TRACKING. does anyone do it?

do you have to be n the field wit other dogs other than your own?

whats it like?

nope I don't do it but if I were to do a dog sport I would enjoy that. It works off the dog's natural instinct and from when my dog used to look for treats I hid he really enjoyed it. Sorry I don't know anything about how it works exactly though

thast okay. i think he would enjoy it. especially if he doesn't have to be in a high stress lots-of-dogs situation like agility or flyball. plsu he's a natural sniffer.

I know that in schutzhund, the tracking part has one dog on the field at a time. I can't see how any tracking competition could have more than one dog following the track at the same time and be able to score them all properly.

I would like to get Chloe into some sort of tracking or scent work one day...but I dont know anyone that does it...

I started Lyric in my own pasture and the neighbor's pasture next door. I just got him started and then it snowed and I decided to put it off till the spring, which I still didn't do. But I had him sit and stay in the driveway while I set the track, placing tiny hot dog tid bits in each foot step and a jack pot in a 2x2 square at the end of a short track. At the beginning and end of the track, I'd place a wire thingy with a little flag so I knew where it was. I'd retrace my steps so I wouldn't make too many, balancing along, one foot into the previous step I had made. (wonder what the neighbors thought I had been drinking) I'd teeter around out there in the tall grass, trying to mash it down a little at the end of the track as well as my foot steps. We had fun. I used up one pasture, then moved to the other one, making a new, fresh track each time. You can use the same field again after about 3 days. Anyhow...I put him on a leash and let him go ahead of me. He wasn't that good at it at first, catching the scent from the air and the ground. The air scent seemed to confuse him a little bit, but then he'd get back on it and find the jack pot prize. Anyhow, I don't know that much about it and only just started him. It would be fun though to get into a class and follow through. You should see about that. I would think you'd start out with just your dog in a low distraction place before getting around other dogs.

My Rott mix Emily enjoyed tracking, she just didn't enjoy having strangers following along (during lessons, it was the instructor; for a test, it would have been a judge.) There were about six dogs in the beginning tracking class I took, and since beginning tracks are pretty short, we all worked in one field - just different sections so our tracks didn't cross. For a test, it's one dog on a track at a time.
You can probably do a search on the net to see if there's a tracking club near you. There are a couple of good books out - I liked 'Tracking from the Ground Up' by Sandy Ganz and 'About Track Laying' by Betty Mueller.

the problem is i won't be able to get him to concentrate with other dogs in a lesson. he'll just go mad and disrupt everyone else. i'd probably have to do it provatley then

Well, look into the books - Tracking from the Ground Up gives step-by-step instructions for getting started and it's available online (I know J&J Dog Supplies carries it). If you can find a tracking club, they might offer private lessons or put you in contact with someone who would be willing to teach you.
Tracking is essentially an individual pursuit anyway, and once the dog gets the idea of what he/she is supposed to do, it's more about teaching the handler not to second-guess the dog. I would lay tracks for Emily around our property just for fun and because she enjoyed it so much (she'd start dancing as soon as she saw her tracking harness come out), I never really planned to compete with her.