This is Chace tracking at 17 wks.

I started Chace in his tracking pretty much right from the start at 8 wks old. I have modified my usual method of starting him. In the past, I have started my dogs with food drops in the footprints. With Chace, there are a couple of food drops on the scent pad. The scent pad is about 5 feet by 5 feet. Then there is a "jackpot" of food drops about 5-6 paces down the track, and another "jackpot" of food drops at the end of the track, about 10 paces after the first "jackpot". The theory is that this will allow him to realize that what he is actually "working" is track scent.

I changed this with Chace because I noticed a problem with Sully using the food drop in the footprint method. Sully learned that what we were tracking was the food scent, and it took me a long time to retrain him to track scent. I have spoken with other Airedale handlers about their experiences with tracking and this is not a rare occurrence.

This is Sully tracking.

After much retraining, Sully is finally showing good confidence and good focus on the track. He is tracking 400-500 paces with multiple turns and multiple articles. His food drops are set up as "jackpots" and are unevenly spaced with the primarily "jackpots" found at the articles.