Caden - Urban Tracking Dog!

Caden at the end of the track - first time ever in a harness and he just aced hard surface work!

I have done nothing but footstep tracking for a year with Caden. Maybe even longer than that. And last summer and fall, I got fairly hardcore with it. I occasionally do a short urban track with him, because I want him to keep the urban muscles in his brain for future use! Today, the conditions and timing seemed right to try a little experiment, so I harnessed him up for the First Time Ever and let him do a freestyle track on hard surfaces!

He ran an aged track I had done with River - then let lie for 1.5 hours, and just aced it! You would think I have done urban with him on a regular basis. It has me wondering about how footstep tracking has set him up for this kind of preciseness and confidence. I am more sold than ever about how footstep tracking can produce better urban trackers - as long as the handler is able to 'let them go' to problem solve and figure things out without fear of correction. Caden could not have been happier!


Here is the video. First of all - I can't believe my line got tangled, but we recovered. Yes, I swore under my breath. No, it's not really picked up on film or there would be a RATING on this video. I was so mad at myself! However, tried to get Caden to take it in stride. He is used to putting up with me, thankfully! PS I had no choice but to walk out along the bushline (or cross the track I laid) and had to prevent him from going to it on the first leg. Beyond that, he figured out the scent he had to follow. Awesome him (bad me). At the base of the stairs, he gets sucked into some chain link fencing, but recovers! Awesome him, again.



I had run a short urban track for River that was purely motivational. It started up on a berm, then went over a driveway and down a sloping sidewalk to cross a road - more stairs to follow alongside a building on a sidewalk - with a right turn into a parking lot. There were tons of transitions but the entire thing flowed beautifully and also sloped on a tilt that seemed to encourage being right on track. River was dead on the track, so it was 'unsullied' by casting. It was warm. Clouds in the air looked like rain is coming, so I liked the feeling in the air too.

River did her motivaton track like she was going for a walk int he park!

After re-running River's I decided to take him to Jet's and he did that too - with equal enthusiasm and correctness. I nearly cried (seriously) at one point, following him. Jet's track was longer with more problems for her to solve including a very odd transition from sidewalk to lawn and then parking lot that was all on an angle (90 degrees are preferred). Jet had a few problems but sorted it out. Caden just bombed through it and did a turn on the parking lot that would make you weep. I had not planned to do this one with him so had no jackpot or article - so when he reached 'the end' I simply stopped him and asked for a platz and gave him a reward.

Here it is (map is above)




Jet at her wood article (last) - she had a very complex track in a small area of twists and turns around the student residences - lots of sidewalk transitions, traffic and enclosed spaces. Caden was motivated to follow Jet's scent and blasted through the track like he was following a painted line. It was 45 minutes old when he reran it. I nearly cried!


Caden was so thrilled, and happy. As if he said 'finally she let me TRACK !!' He will do the SchH style tracking, but i have always known he is an immensely talented tracking dog and I think this will help with his motivation to keep going with footstep style work. I would not want to lose his confidence and precision and seriously believe the footstep style we've focused on has produced a dog that knows where the track is and how to eliminate fringe scent and stick to the primary track including being very solid on his turns.



And on his way to the car, he pulled Jet's stake (tent peg) to carry it back - he is self-rewarding, LOL - - this is a Dan Waters tracking party trick!

I am THRILLED to say the least!