The dog's sense of smell is much more developed than ours. In fact, all of us who live or have lived with someone know well that -almost always he is smelling everything around him. It is their way of exploring their surroundings.
Therefore, when we want him to develop this ability more, we will quickly realize that it is something very easy for him, since we will be teaching him something that goes with his own nature. So If you want to know how to teach your dog to track, write down our tips and tricks.
What do you need to teach him?
Patience and perseverance
Teaching a dog something takes patience. It is very important that we bear in mind that each furry has its own learning rhythm: some need more time than others. If we are nervous and restless, he will notice and feel that way too, so the training session will be a disaster even before it starts.
Also, you have to be constant. Working one day a week will not do. You have to do it more times: a little while - about 15 minutes - each day would be ideal.
Motivators
The sessions have to be, above all, fun. For it there is nothing better than dog treats that we will give you every time you do something right, and of course congratulations (not only expressed with words, but also with caresses and cuddles).
What you never have to do is scold him, or mistreat him (this apart from not serving for anything other than to make us fear, is a crime).
A dog willing to work
Although it may seem otherwise, tracking is tiring. If the dog is tired, it is best to let him regain his strength. And, in addition, each session should end well, with fun, and you always have to leave him wanting more. Therefore, it is interesting to even stop before you tire.
How to teach him to track?
Now that we know what we need to teach our dog to track, we must follow this step by step:
- First, you have to reassure him a little in case he is not, for example, with a walk.
- Second, we will ask a loved one to hold the furry while we prepare the area to be tracked by making a path with the food, rubbing it a little with the grass and leaving a good treat at the end of the journey.
- Third, we will go look for the dog, and with the leash on, we will approach the area. As soon as we arrive, we will say "search" to start finding the food.
- Fourth, we will repeat these steps several times a day. When we see it for sure, that it already knows what we want from it, we can let it track without the strap.
To consider
So that our dog learns to track and problems do not arise, it is very important that we take into account the following:
- We should not use the command »search» in other situations, otherwise we will confuse it and the furry will do everything possible to scan the streets through which it passes. And this can be a very serious problem, as you can eat any inappropriate food.
- You have to change tracking areas; In other words, it always has to be a quiet area, such as the forest or the garden, but it does not always have to be that same specific area.
- We must teach him the command "stay." It will be very useful in different circumstances: when we go for a walk, when we are teaching it to track to prevent it from eating something it shouldn't, or to wait for us in a corner, for example. Here explains how to do it.
I hope it has been of interest to you. 🙂