and how he's doing. This teaches the same things as above, but it also teaches the dogs to work corners and wind will play a factor in this, and it is relatively easy to teach them this, without laying big elaborate tracks.

By the time we finsih those and go to short straight actual tracks, when we add distance, corners, articles (those are taught off the track as a seperate exercise) and changes in terrain, the dog can work thru all of those things

I may be forgetting some stuff, and I certainly can't detail everything on here, it's easy but still rather involved, especially to type it all out. any questions feel free to ask. Good luck

next would be sets of 3 tracks each day or every other for a few weeks, depending on the dog. These will be three very short tracks with scent pads

[Doberluv]

Dan, that sounds wonderful and Gunner seems to have what it takes. It sounds like you have a wonderful training school and trainer who you can work with and who is willing to explain things and answer questions. Fantastic! I'm so glad you and Gunner are having such fun.

[DanL]

Wow whatz, that was detailed! I'm not sure what our tracking goal is. Probably not Schutzhund. More like, I'd like him to do it if he can, and be functional with it. I'll try some of the stuff you wrote though, it's a very practical way of going about it.

Doberluv, we'll see if he has what they are looking for. I'm not really sure exactly what it is they are looking for at this point. Gunnar does seem to be catching on though. I suppose as they start to ramp up the pressure on him, if he shows avoidance or anything like that, that'll be the key. We are having a blast though, and if we can get as much as we can out of the 6 weeks and have fun, it's worth it.

[whatszmatter]

There is more to it than that, like when to vary food, when to take some off, when to put more on, and judgement calls, like if he's too distracted, if he's distracted, but it's within acceptable limits for the amount of training he's had. And the judgements between when to make things more difficult and such. But train and learn, if you move to fast you'll know and you'll see it in your dog, maybe not and someone else will point it out and you'll think back and go "oh yeah, that's why he did that or is doing that.

But I really like that imprinting stuff doing it with small scent pads and then bigger "boxes" with the middle left undisturbed. You can train using small tracks at first. But pads and boxes are so easy to make, very easy to control your dog in. It doesn't matter if they're going forward, backwards, sideways, where on a track, i wouldn't want my dog to get in the habit of doing those things. Like I said, they're easy, I hate laying tracks, and your dog will have a very solid foundation and know everything it needs to do on a "real" track when you get to that point.

Even if Sch isn't your goal, doing the imprinting and basics like you're going to do that is a good idea IMO. In the "real" world they can air scent, come off the track, find it again and go, but with this style tracking, they really learn to use their nose, they'll never lose a track if they stay to the ground where the scent is the strongest and not up in the air currents where it can get swirled around and move.

Good luck and keep us updated.