Try Tracking! - The Puppy Tracking Primer

Your dog is a nose with legs!
Mother Nature equipped our canine companions with an ability to smell that is at least 300 times - some say 1,000 times - more powerful than our own. It is the most important way that your dog gathers information about the world.

Tracking is something that comes naturally to each and every dog, no matter what age, what breed or what size. Teaching your dog to track is the perfect to way to spend time together, build your relationship, and challenge both of you mentally and physically. You can teach very young puppies to track even before they can start formal obedience training, and these positive methods work with adult dogs, too.

Why you and your dog should Try Tracking
* Tracking is fun both you and your dog when you use these positive methods.
* Any age dog can be taught to track 6 week-old puppies on up to senior citizens.
* It improves fitness for both dog and owner!
* It is mentally stimulating for both of you.
* You'll gain a new-found respect for just how smart your dog is.

Praise for Try Tracking
Whether the handlers track for a fun experience with their dogs or desire to pursue an AKC tracking title, Try Tracking provides them with an easily followed method of training...A concise program to train your dog in the spot of tracking that includes excellent tips that will help avoid common mistakes.
Bob Brown, AKC Tracking Judge

An excellent book that explains how to teach, motivate and solve problems in training a puppy - or adult dog - to track. Every aspect of tracking is covered, from terminology to incrementally teaching each week's lesson. One of the highlights is the sidebars with tips that make training a puppy to track a delight!
DeeDee Rose, AKC Obedience and Tracking Judge

Active dogs need jobs. Tracking provides all-important mental stimulation and challenge for both canine and human. Try Tracking emphasizes positive reinforcement with food, toys and play and helps build relationships based on mutual trust.
Pat Miller author of Positive Perspectives: Love Your Dog Train Your Dog

Carolyn Krause has instructed classes in obedience and tracking for many years as well as presenting tracking seminars throughout the Midwest. She has put several tracking titles on her own dogs and is an emeritus AKC Tracking Test Judge and active in animal-assisted therapy. Carolyn is an award-winning writer, whose work has appeared in several national and regional dog-related publications.

Click here to view an excerpt.

What reviewers are saying...

DOG WORLD
A book about training tracking skills to just-weaned puppies might seem surprising at first, but Carolyn A. Krause reasons, that it's the perfect age to teach independent thinking. By 7 weeks of age, a puppy's computer is totally switched on, but his brain is not cluttered with learned behavior, She writes. He can learn more easily now than at any time in his life. The author's own Dalmatian bitch earned her tracking certification at 12 weeks old, after only four weeks of training. The pup went on to earn her Tracking Dog title on her 6-month birthday, in windy, freezing conditions in which four adult dogs didn't pass. Try Tracking has two declared goals. First, to train both dog and handler to the level of a TD title, including not only dog training methods, but also handling skills. Second, Krause seeks to lay out coursework for readers to follow independently. In most cases, not even an assistant is required. One of the most important keys is the handler's knowing where is the track is a deceptively difficult task. One chapter is devoted to the theory of laying tracks, placing flags, and making maps. Other invaluable skills, such as reading your dog, line handling, equipment selection, keeping a tracking diary, and evaluating weather and land conditions, are also discussed. For handlers seriously interested in earning a TD, Krause recommends a strong commitment up to six days a week for the fist four weeks of training to build a solid foundation. Depending on the age of the track, this can require anywhere from 15 minutes to more than two hours per lesson. The six week lesson plan includes daily tracks as well as tips, cautions, and challenges for each week. This primer, small enough to tuck into a tracking bag, will find a devoted audience among performance-minded puppy owners. Even those with older dogs may find the techniques useful, as the final chapter is devoted specifically to the training, motivation, and encouragement required for adults. Rebecca Morse

NORTHSHORE NEWS
Dogs come equipped with an extremely powerful ability. They all can smell hundreds of times better than humans can. It is how they relate to the world and as pet owners it is something that can be used in your relationship with your dog. All dogs can track. Tracking involves following a ground scent left along a route. This is something that can be done with dogs of any age, although an older dog may need a bit more patience at first. Author Carolyn Krause describes it as great fun for both you and your puppy. For you, it offers a window into the mind of the dog. For the puppy, it develops his learning abilities, confidence and temperamental stability. This connection with your dog as you work together gives the dog a rare opportunity to be in charge. Anyone can learn to do this and it will be a benefit to both you and your dog. Krause provides an easy to fallow guild to the entire process, from suggested location, equipment, rewards, time commitment and techniques. She includes descriptions of tracking layouts and suggested lesson plans. As your puppy improves so will the satisfaction you will feel from both of your achievements. The advanced techniques described at the end of the book will give you something to work towards. Terry Peters

MIDWEST BOOK REVIEW
Our canine companions have been blessed with a sense of smell that some say is a thousand times greater than our own. Try Tracking: The Puppy Tracking Primer will teach you how to get the most out of your puppy's excellent nose, how to refine it's natural instincts, and how to increase the bond between you and your pet. Tracking is fun for both you and your dog, improves both of your fitness, and you'll gain respect to just how your dog works. The methods put forth are said to be able to work with any age of dog from seven weeks of age to elderly canines, and for that, Try Tracking is enthusiastically recommended for dog owners everywhere and community library collections dealing with canine obedience and training. James A. Cox