Tanner Learns Tracking

Tanner and his mom had the opportunity to help teach a beginning tracking class for the Luckiamute Dog Training Club
At the end of the class, everyone got to try baby tracks with their dogs. Tanner also got a turn. He very aptly demonstrated that although he is a categorized as a sighthound, he has a darn good nose too! These pictures taken by Peggy Miller show how Tanner is keeping his nose to the ground to follow the scent trail and find the treats.



He is currently running straight tracks that are aged 30 minutes.
Since he is young, he is very easily distracted. Using some really good food drops every couple of steps keeps him coming back to the track and rewards him for following it. As he improves his ability to
concentrate, the food drops will be spaced farther and farther apart.
He will also learn to find and indicate corners. To earn a TD test, he will need to do be able to follow a 440-500 yd track that incorporates 3-5 turns. The track will be aged 30 minutes to 2 hours. He will also need to learn to indicate articles in such a way that Tamara will know he found an article and can pick it up to show the judges.

Both Tanner's mom, Tamara, and breeder, Helen, are avid trackers and have each earned multiple titles on different dogs. It makes sense that Tanner would enjoy and excel at tracking since both of his parents as well as his granddam have tracking titles too! Most importantly, tracking is a fun sport that requires the dog to take the lead and solve problems with very little help. It is a great way to keep the brain busy and utilize the glorious noses that all dogs are born with.