# YoJo's third track!



## DaniFani (Jan 24, 2013)

Here's a short video of a 25 step track I did with YoJo yesterday. It's his third track. He's starting to get the concept of checking each footstep = reward and forward movement. I shouldn't have blocked/popped him for searching to the left and right (TD told me that afterwords), I need to let him work that out on his own. They only thing I should be blocking is skipping the check of a footstep, and not fighting with him on the line, keeping a loose lead and giving a little pop/blocking him skipping a step.

It's so encouraging watching all the handlers with the "finished product" after I work YoJo. One of our handlers just got three of her dogs titled, CDX, TR 1, and TR 2...all with scores of 98-100, using this method from puppyhood(and then a couple with SchH1 and 2, with the same high scores in tracking from trial last fall and the year before). I just have to remind myself of all the dogs I've seen that have great success with it lol. Before my last dog passed, he was on 150 step tracks, serpentines, and way less bait on the track...I really enjoy tracking, I know a lot don't like it.

Didn't get videos of tug work, will try to remember that. It'll be fun looking back on this video when Yo's older. :-D






And of course some fun pics.


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## JakodaCD OA (May 14, 2000)

alright I hit the video and it says it's private waaaaa


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## DaniFani (Jan 24, 2013)

Ugh, I always do that...it should work now.


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## JakodaCD OA (May 14, 2000)

good job, he's a sniffin little machine)))


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## DaniFani (Jan 24, 2013)

JakodaCD OA said:


> good job, he's a sniffin little machine)))


Thanks, yeah it's cool to watch him sniff things out. We keep the cat food in the laundry room, and he walked by the door the first time and started air scenting to the laundry room...he does it all the time.

I made the rookie mistake of playing tug with treats in my pocket. In the middle of tug he stops and hits on my pocket and the treats. My TD yelled, "Dani, do you have hot dogs in your pockets!?" lol, he got me in trouble!!!


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## JakodaCD OA (May 14, 2000)

Lol


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## bill (Nov 8, 2013)

Pup is growing like a weed! Looking good! I hide my dogs tug under leaves and play tug when he finds it at end of track! Later on I start giving him scent from someone else; and play tug when he finds them! You are doing great! I know you know what you are doing! Just saying one of the ways I train. Looking good! Bill


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## DaniFani (Jan 24, 2013)

bill said:


> Pup is growing like a weed! Looking good! I hide my dogs tug under leaves and play tug when he finds it at end of track! Later on I start giving him scent from someone else; and play tug when he finds them! You are doing great! I know you know what you are doing! Just saying one of the ways I train. Looking good! Bill


Thanks Bill! One of the dogs at our club that has very low food drive tracks for toys. 50 Paces, ball, 50 paces, ball. My TD prefers food because it's easier to get them checking every footstep right from the get go, but she def utilizes ball/tug drive if she can't get them to track for the bait. In IPO that "every footstep being checked" is important. It's meticulous and I know a lot hate it for that reason, but I think it's a fun challenge. :-D


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## bill (Nov 8, 2013)

Agree ; I use food also to teach footstep tracking; your right very important for sch.I just reward at end of track with tug. Stahl loves tug! I'm jealous been sick can't work my boy; I'll watch everyone else have fun. P.s. looks cold what's the temp?36 here n.c.Bill


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## DaniFani (Jan 24, 2013)

I think it was low 30's during training. It was 24 degrees when I went running in the evening, it got super cold, so we actually hit the higher temps, thank goodness. One of our training days we have a horse arena we use, which is cold, but not as bad as out on the field.

However, I can't complain to anyone I know about temperatures, all my family and friends in Michigan are dealing with feet of snow and -15 degree windchill...so I'm the "wimpy friend" in the northwest if I mention how cold I am. Hahaha


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## bill (Nov 8, 2013)

Ha ha my best friend is from Detroit; he runs around in shorts ; call me a woose! But he is a big boy!6 ft.4 320 pounds. I'm only 186 and a cold woose! Lol Bill


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## Liesje (Mar 4, 2007)

DaniFani said:


> However, I can't complain to anyone I know about temperatures, all my family and friends in Michigan are dealing with feet of snow and -15 degree windchill...so I'm the "wimpy friend" in the northwest if I mention how cold I am. Hahaha


44" and -30 forecast! I guess the ONLY good thing is that I'm under no obligation to track my puppy


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## Liesje (Mar 4, 2007)

Did you do scent pads with your puppy or by "third track" is that the third time tracking ever?

Handsome puppy!


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## DaniFani (Jan 24, 2013)

Liesje said:


> Did you do scent pads with your puppy or by "third track" is that the third time tracking ever?
> 
> Handsome puppy!


