Restarting the dog after an article

Obviously, every time the dog stops and lies down on an article, it must start the track again. We consider each of these restarts almost equal in importance to the original start from the scent pad. It is vital that the dog put its nose to the ground and carefully move off down the track from footstep to footstep.

In competition, it is quite common to see dogs become excited by finding the article and therefore charge away from it when restarted, requiring anywhere from three to fifteen yards before they really begin to work again. If a difficult piece of terrain happens to lie right after the article, this habit can result in disaster.

Therefore, when the handler starts the dog from the articles, he takes great pains to make sure that the animal is calm and quiet, and puts its nose immediately to the ground. If necessary, he can also lay the track in such a fashion that the dog will find a small bait or two within the first twenty or thirty paces after the articles. The result should be that the dog will pick up the habit of tracking very carefully away from them.

Only when the dog is reliably finding all the articles and indicating them correctly, and also starting off from them in good style, does the handler begin to combine both turns and articles on the same track.

GOAL 4: The dog will complete tracks at least an hour old and approximately 1,000 yards in length without difficulty.

Up to this point in training, the handler has designed training tracks for his dog solely according to the lesson at hand. They have normally been rather short and simple, and seldom more than ten minutes old. Now, however, we have the trial regulations to worry about.

Our problem is to increase both the length and the age of the training tracks to comply with Schutzhund III regulations. (Ambitious trainers do not train for Schutzhund I and II, they train for Schutzhund III and pick up I and II on the way.) Furthermore, we must do it without detracting from the dog’s precision and performance.

Important Concepts for Meeting the Goal

1. Increasing length

2. Aging the track

Increasing length

We increase the length of the track very gradually. Also–and this is very important–we increase it randomly . For instance, one day the dog will have a short track with one turn, the next day a very long track with three turns, and on the third day it will have a short, complicated track involving four turns. Month by month, the average distance the dog must cover increases, but on a particular day it has no way of knowing if its last article and food drop lie 100 paces away or 1,000. The result of this uncertainty is a very intense, yard‑by‑yard search of the entire length of the track.

In addition, when deciding on the length of a training track, we also consider conditions of weather and terrain. For instance, a 1,000‑yard track in a light dusting of snow is one thing, and a 1,000‑yard track in a wheat field on a ninety‑degree day in June is something else again.

Aging the track

When we advance the age of the track past the ten‑ to fifteen‑minute mark for the first time, we manipulate only this one variable. We do not experiment with different lengths, terrains or conditions while we are teaching the dog to work older scent. Instead, we lay fairly stereotyped tracks of about Schutzhund I length and difficulty.

The handler increases the age of the track very gradually from one day to the next, five minutes at a time. He spends at least several days at each increment (twenty‑five, thirty, thirty‑five, etc.). Depending upon conditions, the “hump”–where the predominant scent on the track changes from air to ground–should occur somewhere between twenty and forty minutes, and the handler should expect his dog to have some difficulty in this interval. He works close to his dog, handling it carefully, and helps it past any problems.

GOAL 5: The dog will learn to work its way confidently through difficulties encountered on the track.

Because handlers involved in organizing a competition want to see high scores in their trials, sponsoring clubs normally make every effort to provide optimal tracking conditions for the day of competition. Our club invariably uses a turf farm for trials. However, it is often not possible to arrange for the use of such a large piece of lush, green real estate. Especially in some of the more arid regions of the United States, American Schutzhund trainers regularly compete in tracking conditions that appall the German judges who are often brought in to officiate at the events. Sometimes the organizing club will make a special effort to provide very demanding conditions in order to find out whose dog “really tracks.” This was the case at the GSDCA/WDA Europameisterschaft Qualification Trial in Colorado in 1984, when the organizers tried to make absolutely sure that any dog that qualified for the WDA team would acquit itself well in the tracking phase of the European championships.

Other sorts of challenges will crop up unintentionally, as happened one day to a Schutzhund III competitor from New Mexico that was halfway through its tracking test when it was discovered that the spectators had been standing for a quarter of an hour on top of the last leg of its track.

Incidents of this sort are a reminder that luck plays a role in Schutzhund. There is nothing we can do to change our luck, so instead we try to teach our dogs to cope with the unexpected.

Thus far, we have performed the vast majority of our training in optimal conditions. Our dog has learned all its basic skills in short, regular, green grass with little wind. Now we must add difficulty to its work by exposing it to all sorts of adversities, including drastic changes in terrain and vegetation, roads and ditches and cross tracks cutting its track and the dog’s having to refind the track once it has lost it. However, we must do this in such a fashion as to increase the animal’s skill and its confidence in its ability, rather than the reverse.

Proofing in this manner improves not only the dog’s skill, but also its intensity and concentration. By proofing the animal we systematically teach it to calmly solve problems.

^{In many parts of the United States tracking conditions are not ideal. However, experience has shown that a well‑schooled dog can follow a track even in very dry or barren terrain. Here, Salynn McCollum’s Sartan v. Haus Barwig shows a deep nose and fine style in the desert outside of Sante Fe, New Mexico.}

^{Training in optimal conditions. April Sanders’ “Ben,” Schutzhund III, works with a deep nose in a dirt field. Footprints are visible in freshly plowed fields.}

Important Concepts for Meeting the Goal

1. Negotiating changes in terrain

2. Crossing over an obstacle and then relocating the track

3. Recovering the track after losing it

4. Tracking surely despite adverse weather or ground conditions

5. Ignoring cross tracks