Of course, if we have not already taught the dog to footstep track slowly and meticulously, it will “blow past” his first 90-degree turn and not indicate puzzlement or loss of track until several yards further on. In this case the handler can always stop the dog with the line, in order to prevent it from overrunning the turn, but then it is the handler who signals to his dog that the track is turning rather than the reverse.
Therefore, we must not begin work on turns until the young dog is tracking very exactly and confidently.
Important Concepts for Meeting the Goal
1. Baiting all the way through the turn
2. Baiting after the turn
3. Repeating the turn
Our first task is to make the dog realize that tracks often change direction. However, in the process we must avoid having it circle or practice faulty tracking in any way.
The handler lays three short tracks of about fifty to seventy-five paces each. All three have normal, well-laid and well-baited scent pads, but two of them turn one direction—right, for example—and one of them turns the other direction. The handler baits every single footstep through the turns, beginning about two yards before the turn and ending perhaps two yards after it. Each of the tracks ends with a food drop, and after the end of the last one the handler romps and plays ball with his dog for a while.
He starts his dog on the first track, keeping it on a very short leash, and makes sure that it is moving very slowly and carefully when it encounters the baits lying before the turn. As the dog moves along from footstep to footstep eating each of the baits, the handler steps up very close to it on the inside of the turn. It if has been well prepared and has learned to footstep track accurately, the dog should easily follow the turn around. But in the event that it begins to overrun the turn or go in the wrong direction, the handler is right there to help it by stopping it with the leash and then pointing out the new direction of the track with his hand.
The handler works his dog through the last two tracks in just the same way, and then plays with it and takes it home.
The next day he reverses the directions of the turns on the three tracks, so that now two of them turn left, and one turns right. As always, he is ready to help the dog before the animal gets into any difficulty.
As the days pass, the handler continues training on these series of short tracks with continuously baited turns, until the dog follows them steadily and precisely. However, the handler constantly varies the lengths of the legs of the tracks and he begins to increase their length as well, so that the animal never knows whether it will encounter a turn within three yards or thirty. In addition, the handler also occasionally picks a day to throw in a long, straight track of 150 or 200 paces in place of the normal series of three short tracks with turns in order to gain some length and add variety to training.
Up to this point we have used bait on the track to signal to the animal that the track was about to change direction and to help it follow through the turn. Now we must begin teaching the dog to recognize the change in direction itself and to find the second leg of the track on its own without the help of food in each footstep.
As before, the handler lays three short tracks with turns, but he does not bait the turns continuously. Instead, he leaves a food drop perhaps six or seven paces after the turn.
The first few training sessions that he performs this routine he can also double lay the turns in order to call his dog’s attention to the change in direction. He walks around the turn once, stops, turns around and walks directly on top of his footsteps back through the turn to a point about two yards before it; he then stops again, retraces his footsteps (so that he has actually walked through the turn three times) and recommences laying the new leg.
As he approaches the turns with his dog, the handler again moves up very close to the animal on the inside of the turn in order to help it if necessary. His task is a ticklish one. He must give the dog every opportunity to work the turn out itself, but at the same time he must be ready to intervene and help the animal before it overruns the turn or goes in the wrong direction.
The instant the animal picks up the new leg of the track and begins to follow it, the handler encourages it with praise and, when the dog comes upon the food drop six paces after the turn, the handler pats and praises it enthusiastically.
After several weeks of practice, the dog should be cleanly making turns to both the left and the right. However, the dog has not yet really learned the skill of following a turn in a track, for two reasons.
First, the handler is still indicating to his dog both the turn in the track and also the direction of the turn by moving up close alongside it on the inside of the turn. Second, he is intervening so quickly that the dog never loses the track for a moment. Thus the animal makes no loss of track indication and does not stop moving forward on its own. Instead it makes a turn when its handler signals it to make a turn.
We now have no alternative but to allow the dog to lose the track. We must stop warning it that the track is turning and instead begin letting it warn us that the track is turning.
The handler lays three short tracks with turns, as before, and leaves a food drop six paces after each turn. As he approaches the first turn with his dog, the handler gives no indication to the animal. One of three things will happen:
1. The dog will make the turn cleanly, going around it as if it were on rails.
2. The dog will stop within a foot or two after overrunning the turn, indicate loss of track, and then check carefully about it for the new leg and follow it.
3. It will overrun the turn by two or three feet or more without any loss-of-track indication. Then it may give every sign of continuing off over the horizon, or it may begin to cast wildly about for the scent.
It is, of course, ideal if the dog goes around the turn cleanly. We would like it to track this way always. However, no matter how good the animal is, sooner or later it will lose the track. Knowing this to be true, and recognizing that the dog will probably lose the footsteps momentarily several times on every track it ever runs, we must be sure of one thing: that it never “lies.” If the animal has not got the track exactly, we must encourage it to:
1. Indicate clearly that it has lost the footsteps.
2. Stop before it wanders any further from the track, and then cast carefully about for it.
If the dog makes the turn cleanly, wonderful! The handler praises it and lets it discover the food drop, feeds and plays with it at the end of the track and ends the session on that note. It cannot get any better.
If the dog indicates loss of track immediately after it overruns the turn, stops and begins to search carefully for the new leg of the track, still wonderful! The handler praises it softly for the indication and quietly encourages it to rediscover the track. On the second and third tracks the dog will probably make the turn more cleanly.
If, on the other hand, it overruns the turn and keeps going—without a strong indication of loss of track and without stopping—the handler tells it sharply “Phooey!” and then calls its name. He backs up a few feet along the track, calling his dog to him. When the animal arrives, the handler immediately restarts it on the track a few yards before the turn. If the dog overruns again, the handler again tells it “Phooey!” and then calls it back and restarts it.