Placement Of Tracking Items

[afromaiko]

We've been doing some tracking practice and are dropping a couple of socks along the track.

Straight tracks are fine, we drop a sock near the start and then another about half way out.

But when the track layer does a turn, are they meant to drop an item at the point they turned.. or is that a no-no?

Should they be dropping it before or after the actual turn instead?

[MolassesLass]

In trials the rules state that an item must not be placed on a turn or within 25 metres either side of a turn. So if the dog learns to expect a turn where there is an article they're going to have troubles in a trial.

Are you using the articles to signal the turn to yourself or are you using flags for such?

[Tassie]

You need to have the turn marked for yourself - so that you know exactly where it is, and can stay back from it and let the dog work around it. I usually place an article reasonably soon after a turn when the dog is learning - but ot so close that it would encourage the dog to cut the corner - so maybe 15 metres or so, depending on the vegetation - and then lengthen the distance out to regulation (and greater).

I do usually put a small piece or two of food abouit 3-5 metres from the turn (in the new direction - dog doesn't always notice, but ISTM it will reinforce the action of making the turn, and be less likely to cause a cut off than if the article was there.)

[afromaiko]

Thanks for the replies, I don't have any flags so the article was helping show me where the turns were.

I'll get some flags to sort that out and move the articles further away as per your recommendations then.

[Tassie]

Sounds good. Some of us use clothes pegs with abouit 12 cm or so of bright ribbon or surveyors (fluoro) tape hanging off them (so a piece about 24cm long tied through the peg. You can use these pegged into grass, or on sticks, or up in bushes, depending on the terrain you're in. Easier to carry than flags, and it's good to mark the track some way other than on the ground, so the smart little doggies don't get used to always having markers.