Teaching Your American Pit Bull Terrier How to Track through Drive Part III

In part two on "Teaching Your American Pit Bull Terrier How to Track through Drive" we started building drive and raised the difficulty by adding turns to the track.

Today we're going to review a few common mistakes people make at this time in training and move forward in training.

By now you should have a good durable all weather long line and a tracking harness.

You can use rope climbing cord with a handle tied in one end for the tracking line if you would like or buy a 50 foot cotton lead. Some trackers use a leather lead. This is fine as well. What you use is up to you.

The tracking harness should be light, durable, weather resistant, and comfortable.

Okay, now that you have the right equipment let's look at some common problems and how to solve them.

Remember to start your dog in damp conditions and down wind from the person being tracked

Problem One: Not catching the scent.

Pit Bulls are most often best at area tracking. What that means is instead of sticking their nose to the ground (like a Bloodhound would) they raise their nose up into the air and catch the scent in the air.

To help your dog find the scent feed the leash under their front legs and to one side or the other.

That is how you want the leash. This will pull their head down to the track.

Notice the leash is under the dog helping pull his nose to the track. Also notice how tense the leash is. He is intense for the track. This dog is Bolddog Dirk and the handler is Diane Jessup.

By feeding the leash under them you will help get their nose closer or on to the track. That is unless you want to train an area tracking dog. In this case, it won't be much of a problem.

Since pitbulls tend to raise their nose up in the air being downwind from your helper will also allow your dog to pick up the scent a little easier.

Problem Two: They lose interest in the game.

First we have to recognize not all pitbulls will be good at tracking. It's a fact of life.

Second, we need to help our dog by building drive and getting them pumped up for the game.

You do this by taking a favorite toy and having the helper tease them and play with them. Get them excited for the toy. Then have the helper run away and hide (not to far, stay close) and allow your dog to find them.

When they do your helper should immediately reward them with a game of fetch/tug/etc...

Gloves are your friend. Rope burns are common especially with high drive dogs

Problem Three: You get tired.

This is a common problem on longer tracks. You need to start getting in a little better shape.

Tracking with a dog in high drive can be like running a marathon. They move fast and keeping up can be a challenge. Your dog will kind of pull you along with them as they track this helps take some of the load off. You still need to be in decent shape for longer tracks though.

Increase your normal walks with your pooch to build stamina for the track

You will face more problems than what I've mentioned above I'm sure. But these three are the most common and from personal experience, the last one was the toughest. lol.

Moving forward in training.

In part two we added a couple of turns to the track. Now we can add distance to the track.

From my own personal experience with tracking for fun I like to mix up the variables to make the track harder.

Starting with the distance I then move to an area with shorter grass. Then we track on a dry day. Then we track on a day with very little wind. All of these variables will make tracking harder for both you and your dog.

Start by adding 30-50 yards to the track to increase difficulty

Using the same or similar conditions, damp ground, semi-tall grass, and being down wind from the helper add another 30-50 yards to the track.

I like to do long straight tracks several times a week before adding any turns. If your dog is progressing well you might want to go ahead and add one or two short turns to the longer track.

Be careful, your dog should always find the helper. By allowing them find the helper they get their reward faster and this increases their success rate. Your dog will start to recognize when it's time for them to work and will get excited. Well, hopefully they will get excited.

Work on this for a week or two. In Part four we are going to finish up the basic tracking training.

Click here to read part four

Durable Tracking/Walking Pit Bull Harnesses Now Available Click here for more information