If the dog is searching giving multiple "FIND IT" commands does nothing other than make the dog nervous. Let the Dog Learn from His MistakesĪs long as the dog is working, handlers should remain quiet at a track-loss. If the handler has worked a head-snap on his "starts", this will be easier for the dog and handler at corners. Our goal is to teach our dog that when it gets track loss, it circles to cut the track after a corner. So the K9 handler is forced to go beyond the contamination and cut the track. In addition, by the time he or she gets there, other officers have trampled the scene. Most of the time, a K9 handler never knows exactly where the track started. Rather, have the dog run in a circle and cut the track 5 or 10 yards down the first leg. Handlers can actually teach head-snaps by not going to the exact beginning spot where they laid their training track. That happens when the dog is moving pretty quickly and he cuts across a track. One of the things an experienced dog handler will talk about is the head snap when his dog cuts a track. Should the dog cut the first leg and want to track to the corner again, let him. If the track goes to the right and he wants to go left, don't go with him, just hold the leash and let him run in a circle to the left and bring him around until he cuts the track going to the right. If he wants to pull straight ahead, don't go with him. If the dog continues to hunt for the track, have patience and let him. In the beginning, the handler stops on the corner and lets the dog work out the problems. You know there is no scent there because of the wind direction. When the dog blows a corner, the handler needs to really focus and watch his dog's head. This may be the point when some dogs have corner problems because they have been waiting for the stronger "odor cone," and when it doesn't come, they blow right on past the corner. They may fade to only kicking 3 or 4 feet after the corner and then after a number of training tracks, they fade it altogether. When that happens, the trainer stops kicking in the corners. Some dog's pick this up quickly and take corners on their own. That way the odor cone is always stronger at the corner. Most K9 handlers know that they need to kick in the corner, usually 3 or 4 feet before and 3 or 4 feet after each corner. They also need to know when a dog overshoots the corner, it 100% does not have any track scent. They have to know exactly where the corners are. Handlers must also lay their own tracks for this work and those tracks need to be laid INTO THE WIND. Handlers with 30 foot lines quickly learn their line will become tangled in trees and brush. The solution begins by using a 20-foot tracking line. Bottom line is it's always quicker to train a behavior correctly from the beginning than having to go back and retrain a problem out of the dog. Dogs that have problems because of a poor foundation in tracking may need 150 to 200 tracks. Brand new police service dogs can be taught track-loss in at 50 training tracks. When handlers recognize track-loss within 20 to 30 feet past a corner, the handler can help the dog (through circling) figure out which way the suspect went. This should be something that is learned on training tracks. It's the handler's responsibility to recognize that signal. Our goal is to teach the dog to give a clear signal for track loss when they overrun a corner. Track loss indications can vary they can be a head swing or the dog lifts its head or he slows way down. This must become a trained reaction for track loss. With experience, a well-trained dog will give a noticeable track-loss indication and start to circle. By foot-step-trackers I mean the style of tracking seen in Schutzhund or IPO.ĭogs that run will almost always overshoot corners. In fact, in many cases, unless the dog can track at a run, they will never catch up to the suspect.īottom line is: dogs that run when tracking catch more bad guys than foot-step-trackers. ![]() There is nothing wrong with a dog running on a track as long as the dog has scent. Both had dogs that ran tracks but blew by the corners. I recently received two emails from police K9 handlers who had similar tracking problems.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |