Brandon from Custom K9 Unlimited teaches puppy tracks, the first scent-tracking exercise for young dogs. He uses a decoy running a short scuffed line while the handler uses a "tucking" technique, running the leash under the dog's front leg to lower its nose. The training progresses from straight lines to turns to blind tracks where the dog relies only on scent.
Chapters
Good morning, CCU family. This is Brandon here, one of the trainers here at CCU. Behind me you'll see K9 Axel and two of our trainer students working through what today's short set is is about. Today's short set is about puppy tracks, and basically what puppy tracks are, are the imprinting process of tracking. And so basically what we're doing is we are just using the dog's prey and hunt drives to carry us through this beginning stages. We tease the dog up with the toy, the dog chases the person with the toy, he gets the reward. We're just making it a very good experience, just like with all training, a positive experience. So we're starting out with basically just teasing the dog up, getting him amped up, getting him into drive so that he's ready to chase wherever that toy went. And the way that we're starting that is one person's posted out with the dog, the other person's teasing the dog up, leaves a scent pad, then scuffs all the way down. And so we're, we're basically imprinting the dog on human odor for the exercise or for tracking in the long run. And we're pairing that odor at the end of that reward, or at the end with a reward. So he's following, he's not really using his nose a whole lot. A lot of times in these early beginning stages, he's watching where the person goes and he's just following them to where they went. So we take that and we start short. So we start in short little increments with scuffs all the way, and then we slowly build that up to where we're adding turns, we're removing guff marks, and then we're basically going to make it a blind for the dog. So the dog is not able to see where they go, they're only able to use their nose. And so it's just a— it is the beginning stages. Puppy tracks are the beginning stages of the imprinting process for the tracking, the overall tracking process. From here we'll go puppy tracks into concentration tracks, which there is a short set on if I'm not mistaken. And then we'll also, from concentration tracks, we can then go into known tracks and then unknowns as well. In these early development stages of tracking, i.e., puppy tracks, some of the most basic equipment we're going to need are flat collar. We typically use a 15-foot, but 15 or 30-foot long line, and then some sort of reward whether it be what we're using here is a Wooba or a tennis ball or Kong or something that gets that dog going. That's going to depend specifically on the dog, what works as a reward for them. As you move forward in the puppy tracks, you're going to start forcing the dog to rely on its nose. And a way that we do that is we start tucking the dog. And tucking is essentially taking the flat collar, moving the attachment point from the flat collar with the leash and taking it and running it under one of their front legs. So this is actually kind of forcing their nose down. This also helps them breathe a little bit better and isn't causing strain on their neck while they're, you know, running ahead of you. So then we'll start forcing the dog to use its nose. We'll also, during this process, start implementing the tracking command. That is a varied command depending on where you're coming from and what kind of dog you're using. But for us, the tracking command is "sook." And so we also start to associate that word, that command, with the process and what we're doing. So we'll tease the dog up, handler will be posted out with the dog, The decoy or the person with the toy is going to tease the dog up, going to leave a scent pad, they're going to run off, they're going to scuff along the way, and then they're going to find something to hide behind. The handler is then going to give that command. The dog doesn't necessarily understand the command, but this is the process in which we're going to start building that understanding for the commands. The handler is going to give that command and they're going to take off running. They're going to take off running until that dog reaches the decoy or the reward at the end, and then they get fed the reward, or, you know, the, the treat, or whatever that looks like in your specific training instance. And then we're just going to repeat that process, making it a little bit harder and a little bit longer with each iteration. Thank you for joining today's Short Set. I'm Brandon here with Custom K9 Unlimited. K9 Axel back here is just getting started. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out. We've got trainer courses available. As well as handler courses, check out our website customcanineunlimited.com. And we will see you Friday for our podcast, Source Podcast, all things working dogs. Thank you for joining me.
