# Kibble for tracking



## justde (Oct 4, 2000)

I'd like to use kibble for tracking bait, but don't know if there are any GOOD food that the kibble is larger. Someone told me Royal Canin...I'd have to try to find it here int he middle of nowhere. :help:


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## Samba (Apr 23, 2001)

Orijen is a larger kibble size as is the RC you mentioned. I live in the middle of nowhere also. Often I have food shipped to me if it is something I can't get locally. Shipping charges can be found that are reasonable.


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## Castlemaid (Jun 29, 2006)

When starting out with a young dog, I like using the larger kibble that I can see so that I know how much the dog is finding and eating. Some people in my club have used the breed specific GSD Royal Canin because it is bigger and easier for the dog to find. I couldn't find a small bag (feed raw, so a fifty pound bag was a bit overkill - we don't track that much!), but picked up a bag of Royal Canin Large Breed ( I think there is a Weim on the bag). That worked really well for me!

This year, I noticed that both my dogs have started looking for the track, using their eyes to pick out foot-steps, kibble and articles. So to force them to go back to deep-nose tracking, I switched to Cat Food (Whiska's Moist and Meaty Morsels, to be exact  ). Seems to have worked really well so far. My concern with continuing with using the small kibble is that the dogs will loose interest in working so hard for such a small reward - but that will depend on just how much food drive they have, I think.


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## JLOCKHART29 (Aug 23, 2009)

I used Royal Canine for tracking myself. Large breed puppy. Worked great for a while. Not huge food drive in this dog. Much more pray and started rushing threw the track. Have swapped to really nice kibble I cut myself to size. Can't remember name but Petco and Petsmart both have same thing just diffenent name. Comes in what looks like a dellie baloney tube in the food section. About a foot long and 6 inches across. Just slice and cut into squares, but into Ziplocks and freeze till used. I suggest lamp and rice.


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## G-burg (Nov 10, 2002)

Can you not use the kibble your feeding? Or are you feeding raw? I'll use kibble for tracking my dogs.. But I just use what I feed them.. I like the fact that they have to search the track (each footstep) for the tinier pieces..

AvoDerm Original has much, much larger pieces.. It looks like broken up dog biscuits..


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## justde (Oct 4, 2000)

I feed TOTW, very tiny and in grass that's a little longer it gets "lost". I do use meat for bait, very attractive to ants.


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## Samba (Apr 23, 2001)

Meats do attract those creepy ants. Seems some of my fields have more ants than others. When you are wanting the time spent lokking for the small, buried food you are wanting the dog to slow and search each step? 

I seem to need something that can be snatched up as the dog moves along switching from step to step. Then a rythm begins to develop, hopefully. I can't afford something that would slow my guy further, we would be out there all day. For that reason, I like a larger, softer piece of ait. Larer kibble would be good where we have ants.


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## G-burg (Nov 10, 2002)

Samba~ You'd be surprised how quickly some dogs can get the tinier pieces of kibble from the track in the deeper grass with out skipping a beat.. 

I've also seen dogs take to long to chew larger pieces of bait, there heads come up while they're chewing and moving forward missing multiple foot steps..


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## Witz (Feb 28, 2011)

I have always used turkey dogs when I started my pups. I do my best to do the placement at my heel after shuffling along the track, every other step.


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## Liesje (Mar 4, 2007)

I have California Natural which is a pretty large kibble, but even in MI it gets covered in ants. We don't even have bad ants like some states and after only two seasons tracking (I'm a novice) I've given up putting food on my tracks, now just train articles ASAP and use that to reward.


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## PaddyD (Jul 22, 2010)

Try Pupperoni, it breaks off in small bits. It's like dog-nip.


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## cassadee7 (Nov 26, 2009)

I cube up NB Rolls for tracking but my club lays tracks (for us sometimes) with cheese and hot dogs.


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## onyx'girl (May 18, 2007)

We were talking tracking yesterday at club~over an hours worth of conversation during the tracking phase. Based on this method: http://www.germanshepherds.com/forum/tracking/157646-kris-kotsopoulos.html

If you have problems on the track with ants...maybe teach articles first off the track and the dog will work w/ scent discrimination/article=reward(food).
That way the food isn't on the track, but handed to the dog when they indicate the article, so you won't have to deal with ants. 

Karlo will not take food from a track if ants are on it, so this works well w/ us.

We talked about the fact that really, there is no reason _not_ to introduce articles early. Don't teach it on the track or grass but on a flat surface, teach the dog to platz, mark with clicker and treat. Then you can transfer to scent pad/article at the pad, and go from there.
Food for thought?


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## justde (Oct 4, 2000)

My dogs know the articles and get good reward there. However, I want good focus on the track itself as well. Have found with a previous dog that he'd lack intensity on primary track, more searching for the article. He sometimes "hovered" over the track enough to airscent an article..corners could be ugly, but he'd get around LOL Sometimes a bonus at articles or end can hijack the track itself.


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## justde (Oct 4, 2000)

Okay, so I looked at the Kris Kotsopoulos thread. It would be critical to make sure not to let the dog miss an article. My memory does not serve me well, I often mark a cornoer or article if there are no good terrain cues. How do others deal with this problem (memory)?


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## Liesje (Mar 4, 2007)

I always mark corners in my mind using visual cues. Articles...well depends on the dog, the terrain, the purpose of the track. On Sunday at one point my dog downed and there was not an article. I did not correct him, just did not reward. Come to find out, several people had marched across my track after I laid it and someone picked up one of the articles, haha! For me a lot of it is just knowing the dog, knowing at what point to trust the dog. If I have a lot of articles down and don't remember every one, I track close to the dog so I can see. But, we train and track in the "city" so our terrain is mostly cut grass. What works for me might not work for someone else. My dog's pace, accuracy, intensity, etc do not change whether there is no food on the track or food in every footstep. For him the purpose is finding articles.


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