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Location: Sussex UK
Joined: Nov 2010
Posts: 416
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Tracking..please help!
When my GSD was a puppy, I started off teaching him tracking at the WT club I went to in the UK. So it was done with a toy being laid at the end. He had no trouble following the track but would race along to the finish.
Then someone said that if I ever wanted to do Schutzhund with him, I should do footstep tracking. So I started doing scent pads and then small tracks. He was about 12/13 weeks old by then and would literally scream with excitement all the way to the pad/track and then bomb along it. I was pleased he was showing enthusiasm so didn't do anything to discourage it.
Then I moved to Italy and we occasionally did a bit of fun tracking (usually with food in 1 or 2 places along the track but I let him go fast as we were just tracking for fun and I didn't think I would ever find a club to train with.
But then I have found an IPO club and tracking is now a major issue (that is entirely my fault
)
Kofi loves to track but he still acts like he did when he was 12 weeks old, he whines/barks with excitement, he is miles too fast, he skips food and tries to race and I feel like I am trying lots of different things and making everything worse.
His dad is also a fast tracker so I think a bit of it is genetic...and I am completely rubbish at track laying which doesn't help either.
I have tried teaching him the word 'slowly' which he understands but he literally looses his mind on the track and doesn't seem to hear me.
I have now gone back to scent pads again.
Someone also kindly gave me 'The tracking Dog' by Glen Johnson which lots of people recommended but it seems to encourage hiding a toy and doing it that way, which is what got me into this situation in the first place.
Kofi normally learns best with the clicker, can it be done this way? By clicking each time he puts his nose in each step for instance?
Sorry for the long post, everything else is going so well in training except tracking and I feel all disheartened and stressed about it...