Follow up

I’m going to follow up on my post from yesterday. Tracking is different. In agility, in obedience or rally, we give cues or commands, the dog follows. We lead the dance. In herding, while the dog has significant authority and independence, we are still cuing, commanding, the behavior. In tracking, the dog leads, we follow. We, through slow and careful training, teach the dog what to follow….but the end goal is always that they lead, we listen, and we follow when they communicate that they are doing their job.

Is heeling a dance? Of course. But, if the dog goes wide, we don’t follow. Is agility a face paced dance? Yes. And if we turn our shoulders, the dog goes off course. We led, they follow. In herding, if the dog feels pressure to the away side, but we need the stock moved in the opposite direction…we tell the dog to go the other way.

Tracking is teamwork, and the dog is the leader. Heck, I don’t even give a “track” cue—I let the context (harness, start flag, start article) tell the dog he’s in charge. From the second he approaches the flag….my goal is to teach him to make independent decisions to follow the scent. Does than mean he has carte blanch to do whatever the heck he wants? NO. But it means I don’t use my voice to tell him what to do. I respond with my line and my feet, limiting his options without actually taking control….and allowing him to move when he finds or refinds the track.

Loss of Scent (LOS) doesn’t always mean turn. It might mean he’s overwhelmed by another scent, or the scent picture has somehow changed, and he needs to work to re-establish the track. He’s not being bad, he’s not lie-ing….he’s working. And since he’s the one in control, I patiently wait, limiting his options as I want him to recover within a reasonable distance. I’m working WITH him, not against him. First I limit him to search a small area, then I might let him search a larger area. I do not know why he’s stuck. I’m not going to make up a story—there are probably a million reasons why he’s cast off. I’m just going to work with him, and TRUST that he will figure this out. I’m not going to let him get frustrated—I’m going to help before he quits, or tries to just power me in any direction. I am NOT training him to pull! If he just can’t find it, and I laid it so I know there should be something his nose recognizes up ahead, I might, slowly and patiently, take a step or two to see if recognizable scent is present up ahead. If I KNOW the track is behind me, I might slowly and patiently take a step or two backwards, to put him in a better position to recover.

While he is searching, I’m studying. Are we going from sun to shade, or shade to sun? Did the area open up, or narrow? Did the ground vegetation change? Is there a depression, or a rise? Are there different trees near the track? Did the ground moisture change, is he in a puddle? None of this changes how I handle, it’s just information. Does he shake off? What happens after the shake off. Gus, reliably started tracking after a shake off—it meant he’d made he decision after a through search. Fletch is now showing me shake offs with some consistency, I don’t yet know what they mean. In time, by watching, observing, and not telling stories, will learn, because over time, he will teach me.

And that’s the bottom line. He will teach me. It’s my job to learn.