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Tracking Field Notes<br />
Mittens lifts the cup by its'handle to get the cookie.<br />
Mittens watches while Anne<br />
hides a cookie under the Sierra<br />
Club cup.<br />
Mittens shoves the cup across the brick<br />
pavement.<br />
make the noise in anger, intending to punish<br />
or frighten your dog, the experience will<br />
intensify his natural aversion to metal and<br />
you can expect him to avoid metal actively<br />
when he scents it in the field.<br />
4. Search andfind games train your dog<br />
to find objects by scenting them. You can<br />
develop these games from ball play by<br />
throwing the ball into tall ground cover<br />
or under shrubbery, so that the dog must<br />
find the ball by scenting it. How quickly<br />
he leams the game depends on the dog's<br />
determination and the strength of his<br />
retrieving drive. My big Aussie male,<br />
"Bear TDX," is a strong natural retriever,<br />
so he learned the game easily before he<br />
was four months old. "Mittens TDX" took<br />
longer; she was a "so-so" retriever, but I<br />
established her retrieve by throwing balls<br />
down a hallway and keeping a duplicate<br />
ball in my hand to throw the instant she<br />
brought the first one back to me. It was<br />
interesting to watch her work the firsttime<br />
aballgotlostin theshrubbery. The ballhad<br />
bounced several times downhill before it<br />
landed in the bushes. Mittens sniffed each<br />
bouncespotcarefully, allthewaydownthe<br />
hill! She was "tracking" the ball.<br />
There are many more hide-and-seek<br />
games to play. Check out Roy Hunter's<br />
fascinating book * Fun Nose-work for<br />
Dogs.<br />
On-the- track article training is designed<br />
to increase the dog's article drive and to<br />
rewardhis naturalskills atfinding articles<br />
by scent.<br />
Increase article drive by displaying<br />
extreme excitement over every article<br />
your dog finds. Reward him with food,<br />
praise, and games. Pull out all the stops.<br />
If you start your dog's training program<br />
with *Barbara's Exercise, the sock or<br />
glove at the end of the first short training<br />
tracks will be baited heavily with soft food<br />
treats distributed widely along a fold in the<br />
cuff so that the dog is forced to search the<br />
article and work with it a while before he<br />
gets all of the treats. While the dog noses<br />
the article and eats his treats, praise him<br />
heartily, telling him, "Good dog!," over<br />
and over. Keep up the excitement in your<br />
voice. When he has eaten all of the treats,<br />
entice him to tug the article. He may not<br />
want to tug at first, even if he tugs socks<br />
and gloves at home, off the track. Don't<br />
force the game on him, but keep offering<br />
it every time he finds a tuggable article,<br />
and keep workingon "tug" away from the<br />
track. Eventually he will relax and start to<br />
enjoy tuggingthe glovesand socksthat he<br />
finds on the track.<br />
Surprise your dog by hiding his<br />
favorite food and toys in the article: ajar<br />
ofbabyfoodlamb,hisbreakfast ina plastic<br />
container, his ball, or his prized squeaky<br />
squirrel. Play tug or ball after he's found<br />
the article and eaten his treats. Finding the<br />
article merits a party, every single time. If<br />
the dog has found several articles on his<br />
track, sit down with your dog at the end of<br />
the track, get out all the articles and review<br />
the collection; encourage him to sniff each<br />
one and admire it with him, "Which one is<br />
your favorite. Tinker?"<br />
Never give an article short shrift. It's<br />
easy to forget the importance of articles,<br />
especially if your dog finds them easily.<br />
Don't let the tracklayer's comments or<br />
other distractions interfere with giving<br />
immediate and full attention to your dog<br />
and the article he has found. Do not allow<br />
the dog to give the article a cursory sniff<br />
and then continue to track the tracklayer out<br />
of the field.This sport is based on the dog's<br />
desire to hunt, and some dogs find the thrill<br />
ofthe "chase" to be more compelling than<br />
the actual "kill." For these dogs, you need<br />
to intensifythe excitement surroundingthe<br />
article find.<br />
When handling your dog on the track,<br />
keep in mind that his most important<br />
training objective isto workindependently<br />
and to trust his own judgment. Help him,<br />
but do not interfere with him:<br />
1.If your dog pulls away from his track to<br />
sniffobjectsthat are not articles, let him<br />
do it. He leams article discrimination<br />
skillsthrough experience. Don't makehis<br />
decisions for him by pulling him away<br />
from extraneous objects before he's had<br />
a chance to investigate them. You'll be
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