Book Reccs For Tracking/man Trailing

[kelpiecuddles]

My basset is going to her first tracking training day soon and I'm VERY excited! I've also been in talks with a basset breeder who breeds good, athletic bassets and there's a good chance we may add our next basset from his next litter later this year and tracking will be on the agenda with that pup right from day one so I want to really get my head around it as we don't have a club here so I'll have to start training on my own. Mainly we want to train for man trailing down the track, was wondering whether anyone can recommend any books or even websites that are very good for a beginner to get started.

[fbaudry]

http://www.tawzerdog.com/dvds/search-rescue.html

Spring sale until May 12th! :)

[Podengo]

This was the book I was given when I started tracking, and I found it pretty good :) Try tracking!. It is available as an Ebook too!

[kelpiecuddles]

Fbaudry which one of those would be considered a beginners tracking one?

Thanks DD :)

Edited May 7, 2014 by kelpiecuddles

[Leah82]

I just downloaded Try Tracking. I might give their training schedule a try as I'm on the waiting list to train with my club

[Nekhbet]

Kris Kotsopolous has written a book on tracking, Von Forrel kennels down here in Vic. Theres also http://leerburg.com/noseworkbooks.htm

Competition tracking and trailing are two very different things. Contact some search and rescue orgs too about what reading material is valuable as you can teach a dog to track, trail, or combo of both. SAR dogs I train are taught to do both and problem solve, so even with the wind behind them they can find the person.

[Dory the Doted One]

I just finished "Tracking From the Ground Up" by Sandy Ganz (also available in Kindle).

I found it more useful than "Try Tracking" and easier to read than "Tracking Dog, Theory and Method" by Glen R. Johnson. (Although this is a very good book too...just a bit more heavy going).

If I as going to only buy one of these three, I would go with Glen R. Johnson, with Sandy Ganz a very close second. Mostly because Sandy Ganz was a lot easier to read and understand.

[Dory the Doted One]

Kris Kotsopolous has written a book on tracking, Von Forrel kennels down here in Vic. Theres also http://leerburg.com/noseworkbooks.htm

Competition tracking and trailing are two very different things. Contact some search and rescue orgs too about what reading material is valuable as you can teach a dog to track, trail, or combo of both. SAR dogs I train are taught to do both and problem solve, so even with the wind behind them they can find the person.

Nekhbet, is Kris' book good? I thought about buying it, but wondered if it was just going to be the same old, same old.

[kelpiecuddles]

Thanks Nekh. The sorts of things we want to do with our future dogs are more like SAR but trailing in bushland settings not so much USAR in rubble and stuff like the SARDA dogs train and like a couple have been trained by Steve up in Sydney. So it will be man trailing moreso than tracking but as I said at this stage I'm a raw beginner so I want to start practicing with Josie so that I've got some of the techniques worked through better before we get the next pup. :)

I'm looking at the last 6 years of living with this breed as having been my initiation of sorts and now I want to step up to a serious basset in much the same way people seek out a dog specifically for agility. The best part is my husband is totally on board too so between us we'll be able to really get things going. :)

Edited May 7, 2014 by kelpiecuddles

[Nekhbet]

We don't do rubble we do out in park/bushland. The only reason I'd go near the city is to practice hard surface. We started dogs in a combined parkland/industrial estate too which worked great, some really funky air movement to cope with :)

Kris' book is good, he's got a tracking seminar late in the year, if anyone's interested go to his FB page.

[Burkes]

Kris Kotsopolous has written a book on tracking, Von Forrel kennels down here in Vic. Theres also http://leerburg.com/noseworkbooks.htm

Competition tracking and trailing are two very different things. Contact some search and rescue orgs too about what reading material is valuable as you can teach a dog to track, trail, or combo of both. SAR dogs I train are taught to do both and problem solve, so even with the wind behind them they can find the person.

Nekhbet, is Kris' book good? I thought about buying it, but wondered if it was just going to be the same old, same old.

I've got Kris's book as well, its fantastic! Extremely easy to read but has good detail.

I've been to one of his workshops, not tracking, but would certainly recommend them as well.