Repeating the turn

After several weeks of practice, the dog should be cleanly making turns to both the left and the right. However, the dog has not yet really learned the skill of following a turn in a track, for two reasons.

First, the handler is still indicating to his dog both the turn in the track and also the direction of the turn by moving up close alongside it on the inside of the turn. Second, he is intervening so quickly that the dog never loses the track for a moment. Thus the animal makes no loss of track indication and does not stop moving forward on its own. Instead it makes a turn when its handler signals it to make a turn.

We now have no alternative but to allow the dog to lose the track. We must stop warning it that the track is turning and instead begin letting it warn us that the track is turning.

The handler lays three short tracks with turns, as before, and leaves a food drop six paces after each turn. As he approaches the first turn with his dog, the handler gives no indication to the animal. One of three things will happen:

1. The dog will make the turn cleanly, going around it as if it were on rails.

2. The dog will stop within a foot or two after overrunning the turn, indicate loss of track, and then check carefully about it for the new leg and follow it.

3. It will overrun the turn by two or three feet or more without any loss‑of‑track indication. Then it may give every sign of continuing off over the horizon, or it may begin to cast wildly about for the scent.

It is, of course, ideal if the dog goes around the turn cleanly. We would like it to track this way always. However, no matter how good the animal is, sooner or later it will lose the track. Knowing this to be true, and recognizing that the dog will probably lose the footsteps momentarily several times on every track it ever runs, we must be sure of one thing: that it never “lies.” If the animal has not got the track exactly, we must encourage it to:

1. Indicate clearly that it has lost the footsteps.

2. Stop before it wanders any further from the track, and then cast carefully about for it.

If the dog makes the turn cleanly, wonderful! The handler praises it and lets it discover the food drop, feeds and plays with it at the end of the track and ends the session on that note. It cannot get any better.

If the dog indicates loss of track immediately after it overruns the turn, stops and begins to search carefully for the new leg of the track, still wonderful! The handler praises it softly for the indication and quietly encourages it to rediscover the track. On the second and third tracks the dog will probably make the turn more cleanly.

If, on the other hand, it overruns the turn and keeps going–without a strong indication of loss of track and without stopping–the handler tells it sharply “Phooey!” and then calls its name. He backs up a few feet along the track, calling his dog to him. When the animal arrives, the handler immediately restarts it on the track a few yards before the turn. If the dog overruns again, the handler again tells it “Phooey!” and then calls it back and restarts it.

He will not allow the animal to proceed past the turn or go any farther until it negotiates the change of direction somewhat cleanly–either follow it as if it is on rails or stopping immediately when it overruns it and then searching carefully for the new leg.

Several attempts will probably be required, but eventually the dog will negotiate the turn correctly. The handler must be careful to praise it for any loss‑of‑track indication and to enthusiastically pet it when it discovers the bait after the turn.

The dog should do better on its second and third turns that day, and within a few weeks it will probably be making most of its turns cleanly. At this point the handler begins laying only one track per day, with two to three turns, instead of three tracks.

The handler must be careful not to give the turns away to the dog with any action or word on his part as he approaches them with the animal, or by too obviously staking or marking them when he lays the track. Also, he should vary the lengths of the tracks and the lengths of the legs so that the dog cannot ever predict where the next turn will be. This will keep the animal turning when its nose tells it to rather than when it thinks it is time.

GOAL 3: The dog will indicate the articles on the track by lying down upon them.

In Schutzhund I and II, the tracklayer leaves two articles on the track. In Schutzhund III there are three, which account for twenty‑one of the 100 total points available in the tracking phase. It is therefore imperative that the dog locate all three articles and indicate them cleanly. If the dog is a good, exact worker, the articles seldom pose any problems for it. As it proceeds down the track, footstep by footstep, it will run directly into them.

If the animal is not a precise tracker, it is even more important to motivate it for the articles, so that it is eager to find them. Then, if it is far off the footsteps when it nears an article, the article’s presence and the scent cone it gives off downwind may bring the dog back to the track. Therefore, the articles in Schutzhund tracking are somewhat of a blessing rather than a training problem. They often make a difficult Schutzhund III track easier, because if the handler can depend upon his dog to find the articles, then it has three places in the field where it knows without a doubt the tracklayer has been. The articles can thus serve as vitally important reference points.

The dog is free to indicate the article in any one of three ways–sitting, downing or standing on it–or it may even pick the article up and retrieve it to its handler. The only stipulation is that it must indicate all the articles in the same way. However, it is almost universally agreed that the best method is to teach the dog to lie down upon the article, and it is therefore quite rare to see a dog in competition that has been trained to do otherwise.

The skill of finding the articles is quite different than tracking. It is perhaps more similar to a scent discrimination exercise, because the dog frequently comes upon objects while tracking that might be articles, and it must then determine whether or not they have been touched by the tracklayer. It is therefore possible to teach the articles as a separate exercise from tracking proper. Indeed, it is even desirable to do so, because we will employ compulsion with the articles in order to make the dog absolutely reliable.

^{The fruits of careful proofing: Steve Thompson leaves the tracking field with his Caiser v. Haus Barwig, Schutzhund III, after a ninety‑nine‑point track in blizzard conditions.}

^{The articles in Schutzhund tracking can be a blessing rather than a difficulty, because they remotivate the dog and serve as important reference points to the exact location of the track.}

Important Concepts for Meeting the Goal

1. Lying down upon the articles

2. Indicating the articles on the track

3. Restarting the dog after an article