speedy2

I'm presuming that safety and liveability are already achieved here. Years ago I saw a comment from someone whose name escapes me, but who is/was one of the top obedience trainers in the US. She noted that she always had 2 goals in any training session, a short term goal and a long term goal. The short term goal might be tidying up a finish, or working on taking direction, or indicating articles or whatever. Her long term goal was always that the dog enjoyed what they were doing. If she was in danger of losing the long-term goal to the short-term goal, she backed off and finished the training session on something fun. Then went back to replan. I liked that idea so much it has become my training philosophy. Speedy2

Hi Pointeeblab, All dogs can track. Whether they are taught the correct way, and are interested enough to follow the scent is another question, as is how committed is the owner. Check out the various tracking club websites and their links pages - http://www.trackingclubnsw.org.au http://www.trackingclubvic.org.au http://members.iinet.net.au/~mfmargot/tracking.html Tracking is done in the northern area of NSW, around Grafton. How far is that away from you? I don't know about Brisbane tracking groups. Nowadays dogs have to indicate articles - here's an interesting website - http://www.schutzhund-training.net/trackin...ngarticles.html. You can start by teaching your dog how to indicate articles. You can start very simply and very small. First off, work out for each dog what is the best reward. By the sounds of it your lab loves a particular toy. Or it might be food. It probably won't be the same for both dogs. Then that treat/toy should only be used for tracking. Start by hiding it, in the house, in the backyard etc. Work with 1 dog at a time. When the dog finds the treat/toy, go ballistic with it and get the dog really enjoying himself/herself. Make him/her really WANT to find that thing, and that's the only time he gets to play with it. As the dog progresses, attach a word, like 'track' to the activity. Make it gradually harder. If the dog fails, back up and make it easier. Then find out when your local tracking club starts training (we generally only train in winter because of snakes). However, this is a hard discipline. You will have to get up early, get wet, drive a lot, maybe get bogged etc. If you like to sleep in, don't try tracking.

Hi You have to be a littel strange to enjoy tracking. I'm tracking a greyhound at the moment, so I'm stating upfront that I'm very strange! I've tried to teach my dog tracking by myself ... and failed. Unless you know what you're doing with tracking, and can solve tracking problems, you're better off with help. That might mean some travelling. You generally have to travel for tracking. I've travelled for 4 hours to a tracking trial I wasn't even entered in, and that meant leaving at 3:30 in the morning! At my club we often have people travelling 3 hours plus to come to training. In America I have known people drive for 10 hours to a trial in which they were the reserve, didn't get in, and drove for 10 hours home again. You always have to get up early, you often get wet, you sometimes get muddy. You develop a really good technique for going to the toilet behind a tree. You get cold. And you drive a lot. But the joy of watching a dog, yours or someone else's, track and indicate articles and ignore decoys and take turns is incredible. And the frustration of trying to work out why the dog did that (and how to fix it) is also incredible. If it's too far on a Saturday morning to go to tracking training ... then it's probably too far to go to tracking trials, or to good tracking areas. You might be better off with another sport that doesn't require so much strangeness.

you can also try http://www.trackingclubnsw.org.au basically your dog has to follow a track by scent, indicate articles left on the track by either dropping, sitting, standing or at least pausing ... take the turns the tracklayer has taken, ignore any other tracks that may be on your track, and find either the tracklayer or the article at the end. the tracks are graded, and become more difficult as the dog progresses. where are you? it's a hard sport, and trying to learn it all by yourself can be difficult. it would be good if you can link up with a club or other tracking people. sorry the article by Dennis Helms is not there - it's a good one. try this as an updated link - http://www.schutzhund-training.net/trackin...ngarticles.html also check out the links pages on some of the websites listed here and in previous posts. speedy2

monthly from March. grounds will vary - you can always send them an email and ask. as noted above, you can start play-find games now. speedy2

no more than they laugh at me and my greyhound! check out the tracking champions on the nsw tracking website (www.trackingclubnsw.org.au) and you'll see a staffy who is a tracking champion. go for it. speedy2

