Within this series of articles I have been covering the beginning
work relative to raising a competitive working dog. The goal of our foundation
work is to raise a dog that is strong and confident, active in his drives
and highly motivated.
We discussed teaching the first straight line tracks in the previous article. I mentioned that an article should be introduced at the end of these straight lines after the first week at most.
There are many roads to Rome and how to teach articles is one of those topics that get a wide range of responses. Some people teach them on the track. Some people teach them off the track. In addition, some people teach the dog to put his chin on the article along with other methods.
From my experiences teaching articles off the track makes no sense to the subject matter let alone the dog. In addition teaching them off the track usually requires pressure. Make no mistake, there is pressure involved with articles. But if we are teaching a young dog that doesn’t know how to track, why then are we putting pressure on the dog now? Pressure on a dog when they don’t know the reason for it frequently results in refusal to work. The same outcome holds true for a dog that is older and knows about tracking but not articles. Again we put pressure on the dog and the dog will shut down. Since an older dog is going to be closer to trial, invariably the pressure to make articles will increase on the dog. The pressure on us puts pressure on the dog. The sport can be difficult enough, achieving success tough enough – why in the world would we add to that if we don’t need to.
Articles are the point of tracking. Literally. They are the dots that connect the lines. The track never ends if we don’t find that last article. If the dog gets blown off the track on a leg but works the wind back up to the article – presto! You get a mini restart, you’re back on the track and you can breathe again. If the dog has conflict, apprehension, confusion about articles, he will avoid them.
Articles are worth 10 points each for SchH1 and SchH2. Same points as corners. The difference is probable point loss. Circle the corner and lose some points. Walk the article and lose all the points. The assignment of point totals again emphasizes the importance of articles. The dog must find them, indicate them quickly and clearly and in a correct manner.
Introducing Articles
When we first start straight lines off the scentpad we can place a small jackpot of food at the end. This helps push the dog off the scentpad that we’ve done such a great job of introducing. Very quickly however the dog may rush through the straight line to get to the jackpot. Although tracking fast isn’t really a big deal, remember at this point that our dog isn’t really tracking. They’re just stumbling upon food on the ground. We want to encourage a deep nose and a steady manner so racing like a mad man to the end doesn’t help us any. Instead end your straight line tracks with an article. It should be a big, obvious article and we’ll want to keep using the same one or similar type while introducing this concept.
At the end of your straight line put your feet together making a mini scentpad and put your big easy article down. It’s okay to put a couple pieces of food on top of the article at this stage. When your dog is tracking down the leg and the article is coming up, move quietly up the line next to the dog. When he reaches the article he will stop to pick up the pieces of bait. At that point with food in your hand ask him to platz, kneeling down at the same time. Hold the dog short on his leash to keep him at the article and ask for the down with your hand on the article. The dog can smell the food in your hand and even if he hasn’t learned platz yet he will down on his own in a moment. You have him short on the leash and there is food in your hand on the ground – he doesn’t have a lot of options.
showing correct article indication
Even if your dog knows platz well, at this point we are merely asking him to down, it is not a hard command. Your voice should be calm and quiet and pleasant. As soon as he downs open your hand, palm side up, and allow him to take his bait. Continue holding him there gently and keep feeding him. Feed one piece at a time, hand on top of the article, palm side up. I find it easiest to store the food in my mouth, allowing me to quickly get another piece out without fumbling around with a bag or pocket. Keep doing this until the dog has relaxed in his down and you don’t have to keep him there by way of the leash. If the dog flips on his side move in front of him to encourage and reward a straight position.
reward with food presented palm side up on the article
Ideal position at the article is the dog in a sphinx like down position with the article between his front paws. Under the chest is incorrect. Way out in front of him is incorrect. Rolling around, flipping side to side, rocking back and forth – are all incorrect. If the dog is doing any of these things try to only open your hand and reward him when the position is correct. If the article is not in the right place move the DOG, not the article, by moving the hand with bait in it. If we move the article we teach the dog nothing. Just like front and basic positions in obedience it is the dog’s responsibility to correct his position.
incorrect indication, dog should be straight on the article
Once the dog is relaxed in his down pick the article up before releasing the dog. In trial we must show the article to the judge before touching our dog let alone starting the track. Set the behavior right from the beginning.
Depending on how often you track, within the first week stop putting bait on top of the article. And immediately allow the dog the opportunity to indicate the article before you help him. When he reaches the article if he just stops like he knows he’s supposed to do something, you can remind him he needs to down. If he tries to go over the article, stop him with your line and wait. Don’t be quick to correct him or to show him what to do. Again give him a moment to remember on his own. If he doesn’t down or continues to try and go past then tell him to down. Once he’s down show him the article by tapping on it and tell him this thing is important.
With a dog that tries to go past or around the article it is important not to feed them. Feeding them is rewarding them. If after seven tracks of introducing the article the dog still does not stop and acknowledge the article we have to evaluate if we’ve done something to not make the article connection. It is very important to insist on the behavior we’ve requested and be very patient and wait for it. If we allow the dog to do something else, the dog wins. If we always help the dog, induce him, do this or that for him, the dog wins. I could easily lapse into a thesis of dysfunctional relationships people have with their dogs but we’re discussing articles. So I will keep it trimmed down to this: a dog is rewarded each time when introducing a new behavior. Once the behavior is familiar we then only reward him when the behavior is accomplished, this is teaching. We don’t expect the dog to understand or even know the behavior but we do expect him to try to do what we ask. He does it, he gets rewarded, and he learns it. He doesn’t do it, he doesn’t get rewarded, he learns to keep trying.
So, the dog doesn’t indicate the article we don’t feed him. But we do praise him once he is correctly on the article. And we stay at the article until he is calm, quiet and lying correctly. Don’t be in a rush to get off the article. Take the time to show the dog this is a pleasant place to be. A calm place, a good place, an important place.
Our hypothetical dog should now be tracking about 200 pace straight line tracks in various conditions and weather. We’ve been playing with weaning off food and we’ve introduced articles at the end of his tracks. By no means is this the end of discussing articles. Before we can move on to the additional assistance and issues attached to articles we must learn a few more things. We will introduce corners in the next issue.
Sometimes we put all that bait down, the dog tracks very nicely but doesn't eat the food we so carefully place. This bothers many handlers to no end. Let it go, it's the dog's option to eat the bait or not. Our only concern is how the dog tracks and what the dog learns.
Then we have the dog that has little to no interest in food. These dogs are very difficult to track with for obvious reasons. Assuming the dog is kept lean to quite hungry and the bait is the best possible food known to humankind - and the dog STILL isn't interested in the food or tracking, we have some decisions to make. First the overall drive level and abilities of the dog for the sport need to be evaluated. Is this dog really nice in obedience? Is this dog really strong in protection? If not, please don't try to make him something he is not. If those other two phases are super, then we have to honestly evaluate how we brought our dog up in scentwork. If at some point in the dog's development a negative association was made with tracking is it something we can correct with patience and positive reinforcement? If you are having issues such as these it would be in the best interest of your dog to seek out experienced people to tackle the problem in person.
At this hypothetical point we have a dog that is tracking consistently 200 paces in various conditions, is getting progressively older tracks and is weaning off food. We should be teaching articles at the same time but due to logistical reasons we'll talk about that next time.
