I would like to share with you two episodes from Kims tracking training, that have got me thinking. Is the Sheltie really this intelligent and quick-learned or is this because of something else? Would love to hear from you after you have read this through and thought a bit about it!

Kim is now 6 ½ months old and we started the tracking training when he was a little puppy. Uptil today there has been 1-2 exercises a week with week-long pauses inbetween.

I have planned the training with one principle in mind; that nothing is to difficult for the dog as long as he isn't prejudiced about what tracking is. It is so easy to teach the dog that tracks are something that only exist in the wood, with the special scent picture that comes with that. Then other surfaces like asphalt, gravel, rocks and so on will be difficult for the dog to handle. This mostly goes for all solid surfaces where the smell "disappears" rather quick and is only present in the footprints.

If you introduce these "difficult" exercises early in the training, they will not be difficult. We have now reached the road exercises. The track starts by the roadside, goes up on a gravel road quite a distance with articles on short distance between each other (I use articles that are the size of matches so that the dog will not find them by using his eyes, especially important on the road, where they become more visible).

Already from the very first tracking exercise, I let the dog on from the side, that will hopefully give the dog a long experience of finding and deciding the right direction if done properly. Anyway, the first track I would like to tell you about was this:

I brought my two elder dog out for a walk. On the way I laid out the track for Kim. It started a little bit into the wood (for him to search and decide direction) and then followed the gravel road for about 150 meters where I placed the final article. When we where home again from the walk and I had switched dogs and brought Kim to the startingpoint, about 45 minutes had passed. So old have his tracks never been earlier. This would be exiting!

Put the harness on during silece. Kim is pushy and already has the scent in his nose. Loading one hand with chicken meatballs and point to the ground with the other - "Search track". Kim dashes off like a bullet from a canon. He rushes over the track but promptly turns and chooses..... BACKTRACK. Since I want the dog to learn from his own experience that backtracking isn't rewarding (it will not lead to any articles = reward, only a bundle of energy for nothing), I pretend like I don't have a clue which way the track is going. I simply follow him without a sound. Kim tracks motivated and methodically all the way out to the road, but it is still on backtrack. Out there he hesitates for a moment - this was something new! But soon he continues. Backtrack. I had to stop him, otherwise he would probably have backtracked our entire walk! :-)

Kim looks stunned when I take the harness off, put the leash on and take him back to the start. I tie him to a tree while I go find a new starting point a bit further away in the track. Kim does not like to be tied up, he barks, yells and picks up grass with the roots!!

I tie him loose and wait till he has calmed down - don't want any stress in the track. Then we go through the same procedure as above. This time he chooses the right direction and it is not long before he finds the first article. Ooooh, chicken meatballs! Kim chews the delicatess up with a satisfied look on his face and can hardly wait until he can continue to the next article. Soon we come out on the rood. And what happens? Kim quits tracking.

Why? The only reason that comes to mind is that he simply assumed that you don't track on road, only a while ago he was stopped and taken to the start again when he entered the road!

Already at 4 months of age, Kim got the opportunity to try tracking on
the rocks by the ocean. Since he is not prejudiced about tracking,
there were no difficulties.

That exercise was not particularly successful, så immediately we did a new, on another gravel road. I don't know how long ago there had been horses on this road, or if their scent was still present, but something they had left behind: very visible hoofprints. A splendid place to hide the articles, I thought.

This time one of our cats accompanied us and that distracted Kim a little. Disturbances are good, every tracking dog need to get used to that, and in the end Kim was only bathered by Findus if he moved rapidly. At this startingpoint, Kim chose the right direction, but once again he hesitated when he came to the road. An article placed in the first steps on the road saved us! The further we got, the better Kim tracked. He marked one article after another and received the desirable chicken meatballs...

This track ended by the roadside, with this I wanted the dog not only to get up on the road and follow a track on the hard surface, but also being able to follow it off the road. Many dogs have a strong feeling for natural lines in the nature and follow them "automatically", no matter if the track is there or not. These "lines" can be an opening in the wood, a stone wall, a grown-over path, or, like in this case, a gravel road.

Not unexpected - Kim continued along the way och was tracking equally careful, even though the track had turned into the wood. I want the dog to make his own experience, so I let him go. Pretty soon I could see that Kim got insecure. Hmmm, here is no scent anymore. He stopped and it actually looked as though he was thinking. Suddenly he went on with new strength - only to examine every HOOFPRINT thoroughly!!! There he had found articles not long ago, so there can be more, right?

I laughed out loud - is my dog that clever? Is he drawing conclusions that rapidly? OK, it wasn't exactly what I planned to teach him, but you must agree about him using his brain... :-)

Well, what do you think? This is my first Sheltie, but my fourth tracking dog. None of the earlier have shown abilities like these. Is it because Kim is so smart and quickminded - or is it because of something else?

Hugs to you all from Karin & Kim