After experiencing the fabulous scenting abilities of two groups of four dogs each in tracking in a forest and urban environment during these photo sessions, I asked Maureen Fielding, tracking trainer and principal of K9Leadership to support my blog by writing about tracking and what it means for her. Please follow this blog for more posts on the various amazing dogs that I witnessed on this wet and dark day in the Seymour Forest in North Vancouver.
guest blog by Maureen Fielding, K9Leadership
When I started thinking about writing a blog to accompany the photographs of this group, I realised that these four dogs exemplify the main reasons I suggest tracking for people and their dogs. Over a series of four blogs I will introduce the stars of the Urban Tracking Group.
First we have Tissot, a young, mature German Shepherd with an excellent work ethic. You can see Tissot’s intensity in these photographs: She wants to do an excellent job for Heather, who is a very experienced dog handler and trainer for Dogwise Training. Heather is focused as well, having had tracking experience in the past which she combines with her training skills to create a strong tracking team with Tissot. Her sense of timing and precision has developed a fun and rewarding article indication from Tissot.
I highly recommend tracking for working and herding dogs. All dogs love to track, but some dogs need to track or they will develop or create “jobs’ of their own - usually activities we humans don’t approve of. These include chasing (squirrels, bikes, cars, joggers) or other prey-driven activities which need to be redirected into a more positive activity. Once tracking is established as a regular activity, most of these unwanted behaviours will cease to exist, or become much more manageable.
Urban tracking, Variable Surface Tracking or Hard Surface Tracking are all terms which refer to tracking in urban environments with varied surfaces for the dog to track on. Dogs learn to track on surfaces such as grass, mulch, gravel, asphalt, concrete, brick and even rocks and sand. They learn to transition from one to the next as they follow a track down grass, up a concrete sidewalk, and into an asphalt parking lot. They learn to differentiate the scent of the person they are tracking from a myriad of cross tracks from other people as well as the scent of the article left by the tracklayer as opposed to all the other bits of garbage along the way.
The goal of K9Leadership follows the goals of K9Kinship, that dogs and their guardians enjoy the journey of tracking at any level.
For more information on Urban Tracking for your dog, please contact K9Leadership in North Vancouver.
All photography by Petra Mayer, PPP-Photography.
