Tracking Dogs

We had no idea when we got Jigi and Zuzu that we’d end up with such talented and accomplished companions.  We were just looking for pets, dogs to take on walks, furry friends to share a sofa in front of the winter fire.  We have those things with Jigi and Zuzu, but we also have dogs that compete in three different dog sports and have won titles in all three.

Both of them won their first tracking titles this month, so now we can legitimately write their names as Whispering Winds Jigi, TD, and Whispering Winds Zuzu, TD. This means that they are officially recognized as Tracking Dogs.

To pass a tracking test, a dog must follow a human scent that is between ½ hour and 1 ½ hours old, on a path between 440 and 500 yards long and which has from 3-5 turns in it.  The dog wears a non-restrictive harness to which a line is attached; the dog’s handler, or tracking partner, follows along behind the dog (no closer than 20 feet). The handler has no idea where the track is, it being invisible, so she counts on the hours and hours of pre-test training, the miles walked, the observations made. The handler has to trust the dog.

This is an incredible act of faith.  When I was taking the test with Jigi, I watched for the confident skipping run that tells me he is on the scent.  When he’s “on” he generally runs in a straight line, nose to the ground. If his head suddenly pops up and he starts looking around, I can tell that the scent he was following has disappeared right out from under his nose, which means the track has turned to the right or left or has gone off on a diagonal from the original straight line.  I can count on Jigi to run forward a few feet more in the old direction to check his assessment that the scent has disappeared.  He snuffles around, trying to verify its absence. Generally if he can’t find the scent trail ahead of himself, he’ll swing off of the old path to his right (most dogs have an overwhelming preference for turning clockwise rather than counterclockwise.  Watch your dog as it prepares to bed down at night.)  If Jigi picks up the scent in the direction he’s chosen, he’ll bound off that way.    If he’s swung to the right, but the track goes left, he’ll snuffle around until he’s convinced there’s no scent in the direction he’s chosen; then he’ll either circle around me clockwise or backtrack to the place where he lost the scent, trying to pick it up again.  I recognize the signs; I can tell “search mode” from “scenting mode.”

Zuzu is considerably more subtle in his tracking behaviors.  He doesn’t run or bound; he moseys.  He “casts” around a lot, sniffing first to the right of the track and then to the left, so that his path is a zig-zag rather than a straight line.  He brings his head up when he loses scent, just as Jigi does, but he doesn’t initiate the enthusiastic snuffling that his brother does.  He’s tentative; requiring a lot of patience.  Because Zuzu is less experienced and harder to read than Jigi, tracking with him is a real challenge. 

The object of the search is a glove, dropped by a tracklayer somewhere in an open field some time before.  The tracklayer or his surrogate follows the handler and the dog and he acts as a judge of the dog’s performance.  The tracklayer is the only human involved in a tracking test who knows where the track actually goes.   Accordingly only the tracklayer knows for certain whether the dog is performing adequately or not.    If the dog follows the scent trail all the way to the glove, it’s celebration time.  If the dog can’t locate the glove or if he gets more than forty yards off the track, he fails the test.  The event isn’t timed, but it only continues so long as the dog is “working.” The dog can’t lie down and take a rest he can’t chase after a squirrel, he can’t dig for varmints in the field.

If you live in Whatcom County and you’re interested in training your dog to track, the Chuckanut Dog Training Association offers both formal classes and informal practices. If you live elsewhere, google Tracking Dog Training and see what comes up for your area.  There are several excellent books on training tracker dogs, the most popular of which are  William (Sil) Sander’s Enthusiastic Tracking (Dogwise Press) and Betty Mueller’s About Tracking Dog Training:  Creating a Problem Solving Relationship with Your Dog (available at Amazon.Com.)

Bonnie and Charles Bird of Bellingham WA are the owners and trainers of Jigi and Zuzu