TRACKING
Dogs have helped the hunter find game and food for centuries. Although all breeds of dogs can learn to track, for a breed that was developed to flush out woodcook in the undergrowth, the cocker spaniel is born to track.
What is Tracking?
Tracking is a challenging and rewarding dog sport which utilises your dog’s natural ability. It is intended to channel your dog’s energy and challenge their mind.
It is a natural instinct for a dog to use its sense of smell. They do not have to be taught how to use their noses. The dog’s tracking ability is extremely acute and we still don’t understand the dog’s capabilities in this area.
We don’t have to teach a dog to track, we use their natural instinct to teach them that we want to follow a certain track or scent.
Tracking challenges your dog with a task, utilising their innate physical and mental abilities to the fullest extent, as nature had intended.
In tracking, a trail is laid out by either yourself or another person (tracklayer) which can be from a few hundred metres to well over a kilometre.
The tracklayer drops articles of clothing such as socks, gloves etc on the track for the dog to find. You and your dog will then come to the starting point and follow the trail, finding the objects along the way and receiving a reward after each track.
Dogs must wear a tracking harness, and must track at the end of a 10 metre lead, unless topography makes this difficult.
This is a huge trust exercise for you and your dog, as it is up to the dog to lead the handler, taking control of where you go and follow a scent that is undetectable by you. Handlers learn to read their dog’s body language which in turn enables them to trust their dog’s nose and follow them into the unknown. It is also very rewarding for the handler to be able to truly feel like you are part of a team with your dog. And form a closer partnership.
Even though you are letting your dog guide you in tracking it will not in any way encourage your dog to be dominant or disobedient. Tracking helps nervous dogs become confident. It tires out high energy dogs that would normally still be running after hours of exercise and training, helping you to enjoy a much calmer dog.
About Tracking
There are a lot of varying views and theories on what forms the scent track and without becoming too complicated, it is generally accepted that the track is formed in two ways:
Ground Scent
Partly from ground scent, that is the scent of the ground disturbance left where the person or tracklayer has walked, and composed of odours emanating from the bruising and damaging of grass and foliage, the crushing of roots and the scent of soil bacteria and moulds, released where the surface of the soil is broken. As the track ages, there is also the scent of the decay organisms working on the damaged roots and plants.
Body Scent
Then there is what we call body scent, this is the personal scent left by the tracklayer and formed by the normal body odour which he leaves in the air around him and where his hands or the skin of his legs or body have brushed against scrub or grass, and also from any particles of skin, hair, clothing, fluff or shoe leather that is shed along the track.
The trained tracking dog is expected to smell an article belonging to the tracklayer and from this scent, find the person's track and follow the track till he finds the end of the track. The dog must also find and indicate any object dropped along the track by the tracklayer. Under present rules, in a tracking trial, the track may be from twenty minutes to three hours old.
Interesting Fact
In tracking, dogs learn to track people, however human scent is NOT one smell. It is widely thought that dogs track human skin cells. Humans shed 40 000 skin cells a minute; we do this when we are moving or if we are still.
Is this all that our dogs are tracking? Of course not! We shed hair. When we breathe, the air expelled by our lungs contains a huge amount of matter which adds to the scent profile that tells a dog who we are. Human scent is made up of an infinite number of molecules. These molecules form chemicals which have particular odours. The chemicals are expelled by our bodies in many different forms.
Different people have different amounts of each chemical making up their bodies. A secondary set of odours also form a person’s scent profile. These are made up of odours from our environment. Women, men and children all smell differently. Every person has a different scent profile, but the overall scent is “human”.
Any dog that is registered with Dogs Victoria is eligible to enter a tracking trial where they compete for Australian National Kennel Council (ANKC) titles. No obedience qualifications are necessary. It is not advisable to enter a trial until the dog has been trained so that it is likely to pass Test 1 which involves finding the tracklayer at the end of a trail of 400 metres with two turns.
For further information contact the Tracking Club of Victoria www.trackingclubvic.org.au who are affiliated with Dogs Victoria.
Sources
http://scentdogsaustralia.com/tracking.html