K9
Obedience
Services &
Sitting
Phone
412-298-2843
Email
k9observ@comcast.net
How do I teach my dog how to track? Are there books you can recommend?
The AKC does not generally recommend books. You might search the web for vendors of dog products and try your local bookstores. The following books are ones that the AKC tracking staff members have used and liked. This list does not include all the excellent books on the market but are representative of staff favorites.
1. Scent
and The Scenting Dog by William G. Syrotuck
2. Tracking Dog: Theory and Method by Glen R. Johnson
3. Enthusiastic Tracking by William (Sil) Sanders
4. Tracking From the Ground Up by Sandy Ganz & Susan Boyd
5. Following Ghosts by John Rice & Suzanne Clothier (Search and Rescue)
Our dogs already know how to track. What we have to do is teach the dog to track what we want him or her to track, and when we want them to. We have to give the dog a reason to use his nose. You can start by laying a short track using food, a toy or by having the dog find you. One way is to make a box with each side being about 10 paces long. The size of the box would depend on the size of your dog. At each corner, hide a bit of food under a leaf or something just big enough to cover it and when the dog finds the food offer a lot of praise. At the end of the track hide your treat under a glove and after finding the food make the dog give you the glove. In a real trial you would take the glove and then indicate to the judge it had been found.
