I can’t read my dog….I have to learn to read my dog….and other dog reading conundrums

I can’t read my dog….I have to learn to read my dog….and other dog reading conundrums

I can’t even come close to knowing how many times a student has said, “I can’t read my dog.”  And it mystifies me, because everything they say after that is about the dog doing something other than tracking…..

Learning to read your dog starts on the first track you run, and builds, millisecond by millisecond, after that.  So in general, it takes most dogs between 6-10 minutes to run a T track.  So 600 seconds for a T track.  Times 1000 milliseconds, is 600,000 milliseconds of tracking.  And you are going to build this skill one millisecond at at time.  I’m hoping this gives you a feeling for the amount of work you have to do…because reading your dog is a skill you have to learn.

So how do you learn it?  Through quiet, focused concentration & observation.  If you are talking, you are not observing (no, we actually can’t multi-task, we flip between tasks at lighting speed…which means you are potentially missing a millisecond long cue).  If you are looking for the next flag, you are not observing your dog.  If you are looking for the article, you are not observing your dog.  If I had a dime for every time I watched a student look for the article, and miss the dog telling them “It’s over here,” I could travel the world.

So, day one.  We put a track in, food every 3”, 5 steps long.  What does your dog do?  Your observation starts at that first track.  Does his nose go L-R-L-R while his feet continue straight ahead?  Is he eating or acknowledging the food? Does he pause ever so briefly (millisecond) at the article?  You just saw tracking behavior.  How about he eats, casts off, corrects and comes back, eats, and crosses to the other side of the track.  What happens to his head before he turns back to the track?  Does it lift, ever so slightly, or does he pick it right up? Or does he just cruise in a serpentine, back and forth, while moving forwards?  Does he eat a piece of food, circle, sniff, move to the next piece of food, eat, circle etc? All of these are situations with millieseconds of tracking behavior—and you, the trainer, have the responsibility to to communicate to him which of those behaviors will move him to the next food drop.  BTW, this is NOT done with your voice! Identifying those minute behaviors is how you will learn to ‘read your dog.’

As you are moving down the track with your dog—be it his first ever track or you’re training for his TDX or VST….you should be willingly following the behavior you’ve identified as tracking—even if it’s just one tiny step. Mentally catalog everything else he offers, and don’t follow it, or give line!  Just quietly wait….and watch. When he crosses the track, take a tiny step—does he check back in? Great! Take another tiny step…quickly…to as your way of saying “yes.”  If he doesn’t check back in, try limiting his line—and watch carefully for any indication, no matter how subtle, and take a step. He indicated, you responded….you read your dog and trained him to take the track.

I sometimes think folks think of reading your dog as a skill that will just magically appear if you put enough time in.  It won’t.  It will only come if you focus on the dog, observe—don’t judge—don’t make up stories (he’s on a cross track, an animal walked there) just observe.

Here’s what a guarantee will NOT result in learning to read your dog—if you follow your dog when they are correct, stop and wait for them to go down the new leg at the corner and then again follow them when they are correct, wait for them to get close to the glove at ask them to down.  That will—money back guarantee—NOT teach you to read your dog.  Simply going when your dog is correct will only teach you to refind the track you put in (not a bad skill BTW)….but it won’t teach you to read the dog.  Observing, concentrating, on the dog as he goes down the leg, noticing each and every change in behavior (did he slow down, speed up, drift left or right, circle, cast—and if casting, is it right, left, or both?), over time, those changes in behavior will begin to have meaning to you.  They can’t have meaning until you can see them…..and you can’t know the meaning until you’ve seen them hundreds of times.

Hint: If you become a bit panicked if your turn isn’t marked….it’s entirely possible you are following your dog for moving towards the next marker as opposed to following tracking behavior.  Honestly, it can also be because you’re a very good trainer and want to assure your dog is precisely on the track!  And that of course takes us down the double line up rabbit hole, and I’ll save that for another blog post.

For now, study your dog’s behavior.  Where is his tail when he’s on the track? Where is it when he’s off?  How deep is his nose on track, how deep is it when he’s off?  What’s the rhythm of his gait when he’s on?  Does that change if he’s off? Can you feel him sniffing through the harness when he’s on? Does his sniff pattern change when he’s off?  This is something you can work on in the summer, even on hot days.  Work super short straight tracks, and work on YOUR observation skills.  By mid July or August….if you’re getting confident that you see the difference between tracking with your dog and simply following your dog….add a turn.  Still a super short (and fresh) track.  And again….work on YOUR observation skills—not “is he correct” but “do I see a change in behavior?”

One of these days, you also need to start observing your surroundings, and see if there are patterns between his behavior and his surroundings (trees, shade, walkways, woods, creeks, fences etc etc etc)—but not yet.  For now….just observe the dog. Calmly.  Quietly.  With focus.  Because you can’t find patterns until you recognize the behaviors.  Period.  Behavior comes first.

PS: the single best way to see your dog’s behavior? Video your tracks, and then watch the videos! You’ll be amazed at what you see!

I’d love to answer questions to this post!