Training Program
Document your training
Use Judi’s “Goals for this Track” Form (a.k.a. Goals Form)– fill in the blanks and answer questions; plot your map on the back side of the paper. Use the Goals Form to help you with your blogs. You track; you blog.
Carry water
Offer water and establish a routine for water breaks. Your dog needs to be trained to take a break and take water. Pour water in a bowl and drop a yummy treat in the bowl and let your dog slurp it up.
Pick up the first article!
Why wouldn’t you? If your dog struggles, you have an opportunity to offer water and re-scent using the start article. If your dog continues to struggle and you want to abort your training session, you toss this article over his head and celebrate his success in finding said article.
Video
Videos add so much value to your understanding of dog behavior. Go Pros are awesome. Or get someone to video you with your camera.
TD and TDX training program rotations:
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Starts: generally, one turn
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Turns: always 50-yard leg length
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Articles: See exercises
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Duration/length
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Age
TDX also incorporates
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Obstacles
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Cross Tracks
You are training your dog by working through this rotation in a variety of locations and conditions.
TRAINING EXERCISES
STARTING A DOG AND FIRST STEP OF INTRODUCING WALKED STEPS, TRACKS
For the second track, it's 10 scuff steps, 3 walked with a food drop at step 2, scuff another 10, walk 3 with food @ 2. Food will only appear in the walked sections.
START TRACKS--BEGINNER DOG WHO IS MAKING TURNS
The dots are NOT food drops, but rather the handler's path from track to track. Should the dog choose to follow the track to the next start flag, that is fine, but then they MUST indicate the article using the same indication they are trained for at the end.
START TRACKS--MORE ADVANCED DOG
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STAIRSTEP TRACK
NOTE: You can start with first turn to right or left, and should be trained both ways.
CROSS TRACK TRAINING TRACK
TDX only
TDX TRACK
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All legs ~50-75 yards (to conserve space)
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Articles ~30 yards from turn
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Get as close to the obstacle as you can before turning
ARTICLE INDICATION PRACTICE
Thank you Betty Swenson: Gather 10 diverse articles. No food in any of them. Put 1st one on ground, scuffed 5 steps, put down #2, scuffed 5 more steps, put down #3, etc. until all 10 in a row on ground.
Put harness & line on dog, walked her up to 1st article, gave down cue as soon as she sniffed it. Gave treats from pocket, moved on to next one, repeat all the way down the line to #10, which she got to play with.
Left articles in place. After playing with last article, put it back in place & went back to #1.
NOTE: DO NOT DO THIS BACKWARDS--start over from #1. Repeated process except this time waited a beat to see if she would lie down on her own, which she did 7/10 times. Repeated again, dropped on her own 9/10 times. Quit
5 COMMON TD TRACKS
5 most common TD test patterns
ACUTE TURN
Please don't do this until instructed by me--first acutes will be in class.
Put in a straight track, after ~30+ yards, put in a flag. Walk straight ahead 5 paces...turn completely around and walk back to the flag (so you have double laid this portion of the track). At the flag, turn 45 degrees back, scuff 10, walk 10, food &/or article. End it.
When handling this, you, the handler, should not pass the flag. GIve the dog enough line to investigate the double laid portion and circle back. Wait patiently until they check behind them, go on a weak indication.
Make sure you train this in both directions. You can put in 4 individual acute angle turn tracks (like you'd do 4 start tracks--same concept).
ARTICLE TRACK
Article Track
Article Games
You must continue to build value for article indication throughout your dog's tracking career. Your food reward for articles should be THE yummiest – and a different snack from your track food drop rewards.
See Judi's Article Track training exercise above. It is systematically lays out an article and food reward following a predictable pattern of walk25FD/walk15Article/walk10FD/walk15Article/walk10FD/walk15Article/walk10FD. This systematic 'article track' should be part of your training program rotation. Use ten articles.
There are also 4 GAMES you can play to build value for articles AWAY from tracking (thanks to Carol Maupin for reminding me that 'games matter' when my feral dog runs over articles). Your treats should be HIGH value. High value means rotisserie chicken or steak or pork chop.
Your goal for these GAMES is to get your dog to OFFER a behavior. You must stop PROMPTING him to indicate an article. And when he offers a behavior, PAY HIM WITH YUMMIES! If your dog likes to tug and play, then in training play with the article.