Thanks!

No scent pads (if you are talking about the giant scent pads I've read about), this is his third time tracking ever. He gets a foot by foot tiny square pad, scattered with food, at the start of each track, he isn't allowed to miss any food, even in the little pad, before moving forward. He's just blocked with a little pop on the leash.

I have talked at length with my TD about scent pads (the giant ones I read about on here)....they don't do those in this club. The dog learns about footsteps right from the get go. There is the little scent pad at the start, and bait at the top of each footstep. Dog is blocked with a pop pop if he tries to skip a step. He is allowed to "work out" sniffing side to side to a certain extent (it's really a feel as you go thing...is he working or trying to smell something else, ie dog pee, different animal etc..). He gets a pop pop/block if he tries to skip over the treat/footstep. Goal is to get them to sniff from heel to toe in each foot step.

Start pup out on first short 20 step track. Food just placed in the top of each step. After that, immediately take away the visibility and stick finger a little into ground, and place food in the little divit on the top of footstep so dog can't look down track and see food (my guy's were "hidden" in this track). Next track is 20-25, then 30, and it just goes up depending on how the dog is doing. It takes quite a few tracks before beginning removal of bait. Start with removal of about 10%, then 25%, etc. 

Serpentines are introduced on the tenth track or so, to teach the dog to move it's body while it tracks. Then articles, taught purely, 100% positively. Dog gets to article, and we feed the dog a LOT, until dog does into a down, rewarding for going into a down and looking at the article (most dogs I've seen pick this up REALLY fast). Next is introduction of corners...and of course throughout the whole thing there are adjustments made based on what the dog needs....working through different terrain, over cross-tracks, crossing a cement path (for the CDX dogs), teaching them to work the border of the path after learning to drive through it.

Lol, I see you didn't ask for a how-to on what we do, I just love the tracking aspect of SchH and love talking about it lol. My TD is of the opinion it's more important to teach about following the steps from the get go, rather than the huge scent pads. I have NO experience with anything but this method, so I don't have any opinion, other than I've now seen this method go from puppy track to TR 2, SchH1, and CDX on several different dogs, with very high scores. So I won't try and get my TD to re-invent the wheel .


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## bill (Nov 8, 2013)

Hey dani ; I was taught the scent pad like you do.Never knew you could buy one; not for me! lol. In regards to other post; you to are old school! Lol. The sport side of protection has really caught on in the last 40 years; I thought everyone bought tugs..I love the burlap sacks.again pup is looking good. Can't wait to see JoJo next month! Bill:thumbup:


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## DaniFani (Jan 24, 2013)

bill said:


> Hey dani ; I was taught the scent pad like you do.Never knew you could buy one; not for me! lol. In regards to other post; you to are old school! Lol. The sport side of protection has really caught on in the last 40 years; I thought everyone bought tugs..I love the burlap sacks.again pup is looking good. Can't wait to see JoJo next month! Bill:thumbup:


We'll have the tug eventually, it's just easier (and it seems more fun) for a puppy with the shredded burlap sack. As he gets a little bigger I'll twist it up and tie around the center to make it thicker. Just depends on him and what he seems to need/like best.

The scent pad I believe Lies is talking about, is stomping down the grass in a really large circle, scattering it with a bunch of food, and letting the pup loose to find the food. I think the idea is to teach the pup that stomped down grass = treat/reward, and then eventually the pup is thought to take that knowledge to the track.

My TD and several that trained with her in the 80's and 90's, don't like this because they believe it teaches the pup to look all over the place, and then you have to re-teach it/teach it forward movement. So they just teach that forward movement and footsteps, right from the get go. Like I said, I have NO experience with this method, I would think you should teach something the way you want it to be in the end, but that opinion is obviously heavily influenced by my seeing this method work several times. I know lots of people use the large scent pad as a starting point for their puppies, so it must work. Just not the way I'm being taught.


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## G-burg (Nov 10, 2002)

Can't wait to see his tracking in a couple of months...

There's a few in my club who love to track..


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## Liesje (Mar 4, 2007)

Haha no problem I don't mind the long explanation. I'm curious how others track, especially starting a puppy.


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## DaniFani (Jan 24, 2013)

Liesje said:


> Haha no problem I don't mind the long explanation. I'm curious how others track, especially starting a puppy.


Did I describe the large scent pad and it's purpose correctly? What is the step after that?


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## Liesje (Mar 4, 2007)

I start puppies on scent pads that are about 3'x3'. Not sure if that's considered "large". I bait with food and usually pull the dog off before the food is gone, or as he's finishing. I don't want the dog to find all the food, then keep sniffing around and get bored or lose focus on his purpose. My understanding is that the scent pad makes a correlation to the dog that human scent + crushed vegetation (I don't track in dirt) = reward.

Now, I've only started three dogs total in tracking and still know very little about it so I'm just speaking anecdotally about my personal experiences using scent pads... 

Dog 1...scent pads were good for Nikon, I did them for about 2 weeks, then progressed to tracks and over time, lengthened the track while making the food more random. About the time he learned articles off the track, he started skipping food on the track but was still tracking correctly (focused, methodical, deep nose) so I stopped baiting tracks and instead used articles as places to reward. An article to Nikon = a handful of some treat. He learned that articles are awesome spots, he was not forced tracked or had pressure on articles, so I will place an article after a challenging corner or leg of a track in order to let him get a reward from me and sort of re-group mentally.

Dog 2...I decided to play around with tracking with my bitch Kenya who at the time was about 7 years old and had never done tracking but had the pedigree for it. She is so far the best natural tracker (SchH style) I've owned. I didn't really do scent pads, just started with easy tracks. Granted she was also a mature adult and I had titled her in several other venues, so she understood focus and work. I think scent pads are usually more valuable for baby puppies just learning to focus on *anything* for more than 2 seconds at a time, lol!

Dog 3...Pan. Again used the 3'x3' scent pad with mixed success. Pan was difficult for me to track. He had food and hunt drive but was such a scatterbrain and also a very social young dog, so seeing kids playing soccer in the distance or a dry leaf blowing across his scent pad would quickly distract him. I "put him up" for tracking for a while, then did maybe half a dozen tracks with him total from age 12-24 months before he changed handlers. Some of the tracks were awesome, some were OK (when he tracked, he tracked well, but again could get distracted). Now I think he has two V scores in tracking but was proofed with pressure. Not against that just don't have experience with it myself. I tend to do better with dogs that have higher threshold type temperaments that can focus and work methodically without being distracted or starting to show an excess of drive.

Legend will be started with scent pads (I always try it) but not until the 4' of snow melts!


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## DaniFani (Jan 24, 2013)

Cool! Thanks for explaining it. I love hearing other's methods in any training. Yo's first track (I had only had him a week, so he was just over 10 weeks) he was way more distracted for the first couple of steps (people and dogs were walking the trails to the left of us and he REALLY wanted to go say hi). About half way it clicked, "oh, we're working and I get treats." He's generally, so far, pretty aloof already. He'll go to say "hi" to someone, but it's very short lived how long he wants to stay there. He doesn't strain away, just more gets bored and wanders away lol. 

I agree, it's much easier to work with a dog that doesn't get easily distracted. We have a couple of those at the club. They also have to use pressure to get them to work. Not a lot, it's not like they are beating the dog down the track, but more pressure than most.

I heard it's pretty insane weather-wise, there right now. My friend in GR said GVSU is closed for a second day in a row!! Insane!! I did half my undergrad there and never got to see a snow day, and some of those walks to the bus stop were like crossing the arctic tundra!! Brrrr, have you seen this pic of michigan from space?? Pretty much sums up how my family makes it sound lol!


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## DaniFani (Jan 24, 2013)

Oops, I was wrong, apparently THIS is michigan! Crazy!


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## Packen (Sep 14, 2008)

There are many ways to skin a cat, go with what you have real support (meaning no web stuff). I am sure the people helping you have high goals as end result, not the SCHH1 club.


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## DaniFani (Jan 24, 2013)

Packen said:


> There are many ways to skin a cat, go with what you have real support (meaning no web stuff). I am sure the people helping you have high goals as end result, not the SCHH1 club.


Lol, my TD and decoy/TD would clock me if I came to training with suggestions I read on ANY forum lol. I just like reading about other people's methods and why, especially when the weather sucks and everyone is in hibernation. 

I have yet to see my TD and Decoy come across a dog/problem they couldn't fix (TD occasionally rehabs and places extreme aggression rescue dogs). I would never question someone with their track record and success record (both in training handler/dog teams and their own dogs). My decoy/TD was on the world teams 2 or 3 times. I don't feel I can question him much, if at all, until I have comparable success(one can dream, right!?), lol!


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## Liesje (Mar 4, 2007)

Exactly, that's why I track the way I do, it has worked for those before me and I don't particularly enjoy it so I'll just do what they tell me. I'm considering going to a club that has Rott people once Legend is ready to start training, it will be interesting to see if/how things differ.


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## mcdanfam (Aug 27, 2013)

Great video.....so cool. It amazes me how much they love to work. 


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