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

In part one of this series we discussed what it takes for your dog to excel at tracking. Along with what equipment you need and a basic overview of the basic starting tracks.

If you would like to get a tracking harness and you haven't done so already please email me for a quote on the line of tracking harness we stock here at PitBullLovers.com. Jason@PitBullLovers.com

Okay, let's move on to building drive.

First by having a person on the end of the track you will help build your dogs drive.

Remember in part one we talked about letting your dog see the helper run away?

How did your dog react? Did they start pulling on the leash wanting to chase? If they did, this is a good sign.

As the helper gets farther away the prey drive in your dog will become more intense. And this is what we want because we're going to use it.

Start with What Happens at the End of the Track for Best Results

With any good plan we want to start at the end result that we want to achieve and work our way backwards.

In this case, we want our dogs to help us find the helper. In order for this to happen your dog has to want to find the helper and you must work with them in order to make that happen.

When your dog does find the helper they should be rewarded with a high drive game of tug or fetch, or food reward.

Here's an important note: These sessions should be short, exciting sessions and then ended abruptly. Basically, leave your dog wanting more.

By leaving them wanting more you are building their drive. They will want that toy, or that food even more the next time.

Always end on a good note, but never let them have the toy or food.

So the final session of the day, your dog finds the helper, you play a 3-5 minute high drive game with them and then you stop and leave them wanting more.

Now on the tracking part...

By now your dog should be finding the helper on the straight track pretty easily. What we want to do at this point is step up the difficulty a notch by adding corners.

In part one your helper runs straight out. Scuffing their feet into the ground to make a scent trail that isn't that hard to find.

Now, instead of having them run straight out, they should make 2 turns on their way to their hiding spot.

A basic turning trail I use is run out for 10 yards. Make a 90 degree turn to the right and run for 5 yards. Turn back to the left and run another 5 yards straight. Then make a 90 degree turn to the left and run another 5 yards. Finally, turn and run straight for 2-3 yards and stop there.

I like to start, as we did in the beginning, with semi-tall grass (a field) that is damp. This way I can see the helpers track and it will allow me to feed the dog into the corner and allow them to get into the scent cone.

IMPORTANT TIP #5: If at all possible always train down wind from the helper. This will help the beginning dog find the scent cone faster. The helper should be in front of your dog with the wind blowing towards you from behind them.

Tracking Made Easy

You can make tracking a lot easier on you and your dog by starting in damp conditions and staying downwind from the helper.

These two factors alone will help you and your dog get the feel for the game.

Once they are comfortable with the 2 turn track, add 2 more turns.

Then add 10-20 yards to the track.

After they are comfortable with that do a straight line track up to 100 yards.

The idea is to increase the difficulty little by little until the track is hard.

In the Spotlight

I want to take this time to spotlight Kris Crawford and her SAR Pit Bulls and thank them for doing what they do. Kris and her three Pit Bulls Dakota, Tahoe, and Cheyenne dog wonderful work.

Dakota is a dog who has mastered the special training of water rescue and cadaver work. Kris and her dogs helped search for the Columbia astronauts bodies and has been deployed by the FBI as well..

For more information about Kris Crawford and the SAR Pit Bulls click here

Click here to read Part III

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