Why Does It Matter?

Why does accurate track laying matter? Let’s discuss.

What are we training the dog to do? We are training them to follow the track. Not follow the plume, or the edge, or some scent close to the track—we are training them to follow the track.

You lay a track, let it age (or not) and go back to run it. You lined up on a clump of grass (which, to be clear, you should NEVER do). Now you can’t find that clump, so you follow the dog in the general direction of the leg. He hops over to get food drops, so now you know he’s tracking 3 feet off the track. What have you taught him in this session? You’ve taught him to parallel the track and look for food, rather than reinforcing him for following the track and finding food.

Now look at this drawing. Solid line is where the human walked, dotted line is the dog’s path. Note the wind direction.

So dog is off the track (maybe due to wind, maybe not), paralleling. He follows the scent past the turn, and since the concentration he is following is 10 feet off the track, he turns well past the track and parallels again. Now, if the track turns AWAY from the dog’s path…he will keep going straight.

If that imaginary dog was ON the track, he could easily recover from the expected overshoot (most dogs overshoot turns, at least a little).

Add to that, you’ve been a sloppy tracklayer in your dog’s training, and you’ve taught him it’s ok to parallel the track. Heck, he’s going in the correct direction…who cares if he’s off, or worse yet, you ‘let the dog figure it out.’ So…he’s being taught to follow the fringe. And now you have wind blowing the fringe even further from the track. It’s highly unlikely the team will make the first turn—by the time the dog offers loss of scent (1) it will be a very vague LOS, hard to read, and (2) the dog will be too far off the track to recover.

I’ve been tracking since 1988. I still make a map of every track I put in. I still find double line ups for every leg. I still play track laying games—drop something behind me (a pencil, or key) while the dog is working, and come back by myself to find it. I look for double line ups while driving, while walking the dogs-I find them on YOUR videos. And if I can find a true double line up on your video, for gosh sakes, you should be able to find one in real time!

Starting next class, we will start every class with a track laying session. Everyone will put a 1 turn track in before class starts, and leave a quarter at the end. First week, you get to go refind your quarter 15 minutes after you lay the track. Week 8, you will refind your quarter at the end of class. Because track laying IS A SKILL. And you can teach yourself this skill, just like you train your dog.

Before you ask…how far off can you/should you let your dog be? I like my dogs to be within 1 foot of the track. If further off than that, I DO NOT STEER with the line, but rather add line tension to bring the dog back. If they don’t come back then I’ll increase tension and slow my pace. This will make the dog start to veer back and forth, and I’ll ‘dump them’ (release line pressure) when they are on the track.