Performance Events - Where the Action Is!
Getting Started in Tracking
By Lynda McKee
Tracking is an activity that comes easily to Pembroke Welsh Corgis and it has nothing to do with their lowness to the ground! The breed’s nature inquisitiveness and desire to be doing things along with their love of toys and food makes it very easy to train in this most natural of all dog activities. Pembroke Welsh Corgis always rank among the leading breeds in tracking when the end-of-the-year tallies are done. The breed is currently among the leaders for holders of the challenging Champion Tracker (CT) title. But even the most proficient CT Pembrokes started their tracking careers along the lines that will be outlined below.
Basics for a Tracking Dog Title
To earn a Tracking Dog (TD) title, your corgi must follow the scent of a stranger over a course of 440 to 500 yards and find the glove or wallet that has been left at the end. Your corgi must also first be certified by a licensed tracking judge as being ready to enter a test. The certification track is like a real test track. The track will be 30 minutes to 2 hours in age and will have 3 to 5 turns, with the certification track being 30 minutes old. Most test tracks are between 30 and 45 minutes old. It will be in an open field (think “pasture”) and will stay only in this open field. There will be neither obstacles like fences or woods nor any drastic changes of cover. There will be two flags 30 yards apart indicating the direction in which the tracklayer walked. You must be 20 feet behind your dog when it is in motion. Once you pass the second flag, the two of you are on your own. It is up the teamwork that you and your corgi have established. There are few more exciting thrills than to find the glove at the end of the track. Tracking is pass/fail. There are no scores, no one to “beat.” Passing teams earn their title but those who are not successful will try again at another test. Even these teams are not failures for the bonds that are established as you and your corgi work in tracking are unlike any other. There is mutual respect and trust in each other. A dog and person who have established such bonds can never be deemed failures.
Equipment
Obtain a set of the AKC rules for tracking tests and read them. You will need a buckle collar and six-foot lead (preferably leather), the dog’s favorite food or toy, two flags (surveyor’s flags work fine—or those flags the gas company uses to mark gas lines work just as well or even two bicycle flags or bent coat hangers with a piece of surveyor’s tape attached), a glove, and about 15 minutes of time. That is all that is needed to get started. Later you will need a non-restrictive tracking harness, a line 20 to 40 feet with an identifying marker at the 20-foot line, water and a bowl, more flags and gloves (dogs like to chew them up!), a notebook and pen, rainsuit, boots, chapstick in the winter and sunblock in the summer, clothing appropriate for the weather, Rand McNally Road Atlas (to find the places tests are held), and a watch.
Getting Started on that TD Title
It is helpful to have someone assist you the first few times you go tracking. Your tracking buddy will put a flag in the ground. You will stand with your corgi at this flag. Your partner will tease your corgi with your chosen item (toy or food) and the glove. When the corgi is very interested, your partner will turn, walk in a straight line about ten steps, turn and face you waving the glove, place the glove and item on the ground at the base of a second flag, and then return to you on the exact same path. Once your partner faces you, point to the ground, give your tracking command (I use “Where’s your ball? Find it!” or “Where’s the glovie? Find the glovie!” or “Where are the cookies? Find the cookies!”) in an excited tone of voice, and keep your dog on the same path your buddy just walked—that’s the purpose of the two flags. Your corgi will probably visually mark the glove and run out to it without tracking a step. That’s okay—you make the biggest fuss you can possibly make over what your corgi has just done--effusive praise, let your dog play tug-of-war with the glove after it eats the cookies. Really whoop it up.
Your partner repeats the procedure as before, proceeding from the second flag, but this time goes about 20 steps. If I am food training a dog to track (which is how I teach puppies), I assess the dog on this track. If it does not at some point drop his nose, then I change the procedure slightly on the third track. The third track will be 30 steps in length. I will rub a piece of food on the sole of one shoe to encourage the dog to drop his nose. I will also put a few tiny pieces of food along the track (think a slice of hot dog that has then been quartered). Dogs are generally catching on to the idea on the third track and will be highly motivated. You will most likely be too, but stop. If you track your dog again, do it later on in the day, but it is better to do the next series on another day.
Your next training session will start with a 15-step track (half the distance of the last track done at the first session). This session will go 15-30-50, then 20-40-60, then 30-60-80, etc. Each series indicates the steps walked and each series is done on separate days. Should the dog at any time have trouble, you will do one more track at half the distance as the troublesome one and then quit. You and your dog should be ending each session with a “More! More!”attitude. You want to build on success.
For the first two weeks or so, if you can get out three or four times, that would be great. If your only available time is on the weekends, that’s fine too. Your first job at this point is to convince the dog that the item is always there and he must have his nose down and pull you along to it. Your other job is to keep the dog on a straight line between the two flags and not let him deviate from the track. I work my beginning dogs on a 15-foot lead knotted halfway. I do not go past the knot for these beginning tracks. The saying is that the dog must “earn line” and that is the purpose for suggesting that you start your dog on a 6-foot leather leash. Your dog will not be able to go more than 6 feet off the track and the leather will be easy on your hands.
