Charming Billie and I were at a tracking seminar all last weekend.
We started the morning in the classroom talking about what tracking was, about the experience the seminar instructor brought to the table, about what people wanted from the seminar. After that, we drove out to a big area of open rolling hills to work dogs.
The attendees included people who had never tracked before, people who were working on a TD (first title) with their first dog, people who were working at TDX and VST level training, people who had trained multiple dogs and tracking judges. There were all breeds of dogs: Rottweilers (of course), Boxers, Miniature Pinschers, Otterhounds, Italian Greyhounds, Golden Retrievers, Airedales, and others. We started by pairing off the people who were just introducing their dogs to tracking so they could lay short tracks for each other. Part of the seminar cost included a packet that included flags, bright orange clothespins and a glove--all of which we'd use over the weekend.
The second exercise involved two people walking side by side for about 100 yards. One of these people was the actual tracklayer with a glove to leave at the end of the track, the second was a decoy. At about 100 yards each person made a ninety degree turn, one to the left and one to the right. The person with the glove then left the glove at the end of his or her track and both people returned to the start. The exercise for the dog was to follow the 'real' tracklayer to the glove at the end. A glove at the beginning of the track gave the dog the 'right' scent to follow.
After lunch, we went back to the fields to work with dogs, like Charming Billie, who are working on a TD. We did an exercise that was designed to introduce them to angled starts (which they will see in TDX and VST tests) and also to show us a way to build confidence on turns. The instructor uses articles the way I've often used treats on tracks, to reward the dogs for being right and to build confidence. The tracks consisted of a start flag, an article about 10 paces past the start flag, a corner and a final article about 20 paces from the corner. Articles in tracking can be gloves (TD), personal cloth and leather items like scarves, socks, gloves, shoes (TDX) or small cloth, metal, plastic, and leather items like gloves, switch plates, plastic lids, and luggage tags (VST). Another exercise, this one again for the intermediate dogs consisted of straight line tracks (about 100 paces) with a crosstrack at fifty paces. The crosstrack was marked so that the handler could watch their dog's reaction to the crosstrack. TDX tracks always have two crosstracks and dogs have to learn to make the right choice on the track.
Day two we again started in the classroom. People had questions about how to read your dog, what kinds of articles to use, aging tracks, preparing for tests, and many other topics. After about an hour we went off to a local college where the instructor was going to run her dog on a 500 yard VST track and where she had also laid 5 short tracks for people who were working their dogs on VST. I volunteered Billie to run one of the short tracks although she's never worked on tracks older than two hours before. The demo dog ran a track that began on grass at the edge of a parking lot. When we arrived we saw that the flag and the starting article had been removed (this is very common in VST since it's conducted on campuses and around buildings and places with heavy foot traffic and lawn mowers and groundskeepers). In VST tests, judges ask the tracklayer to bring a fifth article (four articles are laid on the track) so that if the start article is taken, there's still something with the tracklayer's scent on it to give the dog at the start.
With the extra article, the instructor started her dog. The track went along the grass, around a building, down stairs, through a small, enclosed brick area, turned on a sidewalk, and worked its way around a building, back into a parking lot, with a turn in the middle of a large number of parked cars and finished up on a small island in the middle of the parking lot where several people had walked their dogs before the track started. Along the way we encountered a loose dog (instructor's advice: always make sure your dog is under control, plan on stopping the track and proceeding when it's safe). Other important advice for VST tests: carry water, teach your dog to stop for water, and be prepared to use it. Another judge adds that most of the dogs that passed their VST tests were given water on the track.
We then run the five short tracks.
The first track, which was also missing the start flag and article goes down a sidewalk, turns up a driveway, goes down a set of open weave metal stairs, through a small courtyard and up another set of stairs. Billie would never do that in a million years, I think (she doesn't like open stairs, let alone ones you can see through to the ground--I make a note to work on this outside of tracking).
The second track starts on grass, turns on a sidewalk then goes up another sidewalk to the paved entryway to a building.
The third track is Billie's. Hers starts on grass, goes up a sidewalk and makes a turn in front of a doorway and goes down a set of steps (concrete, not open) and ends on grass. She has a little trouble starting. This is the first three hour old track she's ever done and I believe (as does the instructor) that the difference between two and three hours of age is one of those 'break points' after which everything is different. I let Billie sniff the article. She noses it around and gets the scent. I pick it up and she goes a few steps then stands there and looks, moves a little, looks some more. She starts in the wrong direction and I wait. Her nose isn't down and she's not really doing much. Finally, I offer her the article again. After sniffing it carefully a second time, she begins tracking. She tracks straight up the grass although the track itself is on the sidewalk, it's easier to catch the fringes of scent that linger in the grass. Then, when she reaches the building, the shade and the brick wall pull her in close. At the top of the stairs, where I have no expectations as she's never done anything like this before, she checks the door, checks either side, starts down one side of the stairs, comes back and tracks down the other side of the stairs out onto the grass and finds the glove. Hurray!
There are a couple more tracks I don't see, then it's off to lunch. After lunch we go back out to the fields to work on what we've learned so far. I partner up with the person I usually track with and we lay some short-ish tracks with no treats and gloves as rewards after the turns. Pretty good tracking by everyone We finish up the day by watching some of the other dogs work their short tracks and talking about the things dog people talk about when they get together: old dogs, old judges, past tracks, new ideas.
All in all a good seminar with lots of time for dogs and to be outdoors in great weather. I have many ideas I can't wait to try next time I go tracking, which is exactly what you ask a seminar to give you.