Tracking and Distractions

Even though it has been cold in Ohio the last few months, I have continued to track with my English springer spaniel, Magnum.  For those that don’t know – tracking is when I ask Magnum to follow a human scent laid by myself or someone else.  The track will have some articles on it that he has to identify (down next to them), cross tracks made by a human, and the track will cross several obstacles such as a road, sidewalk, and/or woods.  These tracks are aged from three to five hours.

In February, we were tracking at Twin Towers, a Greene County park.  Twin Towers is an equestrian park and has a section used to train hunt dogs.  It is one of the few parks that have wide-open areas of unmowed grasses and mowed grass that can be used for tracking.  Unfortunately, lots of folks use it as a dog park and just let their dogs run all over.  Greene County and Ohio have leash laws that require dogs to be leashed except on private property.  Greene County does have a dog park outside of Xenia. 

So, I am tracking with Magnum using a 50-foot lead with him about 30 feet out.  I hear behind me Alan saying no and hear a dog barking.  Then I hear him telling someone we are training our dog.  I decide that I won’t even think about anything except tracking with Magnum.  Next thing I know, I hear a woman yelling for her dog and of course it seems the dog is paying no attention to her.  Then a hound like dog with his lip curled up is standing near Magnum, but Magnum completely ignores the dog.  I hear the woman saying, “I am sorry.”  Although I want to say, “Lady this is a county park, not a dog park.” I continue to just focus on Magnum, tell him to track and he does great.  He just continues tracking and leaves the hound in the dust.  It was a great experience for tracking with a distraction.  

We had a similar distraction a few weeks later.  This time there were several dogs barking like crazy and I heard Alan yelling, “NO!”  Magnum did not even break stride or look up.  He just continued to track like he had to save a baby.  Alan later told me it was two dogs that were heading for Magnum.  He said if he hadn’t yelled they would have gone for Magnum.  What is wrong with the owners of these dogs?

An interesting aspect is that Magnum is doing great with the live distractions, but he is fascinated with animal scents.  He has sometimes tried to convince me that the animal track was the track he’s supposed to be working.  I still have trouble reading this.  He can be so convincing.  A couple of times when he has tried to drag me on an animal track, I have said, “Are you sure this is the track?”  Sometimes he looks at me like he’s saying, “Okay, Okay.”  Then he takes off on the correct track.  Even though these distractions can be frustrating, they are great for training.