These beginning tracks are double-laid, which means that your tracking partner walks out and back. When your dog can do about a 100-yard track in this manner, then you will drop back to a 50 yard, single-laid track, which means the tracklayer does not return along the same line. At this point, you will be using a lot of space since the tracklayer needs to continue past the glove about 10 yards and then turn and walk about 30 yards then turn again and walk the same distance back as the track went out. By this point, you have most likely scouted out promising training areas.
When your dog can successfully do 150 yards or so as a single-laid track, you will drop back to a 50-yard track once again. This track will be the first one your dog does not see being laid. Let it age 5 minutes and then go get the dog. He should be able to successfully run this track. You again work back up to the long tracks, single-laid but now keep careful track of the time. You can jump the age up in 5 minute-increments as you up the length of the track, keeping in mind that each track is about twice the length of the previous one and that each new session begins at half the length of the last track.
When the tracks are about 15 minutes in age, you can again drop the length and now introduce turns. I will save the teaching of turns for a future article. You begin by working first right (or left) turns, then the other turn, then put two turns together to make a U, then add a third turn, and so on. Once your dog can do both a right and a left turn on the same track, it is ready to go on to multiple turns. You gradually increase the overall length of the track, the number of turns, and the age. Once the dog is introduced to turns, he runs two tracks a session. Once he is up to 3 turns, he runs one track during a training session. I am omitting many details, of course, but I hope you are getting the general idea.
The critical part of tracking is your ability to read your dog. You must be able to read what he is doing in all types of weather and in all sorts of fields. A tracking test may be suspended during a torrential downpour and stopped for lightning, but otherwise it will go on. That means you need to train in all types of weather: wind, rain, sun, heat, that white stuff we don’t get too frequently in Atlanta. It means in tall cover (which, for a corgi, means knee high on you! But you may have cover up to your waist too!), short cover, wet grass, dry grass, all sorts of weeds. You must be able to read your dog’s body language and indications of losing and refinding the scent. This part of tracking is where the trust and teamwork come into play.
How long does it take to earn a TD title? Practically speaking, it depends upon you and your dog! It takes a motivated person training their first dog about four months to become certified to enter a test. I have had a dog get certified its eighth time out—exceptional corgi with an experienced handler! A friend had her springer out a total of 26 training sessions, including the test they failed and the test they passed. It will also depend upon whether you run into any unusual training problems. I have encountered none with the corgis I have worked with, but I did train a most unusual English Springer Spaniel for a friend. Corgis are born to track, so don’t expect any unusual things from them.
When you think you are ready to be certified, you contact a licensed judge. A regulation track will be laid for you. Should the judge pass you on the track, you will receive four certificates good for one year saying that your dog is ready to enter a test. You must include an original certification each time you enter a TD test. Once you pass a test, you may continue to enter tests, if you wish, and you no longer need a certification to do so.
What’s Next?
The American Kennel Club offers two more tracking titles: Tracking Dog Excellent (TDX) and Variable Surface Tracker (VST). Both require a TD for entry. A Tracking Advisory Committee (TAC) met in July of 1999 and made many suggestions. These suggestions have not yet been approved. Currently there is a 6-month wait between when your dog earns its TD and when it can be entered in a VST test. There currently are no rules regarding certification for either advanced title. It is very difficult to even get into one of these tests and the pass rates are very low. The pass rate in TDX is about 15% and has been that way for years. The pass rate for VST is even lower. These titles take dedicated dogs and handlers and many many miles of training tracks. Dogs that earn all three tracking titles are awarded a Champion Tracker (CT) title as well. The CT title is a prefix to the dog’s registered name. Corgis always are near the top for titles earned in tracking—don’t discount an advanced title until you give it a try!
Suggested Readings
Tracking Dog: Theory and Method by Glenn Johnson. The “bible” of tracking.
Tracking From the Ground Up by Sandy Ganz and Susan Boyd. A more “doable” version of Glenn Johnson’s classic methods.
AKC Tracking Rules and Regulations by the American Kennel Club (available free from AKC or at most education booths at the larger dog shows)
Author’s notes:
Parts of this article are adaptations from an invited article that I wrote for the Mayflower Pembroke Welsh Corgi Club Corgi Cryer in 1989 entitled An Introduction to Tracking. That article has been reprinted in the First Ten Years of the Corgi Cryer as well as in the Pembroke Welsh Corgi Club of America Handbook.
I started tracking in 1984 and earned my first TD in 1985. Since then I have earned 10 TDs, 3 TDXs, and 1 VST (giving that dog a CT) as well as helping other people earn tracking titles on various breeds. I believe the biggest thrills I have had in showing dogs were that first TD, each TDX, and the biggest one of all---that VST that gave Cruiser his CT.