I did once go along to a schutzhund session and watch the tracking. Like has already been said, the track is done footstep by footstep and is quite slow. After seeing my own dogs track wild animals, I decided I didnt like the way the tracking was taught. Jed in particular will wind scent a pheasant for example and then if it's run on he will track it at such a fast pace, almost a flat out run. Flynn will also cheat and track my footsteps to a blind retrieve, rather than wind it! You can see his nose down, taking the exact route i've taken!

I'd love to do some tracking myself, WT method, but dont really know where to start.

I am no expert but my understanding is that WY tracking is done more through drive, so someone walks out and places a toy at the end and the dog tracks to the toy. And then this gets more complicated with corners as time goes on (and articles are introduced). But generally the dogs go quite fast and can be a bit off the track (due to wind direction) and can over shoot a corner and then back track to pick it up etc.

Whereas Sch tracking is also known as footstep tracking and is where the dog must sniff every footstep and follow the track exactly. He mustn't lift his head at any point.

Here is a video of Kofi's dad doing Sch style tracking, it is quite slow and very precise.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ifJVhfNJLE


I have tried both and much prefer the WT style as I get bored laying the tracks for Sch (where to begin with food must be places in every single step! )

There are many breeds who regularly work on shoots and many are GSDs or even mongrels.

There are a lot of misconceptions about the differences between tracking in WT and Schutzhund, I have done both and with the same dog! It is easier if you want to compete in both to train the schutzhund style first, and contrary to what a lot of people think schutzhund does not HAVE to be slow, it DOES have to be consistent all the way round.

In WT you may only work the dog on a harness, in Schutzhund you can work the dog free, on a fur saver collar and line, or a a Botcher harness.

the only time you KNOW the pattern in Schutzhund is when you lay it yourself in ScHH 1, you know the number of legs but not the pattern in SchH2 and 3.

HTH