On Mon, 27 Jun 2005 21:23:48 -0400 elegy whittled these words:
can anyone here suggest books or websites that would help me start
tracking? i am a totally clueless newbie with tracking and i haven't
been able to find anybody locally to start me in the right direction.

Hmpf
http://dog-play.com/tracking.html

--
Diane Blackman
http://dog-play.com/
http://dogplay.com/Shop/dogplayshop.htm

On Tue, 28 Jun 2005 07:08:29 -0400, elegy wrote:

On Mon, 27 Jun 2005 22:04:19 -0500, diddy
wrote:


Get thee to a local tracking club

yeah, the problem is i haven't been able to find one. my trainer
doesn't know of anybody who tracks and i haven't been able to locate
one online either :-/

You know, I think the first question I'd have is what kind of tracking you want
to do? For SAR work? Schutzhund? Or AKC-type tracking? Each is different. SAR
work is trailing and often uses air scent. Schutzhund is mostly a game of style,
where the dog must methodically track with his nose in the footprint. AKC is
also scent (hopefully nose down) tracking but it's not scored nearly as
critically as schutzhund.

In the midwest there are several tracking seminars per year. I have no clue
where you live, but I have friends who go to Camp Jigsaw almost every year:

http://www.campjigsaw.com/index.html

If you can find something like this, it will be a huge help. I personally think
tracking is one of those things that you just need to do, yes, you can read
books but it just won't translate well. So I'd suggest trying to find a seminar.

elegy wrote:

can anyone here suggest books or websites that would help me start
tracking? i am a totally clueless newbie with tracking and i haven't
been able to find anybody locally to start me in the right direction.



I like "Tracking from the Ground Up." IIRC, the authors are Sandy Ganz
and Susan Boyd.

Beth

From:

can anyone here suggest books or websites that would help me start
tracking?

Enthusiastic Tracking by Sil Sanders if you're wanting to title in AKC.
www.dogwise.com Get the cards that go with it, and you should have no
trouble getting through the TDX. If your goal is to eventually get a
VST, then you'll probably want to go as far as necessary to find an
instructor.

I enjoy tracking, especially learning how scent is laid and carried.
Fun stuff.

Debbie

On Tue, 28 Jun 2005 19:07:21 -0700 Debbie S whittled these words:

From:

can anyone here suggest books or websites that would help me start
tracking?

Enthusiastic Tracking by Sil Sanders if you're wanting to title in AKC.
www.dogwise.com Get the cards that go with it, and you should have no
trouble getting through the TDX. If your goal is to eventually get a
VST, then you'll probably want to go as far as necessary to find an
instructor.

I enjoy tracking, especially learning how scent is laid and carried.
Fun stuff.

I did some tracking with Oso - he was great at it, very methodical. My
instructor was SAR (Search and Rescue) oriented but taught AKC style
tracking. It was very cool.



******* blatent self promotion warning **********
if you don't like self promotion skip the remainder of this post.

If anyone is planning on ordering from Dogwise I'm a Dogwise affiliate,
which means I get a commission from sales made via links off my web page.
I picked them as an affiliate because of the pleasant dog related chats
I've had with them on the phone. Plus they allow linking directly to the
product instead of just a banner. (I'm getting ready to dump my other
affiliate because they don't provide that ability) Proceeds are modest
but they do help pay the web bills.

--
Diane Blackman
http://dog-play.com/
http://dogplay.com/Shop/dogplayshop.htm

I ditto the Sil Sanders recommendation. You really can't go wrong
following
his step by step program. There's also a great article by Anne Hershey
in last
Sept. "Aussie Times" (the issue covering the Paso Robles national) that
covers
working serpentine tracks from the very beginning.

From:

I did some tracking with Oso - he was great at it, very methodical.

I love it. I started Winston as a little larvae-dog, and clearly
remember his 'lightbulb' moment... he almost turned me into a kite! The
third time out, we used my friend's car keys for an article. ;-) Kira
is probably my best nose, with Winston running a close second. But we
won't tell him that, okay?

Debbie

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