Ways to Slow Down a Puppy When Tracking

Scent tracking is a sport in which dogs use their noses to follow trails through various types of terrain. Tracking is also used to save lives when children wander off or fugitives escape from police custody. It takes a dedicated trainer and a motivated dog with the energy and drive to become a successful tracker. When first beginning tracking training, your puppy may become excited and want to rush to the end of the trail without thoroughly tracking the scent. There are ways to slow your dog down and teach it to focus on the subtle scents and changes in the trail, making it a better tracker all around.

  1. Keep Leash Control

    • An effective way of slowing down a puppy when tracking is to clip two long leashes to the front of its collar and put the lines under your puppy's front legs, trailing backward to you. Hold onto one leash with each hand, and allow your dog to track ahead of you at the pace you want, and if the puppy moves too quickly, make a gentle tug and release on both leashes. This reminds the puppy to slow down, and the location of the leashes under the front legs physically slows the dog's pace. According to veteran police dog trainer Tim Tieken, a tracking dog needs to keep its nose to the ground at all times, so with this double leash method you are slowing the dog down and keeping its nose in the right place.

    Use Extra Food

    • A good way to teach a puppy to track slowly and carefully is to begin its training with a trail laid with lots of food. When puppies first learn tracking, they need to be taught to use their nose and follow the specific scent trail, and not to run quickly to the end of the trail. According to champion canine tracking trainer Louise Jollyman, when you create the scent trail, you should put one foot right in front of the other, in a heel-to-toe pattern. Placing a piece of food between each footstep will teach your dog to focus on each individual step, thereby slowing it down on the trail.

    Practice Obedience

    • Another way to slow down a puppy during tracking training is to incorporate extra obedience work into the trail. Teach your puppy to "sit" at each piece of food it finds on the trail. This will get your pup in the habit of tracking and relaxing at the same time, the combination of which will slow its pace considerably. This requires intense obedience training and a very focused dog, but it can also help by breaking the trail and tracking exercise down into smaller steps, according to champion tracking trainer Louise Jollyman. Instead of the tracking being one continuous motion, your puppy learns to track, find and then wait. As your dog waits, it has the opportunity to examine its surroundings for new items or obstacles on the trail.

    Use Difficult Terrain

    • As your puppy begins to understand the basics of tracking, you can start to practice on more difficult terrain. Practice in a field with grass that partially hides the food placed along the trail. According to veteran working dog trainer Ed Frawley, this will encourage your dog to use its nose rather than its eyes, which requires more focus and effort, naturally slowing your dog's pace. As your dog's skill improves, adding turns to the trail and allowing the scent to sit for a short period of time before tracking are other ways to make it more difficult.