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Starting Your Dog On Variable Surfaces
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© 2003 by Ed Presnall
Many people think about tracking as being performed in pristine fields which are immaculately clean and unused, however, rare is the case that a person, animal, bird or reptile is not moving through the tracking field prior to or during the time you and your dog run the track.
In Variable Surface Tracking it is desirable to train from the beginning in contaminated or heavily used fields to prepare your dog for the real world of working in industrial parks, college campuses and government facilities on test day.
In an effort to make our dogs into more proficient trackers, we start all of our puppies, basic training classes and introductory variable surface tracking classes in contaminated areas such as school grounds, soccer fields, little league baseball fields, industrial parks and college campuses to introduce them, or re-introduce in the case of TD or TDX dogs, to working around and through multiple scents, scent ages and surfaces.
On any given VST track, transition areas are the most widely used component or feature. Transitions are used to tie together the various parts of the track. Your dog must be accomplished in adapting to changing scent pictures created during transitions and within transition areas. Working across various surfaces may, to you, appear to help or hinder your dog during the training process. You must work with your dog to learn how to read his body language as he works through the transition areas. Through understanding his body language you will build trust in your dog’s ability and together you will start working as a team.
When starting out any dog in tracking I develop a series of short components encompassing various surfaces and grass length. Once the dog understands that the track can go over short grass, long grass, gravel, dirt, mulch or across islands or streets he will develop a confidence in his tracking which will follow though in TD, TDX or VST type tracking.
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