Games
Choosing an Indication
The fourth game is "straight line with three articles" on leash, no harness, no flag. Walk a straight line – drop an article, then walk ten yards, article, ten yards, article. The goal of this game is to get that indication with zero command/prompt. You have built up to this - after a few days of playing "Ooops I dropped something" with great success and happiness and yummy treats, your dog should LOVE this straight line game. He should down on the first article WITH ZERO PROMPT, he should be looking at you with the 'hey lady, pay me' look. Pay him, multiple times. Pick up the article, release him, he should drag you to the next article and he should down on the second article WITH ZERO PROMPT. It is OK if he is dragging you because he can see the article - this is not tracking, this is a GAME to build drive and enthusiasm and improve your obedience.
Game 1: Hide and Seek
Initially this game is played in the house. The goal of this game is to build excitement for searching for an article and finding it. Pick out an article from your bag, get your dog interested in the article, put him in a sit stay in one room, hide the article in the next room. Release him to find it. You are not expecting an 'indication' you are just building value and drive to the article, enhancing his search work ethic, and then having a party with yummy treats when he finds it. Play again and again; place the article two rooms away, make it easy at first, then make it harder; start with an easy article, switch articles as he improves. If your dog does not have a sit/stay, put him on a leash and close the leash in the door so he has to wait until you release him to search. I played this hide and seek game in the HOTEL room the night before Jack's TDX test. Fun, builds value for finding an article, creates a moment to celebrate your dog’s brilliance. He can’t be wrong. If he can’t find it, help him. Hide it again and celebrate when he finds it.
Game 2: Can You?
What is your ideal article indication? If your dog can track hundreds of yards, he can give you a “behavior” when he comes upon an article. For Jack, I want a down. So, I work that down command AWAY from tracking.
So, my game is “Can you down?” The goal of this game is obedience to ONE command. I say DOWN and no matter the situation, he downs without my repeating the command.
This game can be played inside or outside. I would start with the dog on leash. Yummy treats are READY and ACCESSIBLE. Walk around through the den and kitchen or meander outside.
I say “Lie Down” He should drop to a down on the first command. When he successfully drops to a down, I mark it YES and toss food between his front legs QUICKLY. HAVE YOUR FOOD READY and ACCESSIBLE. If he does not drop to a down on the first command, I do not feed him a treat. Instead, I help him into a down with my hands. If I help him, he has to be correct (credit to the great Sylvia Bishop) so I tell him how smart he is, no treat, we try again. (If you do not want to use your hands to help him into a down, you could just say 'too bad' without feeding any treats, continue your walk and try again.)
We continue our walk and I play "Can you down?" throughout the walk. When he drops to a down on the first command/quickly, I mark YES and toss yummy treats between his front legs. Continue on our walk.
Additional video of Can You? outside:
Game 3: Ooops I Dropped Something
now when we go on a walk, I randomly drop an article and play "Can you down?" when he notices/sees the article. (You may have to start by tossing the article and you may have to command/prompt him to down the first time or two) Yummy food must be READY and ACCESSIBLE. The goal of this game is for you to be quiet/stop giving him the command.
Stand still, look at the article and wait. (You may have to have him on a leash if he isn’t paying attention to the game). Again, you may have to prompt him the first time or two. When he notices the article and downs, I mark YES and toss yummy treats between his front legs and pick up the article. This game advances from the dog seeing you drop an article to your leaving articles around your walking area and being surprised when you walk up on an article. Stand there and look at the article, BE PATIENT to see if he will give you the indication you have been working on since Hide and Seek. He should start offering a down with zero input from you. When he does you say Yes, toss food, pick up article.
If he does not down when he comes upon these articles that I dropped, I help him down with my hands, tell him he is so smart, no treat, we try again. IF your treat is yummy, he WILL begin to offer down before you say it. That is the goal - no command/prompt for his down. Play again and again until he can come upon an article you 'accidentally dropped' and he downs.
Game 4: Article Line
The fourth game is "straight line with three articles" on leash, no harness, no flag. Walk a straight line – drop an article, then walk ten yards, article, ten yards, article. The goal of this game is to get that indication with zero command/prompt. You have built up to this - after a few days of playing "Ooops I dropped something" with great success and happiness and yummy treats, your dog should LOVE this straight line game. He should down on the first article WITH ZERO PROMPT, he should be looking at you with the 'hey lady, pay me' look. Pay him, multiple times. Pick up the article, release him, he should drag you to the next article and he should down on the second article WITH ZERO PROMPT. It is OK if he is dragging you because he can see the article - this is not tracking, this is a GAME to build drive and enthusiasm and improve your obedience.