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Has anyone trained their BC for tracking? And/or does anyone know of tracking trainers in the Maryland (preferably Southern Md. area?)

 

JoeAnne, Phoenix, Sitka and Bree

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I have done tracking with Jazz - He LOVES it! It's a great way to let your BC use his mind without too much interference from the person on the end of the leash :rolleyes: Once you've learned the basics, it's not hard to set your own trails. I hope you get to try it!

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Hi JoeAnne

 

My previous boy, and my current boy and girl, all got their TD (Tracking Dog) titles. Border Collies in general do well at tracking - my Kirra's mum has her Tracking Championship.

 

Key thing when you're starting is to start fairly small - say a track of about 10-20 yards, with a smelly sock at the start, and a reward (and I'd use another sock) at the end, pegs along the way so you know exactly where the track goes, and can ensure success - and lots of excitement at the end. And then just gradually increase distance and difficulty - wind direction, corners etc. It's good if you can always make sure you know where the track goes in training, so you can stop when the dog goes off track (and try to work out why (wind, critters etc) and then move on as the dog gets back on the track.

 

My dogs really enjoy the game - although Miss Kirra, my agility dog, thinks tracking should be conducted at warp speed :rolleyes: . Mind you, she had the same sort of idea about sheep work initially.

 

This would be a really nice thing for your dogs to play with. You don't need a harness initially - although once they get the idea, you might want to work them in harness so that they learn to pull into it as an indication to you that they are confident about the fact that they're on track.

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Has anyone trained their BC for tracking? And/or does anyone know of tracking trainers in the Maryland (preferably Southern Md. area?)

 

JoeAnne, Phoenix, Sitka and Bree

 

 

Hi JoeAnne,

 

My 3 BC's LOVE!!! tracking! You might want to check out a couple of tracking lists on Yahoo groups(Tracking_Dog and Tracking-L). There are people from all over on the lists, you might be able to find someone from your area. Word of caution....Tracking is very addictive=)!

 

Janet

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I've gotten hooked on it here too. Its the first dog "sport" I've found that had nothing but good to offer for a BC puppy, especially one that is intended for the brainiest of work later - herding :rolleyes:. In tracking they have to use that brain in methodical intelligent manner, it doesn't overstress a young body, and they learn to work with their person as teammate.

 

Right now Rose and I are working on hard surface tracking - concrete, asphalt, parking lots and shopping malls. When it gets hot we will go back to soft surface.

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This is not the type of tracking your are talking about but Magic and I are learning to track cattle.

 

Friends of mine run about 150 head of cow/calf pairs on 17,000 acres of forest land, so to find them we do alot of riding and use the dogs to help find and follow the cows when they take off at a dead run away from you.

 

Magic picked up on it very well last fall. When we would find cows she would take off after them and we would start to follow. Her job is to come back to us and show us the direction the are traveling. She does alot of traveling back and forth along the trail of the cows.

 

It was pretty cool, just when I thought she was wrong and had lost the cows we would spot them ahead of us. (Cow boss told me to always trust the dog)

 

By the way for those of you that have never rode horse back after cattle, No you can not keep up with cows through brush and forest. They can go through brush like a bull dozer. Having a dog makes it much easier to follow them.

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It's all tracking. Your dog is air scenting, working off leash like a SAR dog, to locate cattle and then giving you the signal like a SAR dog who finds the victem. The competition stuff (or for fun stuff in our case) we are talking about is ground scenting - what you think of a Bloodhound doing. Dogs can do both - but one or the other is usually emphasized.

 

Rose can track sheep, she showed that 2 weeks ago. She worked her way down through the field until the scent got hot, then she broke out wide and did a big outrun that brought her down below them to bring them back to me. It was unintended, this episode, but regardless amazing to watch. She could not see the sheep at all until she got around to lift them. Everything, from where to go, and how far to widen out, was soley based on the scent.

 

A lot of herding is scent work. Blind dogs can herd if they know the terrain.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Thanks everyone. I did get in touch with a Trainer/Training Facility about 1 1/2 hrs. from me, however they don't start until the Fall of this year, and I sure would like to find someone closer. I live in the Southern Md. area, so if anyone knows of someone closer, please let me know. Sounds like a good thing to do with my boy Phoenix, and good exercise for me too.

Thanks again........

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This book was recommended to me: ENTHUSIASTIC TRACKING: A STEP BY STEP TRAINING HANDBOOK by Sil Sanders. I found it very easy to follow the instructions, since they are straightforward and complete. After just a few sessions, I enlisted my dad's help to lay a track and he was astounded to see my BC follow his track reliably all the way across a huge sports field. Unlike many other dog activities, I don't think you can go too far wrong starting tracking training without an instructor (assuming you are using a decent book, like this one).

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