I find this article by Dennis Helms very good. He's talking Schuthund, but it works fine for ANKC tracking. http://www.finographics.com/schutzhund/tra...ngarticles.html speedy2

and this one too Speedy2 *************** The House Dog's Grave (Haig, an English bulldog) I've changed my ways a little; I cannot now Run with you in the evenings along the shore, Except in a kind of dream; and you, if you dream a moment, You see me there. So leave awhile the paw-marks on the front door Where I used to scratch to go out or in, And you'd soon open; leave on the kitchen floor The marks of my drinking-pan. I cannot lie by your fire as I used to do On the warm stone, Nor at the foot of your bed; no, all the night through I lie alone. But your kind thought has laid me less than six feet Outside your window where firelight so often plays, And where you sit to read--and I fear often grieving for me-- Every night your lamplight lies on my place. You, man and woman, live so long, it is hard To think of you ever dying A little dog would get tired, living so long. I hope than when you are lying Under the ground like me your lives will appear As good and joyful as mine. No, dear, that's too much hope: you are not so well cared for As I have been. And never have known the passionate undivided Fidelities that I knew. Your minds are perhaps too active, too many-sided. . . . But to me you were true. You were never masters, but friends. I was your friend. I loved you well, and was loved. Deep love endures To the end and far past the end. If this is my end, I am not lonely. I am not afraid. I am still yours. Robinson Jeffers, 1941

I had mine chased by two great danes who were on lead but dragged the lead out of their owner's hand! Mine dived under a parked car to get away from them.

Some people have quoted part of this - but the whole of it is just as good. Speedy2 *************** Where To Bury A Dog There are various places within which a dog may be buried. We are thinking now of a setter, whose coat was flame in the sunshine, and who, so far as we are aware, never entertained a mean or an unworthy thought. This setter is buried beneath a cherry tree, under four feet of garden loam, and at its proper season the cherry strews petals on the green lawn of his grave. Beneath a cherry tree, or an apple, or any flowering shrub of the garden, is an excellent place to bury a good dog. Beneath such trees, such shrubs, he slept in the drowsy summer, or gnawed at a flavorous bone, or lifted head to challenge some strange intruder. These are good places, in life or in death. Yet it is a small matter, and it touches sentiment more than anything else. For if the dog be well remembered, if sometimes he leaps through your dreams actual as in life, eyes kindling, questing, asking, laughing, begging, it matters not at all where that dog sleeps at long and at last. On a hill where the wind is unrebuked and the trees are roaring, or beside a stream he knew in puppyhood, or somewhere in the flatness of a pasture land, where most exhilarating cattle graze. It is all one to the dog, and all one to you, and nothing is gained, and nothing lost -- if memory lives. But there is one best place to bury a dog. One place that is best of all. If you bury him in this spot, the secret of which you must already have, he will come to you when you call -- come to you over the grim, dim frontiers of death, and down the well-remembered path, and to your side again. And though you call a dozen living dogs to heel they should not growl at him, nor resent his coming, for he is yours and he belongs there. People may scoff at you, who see no lightest blade of grass bent by his footfall, who hear no whimper pitched too fine for mere audition, people who may never really have had a dog. Smile at them then, for you shall know something that is hidden from them, and which is well worth the knowing. The one best place to bury a good dog is in the heart of his master. by Ben Hur Lampman

Hi I've used lunging leads from saddleries before - they're fine if all you want is a long lead to keep control of a dog at a distance. However, I track, and need to read my dog through the lead. The lunging leads are too heavy for this. Tracking and Rescue Dog Club of NSW sells 5m and 10m leads (http://www.trackingclubnsw.org.au). I am presently using a Black Dog lead (http://www.blackdog.net.au) of 11m, although they also have 5m ones. Nice to be able to buy Australian, and their delivery time is brilliant. Cheers speedy2

brilliant. if you get the chance go as fast as you can

Hi Like anything else, go into it with your eyes open. there are some good instructors there - and there are some who aren't. steer clear of the idiots who get you to do out of sight recalls - it can really bugger up your stability. work with the people who can show you their own well-trained dog. and yes, the guy who won winner of winners at sydney royal from the novice ring is there. speedy2