# Tracking!



## BrownieM (Aug 30, 2010)

Has anyone here had experience with tracking? I really want to try this with Millie. She is the "nosiest" poodle I have ever had. On our walks, I have had to put a lot of energy into training her to keep her nose out of the grass. She has always had a tendency to easily catch a scent and get distracted. Also, she finds tasty tidbits hidden inside purses stuffed under beds. Finally, when she can't find a toy that I tossed, she uses her nose not her eyes to find it. This is different from the other poodles I have owned.

Tell me what you know about tracking!


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## doggiedad (Jan 23, 2011)

i don't know if this tracking but i can
hide things and tell my dog "find it" and he does.
i let him sniff what i'm hiding. once a dog got away from
it's owner in one of the areas we go to play in. there were
2 SAR dogs there. i asked the owner of the runaway
dog let my dog smell his collar. the Sar dogs went in one direction
and my dog went in another direction. 15 minutes later my dog
found the runaway. it could have been luck. my dog was trained by me
and i'm far from a professional.


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## RawFedDogs (Jun 16, 2008)

Ill try to keep this short. I don't have a lot of time. When I had the Goldens, one of our favorite games was "find the ball". Id put them both in a sit/stay in the den and go somewhere in the house and hide a tennis ball. I would come back to the den, have one dog stay and send the other to find the ball. They got real good at it and I finally relaized they were tracking me to the hiding place. I then started wandering throughout the house and put the ball somewhere while i was wandering. I would put it under the mattress of a bed or in the dirty clothes hamper or in a chair or under a pillow on the bed, etc. Then they would have to actually search for the ball. It took them a lot longer to find it but it was really fun watching them systematically seaching each room. They taught themselves how to actually do the search.

I began this exercise by hiding the ball in the middle of the hall just off the den where they could see me "hide" the ball and it never left their sight. I gradually moved the ball further away from them and started putting it where they couldn't see it but it would become visible pretty quickly when they got to the hall. I upped the criteria over and over until I coudln't put the ball anywhere in the house they couldn't find it unless it was so high they couldn't reach it standing on their hind legs.

Again its the same principle of teaching that I talked about in the previous thread. Start with very simple criteria and gradually make it more difficult. The one thing I learned is I had to tell the dog that was staying to stay before i told the other dog to go find the ball. If I didn't, they would both go everytime. :smile: We all loved the game and you should have seen them bringing the ball back into the den when they had found it. They would be holding their head high showing off their prize and bragging about how smart they are. :biggrin:

Anyway, thats all I know about tracking. I have never worked with SAR or anythilng.


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## DaneMama (Jun 27, 2008)

I do the "find it" game with the girls too. Bailey and Emmy know the names of their toys... :biggrin:


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## BrownieM (Aug 30, 2010)

There is a tracking club in my area that has classes. I am thinking of signing up!


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## Sarah_42 (Feb 27, 2011)

I think you should go for it! When I had my Border Collie, I looked into tracking for something to do before he was old enough for agility. I could not locate any classes close enough, but I would have jumped at the chance. 
I loved the idea of him using his natural instincts (besides herding!) and this would help teach him to really focus. If your Poodle is already a little sniffer hound, see where that nose can take you! (maybe a TD title?! :biggrin
When I was looking into it, German Shepherds seemed to be the predominant breed in the sport, but I stumbled across some Retrievers, Basset Hounds, even a Maltese! I think it is such a cool sport.


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## pandaparade (Dec 29, 2010)

I have not had any experience with it so far. However, I stumbled across a class called "The nose at work" that will be starting in the summer. I just can not wait to try it out as my dog loves playing the go find it game. I am sure we will stick out like a sore thumb with an aussie but I am just so excited about it.


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