The Tracking Club of Wisconsin is a Licensed Club of the American Kennel Club
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Harness - Non-restrictive harness. Leather or woven nylon.
Lead - Woven nylon or cotton lead. Depending on your dogs breed and pulling ability, the lead may be 3/8, 1/2, 3/4 or 1 inch in width. You can start tracking with a 6 foot leash but will need a lead from 20 to 40 feet in length in order to certify or participate in a test. The regulations state that you can work as close as twenty feet from your dog in TD or TDX and as close as ten feet from your dog in VST. Being close to the dog keeps him near the track while enhancing your ability to watch the dog’s subtle actions and offers additional confidence and motivation to your dog while working.
Waist Bag - An article bag or bird bag to carry articles, water and other supplies while you are training or exhibiting in a test. In training situations, you will find that a larger or multiple pocket bag will be required. On a normal training session, we may carry 10 or more articles while in some of these exercises we utilize as many as 30 articles.
Article Bag/Box - A soft sided overnight bag, small duffle or suitable box will be required to maintain your selection of articles. Our bags typically contain from 50 to 80 articles in various sizes and colors in cloth, leather, metal and plastic.
Articles - Common, everyday items to leave on the track for the dog to find. In VST, articles are so varied, we’ve added an entire chapter to discuss them.
Starting flags - Any size or color. We prefer to use short, colored surveyor flags as they tend to blend into the surroundings along with telephone, gas and electric company flags left by repair crews. Since they blend in, there is less chance of a passerby walking up to the start flag and disturbing the start area or removing the start article.
Food or motivational instruments - Food can range from puppy biscuits, to liver, Rollover, Oinker Roll, kibble, etc. A motivational instrument is your dogs favorite toy, ball or plaything. We are not going to get involved in the food vs. no food methods of training. We have worked with dogs that required food to motivate them to track on non-vegetated surfaces and dogs which were happy to track for their ball, favorite toy or simply for praise.
Water - Easily carried in “sports” bottles for refreshing your dog on the track. Even when tracking on non-vegetated areas in low elevations and cool weather your dog may need to be refreshed along the track. If your training area is at higher elevations or lower humidity, or you are training in higher temperatures you may need to refresh your dog more frequently. Always carry a larger water supply and bowl for your dog after you finish the track. In extremely hot weather, you may need to soak or wet down your dog prior to and after running the track to reduce the body temperature.
Shoes/footgear - The type of shoes or boots worn is not important in tracking. Dogs have successfully tracked tracklayers in bare feet, socks, tennis shoes, hiking boots and rubber boots. Make sure the shoes you select to wear are comfortable and suited to your climate and weather patterns. Carry an extra pair or rain boots just in case of inclement weather.
First aid kit - As with any form of tracking a first aid kit is an essential item to carry in your car. Basic items include insect spray, meat tenderizer for insect bites, gauze or tourniquet material in case of snake bite, alcohol, gauze pads for cuts and scrapes on you or your dog, ophthalmic ointment and eye wash for irritated eyes.
Wrist watch - In training and in recording your progress through the various components, you will be recording the ageing of your tracks.
Tracking log - A must. Recording each training track, weather conditions, time of day and problems encountered will allow you to follow the progress of your dog in training.
AKC Tracking Regulations - Read the rules and know the rules. When you understand the rules, you will lay better tracks, enabling you and your dog to approach the start of the track in a test without apprehension.
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