Image: Summerbee with the bees in Summer
(This was originally written for the Beagle Association Annual but it applies just as well to other breeds of dog).
Having owned beagles for 25 years now I have had plenty of time to try out all sort of activities with them, obedience, agility and my most recent venture, Working Trials. The section of Working trials that attracted me was the tracking After spending years (and a small fortune in sausages) persuading hounds that it could be fun to walk around to heel with their heads up in the air (even if there was a tempting crisp packet on the ground) and retrieve silly plastic dumbbells (that I shouldn’t have thrown away in the first place) it was about time to do something that beagles can do better than just about any dog. As you all no doubt know, a beagle will always need ‘paying’ for unreasonable requests such as ‘stay’ or ‘come here’ but ask them to follow a trail with nose to the ground with the vague possibility of finding a biscuit on the way then the reply is usually ‘I’ve already done it’!
Working Trials tracking sets a high standard of handling and accuracy with points being lost for sloppy corners and the emphasis is heavily on finding dropped articles along the track. This type of accuracy is not really necessary for those not interested in competing and a lot of fun can be had by simply getting someone to run away and hide and then following your beagle to find them. (This is a lot of fun for children. Once the hound is tracking well then you can take turns between who handles the line and who hides).
I have always accepted that before I could do any type of training with a beagle I had stock up on yummy treats, but tracking is different and generous food treats are only required when initially teaching and then can be used sparingly simply to remind the beagle that it’s a person they are tracking, rather than a rabbit! A biscuit every couple of hundred yards also gives a signal to you that your hound is still on target if you don’t know where your helper is hiding! A treat from the person they are finding usually goes down well too.
You don’t need masses of equipment to get started in tracking: a non-restrictive harness is essential as your beagle needs to be able to get really deep into the track and pull you along without gasping for air. A tracking line about 8 metres long which needs to be made of fairly light, soft rope so it doesn’t burn your hands (or you may need gloves), some marker poles so you don’t forget where your tracks start from and, most importantly, a field to track on! I have not found that letting beagles pull in their harness encourages them to pull on their normal collar and lead, the harness must only go on moments before you want them to track and comes off immediately they have found their ‘prey’ so giving a clear signal to the hound when pulling is and isn’t acceptable.
Getting started:
Either get someone to hold your hound on his harness and line or tie him to a fence/post a few metres behind you.
Stick a pole in the ground to mark your starting point and walk about 10 metres away from it, in a straight line, while dropping a small biscuit every other step. Walk back to the pole along exactly the same line so you lay a double row of footprints. Unhook him from the post and, with the line initially about 2 metres long let the hound rummage around and eat up the biscuits. Don’t worry if he just wanders around randomly without sticking to the track, he will learn after a few sessions that biscuits are only found near the footprints.
Once this seems to be easy for him you can start laying the track just one way and coming back to the start in a big circle, being careful not to walk over ground you want to lay track on later. Save your best treat to mark the end of the track.
As soon as you think he is getting the hang of only looking where you have walked then the distance can be increased very quickly until you are tracking 100 metres or so. You will still need to use plenty of biscuits but start to put them at random intervals along the track. If you will be tracking to find a person then they will need to be hiding out of sight before you start the track. Otherwise you can put a small treat pot or favourite toy down to mark the end.
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Once 100 metres in no problem then you can start to put in some very gentle curves to start teaching turns. Putting a biscuit down about 5 steps beyond the turn will let him know he is going the right way.
A word about handling the line: When following a hound that is tracking confidently
you will need to have about 3 metres of line played out. If he loses the track you will need to patiently stand stock still until he finds the track again, whilst playing out the line to give him space to search. Once he is back on track you should smoothly shorten the line back to the 3 metres again. There is no substitute for careful observation of your hound, once you learn how his posture changes depending on whether he is tracking strongly or searching for a lost scent (or whether he has just smelled a rabbit instead) then it will make things much easier.
Taking into account which direction the wind is blowing will also make things easier - if the wind is blowing from the start of the track towards the hidden person then the dog is much more likely to follow the track accurately. The wind blowing from the hidden person towards the tracking dog will make it tempting for the dog to cut off corners as he will be able to detect and head directly for the end point.
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The best land to start tracking on is grass or damp, soft ground that has not had people walking over it the day you want to track - but this isn’t always possible if you don’t own the field yourself. I have found that if you run the tracks about 10 minutes after you have laid them then the scent is at its strongest and the superb beagle nose will have no problem telling your track from someone else’s. When first starting out, using a ‘clean’ field is more important, but it’s certainly not essential once he is tracking confidently.It may, however, be best to get plenty of experience before trying to track over a football pitch that has just been played on!
Many excellent books have been written on how to start your dog tracking, the very best of these is Roy Hunter’s “Fun nosework for dogs”.
For a really intensive training program and more info on tracks and scent than you could ever need is Glen R. Johnsons “Tracking Dog, Theory & Methods".
John Rogerson’s Video “Start on the Right Track” is also very good, particularly for showing you how to handle the tracking line.
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