# Multi Surface Tracking.



## samuelsmiles (Dec 29, 2010)

After a couple of years of being engrossed in sheepdog stuff, I've been totally hooked back in to tracking which was the first dog sport I was introduced to. Up until a month or so ago we'd really just tracked on grass and through the woods but we've been practicing a lot on different surfaces lately and, now, eventually, I think we're doing a pretty good job.

Once I had laid the track and called Percy out of the car to get him harnessed, he shot out like a rocket. By the end of the track on the tarmac surface I think he was pretty much finished, but the reward of a couple of hotdogs at the end was gratefully accepted.

ps. Thanks for the book recommendation, Moobli, it was a very enjoyable read.


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## samuelsmiles (Dec 29, 2010)

PS. There is a really simple alternative to buying and carrying cumbersome pump spray equipment to put the water down when making tracks on hard surfaces for the HITT training. An old 1 litre plastic water/coke bottle with a hole drilled in to the cap can be squirted in front of you as the track is walked and tread onto the water as you go. You can get a _really _thin continual line of water or put thicker splodges down in stages at progressively increased distances. It also seems to use less water, so less filling up.


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## smokeybear (Oct 19, 2011)

I just do not bother using water when doing multi surface, far simpler!


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## samuelsmiles (Dec 29, 2010)

smokeybear said:


> I just do not bother using water when doing multi surface, far simpler!


Ha ha. Yes, it would make things simpler for us too. Until I found out about HITT though, I tried rubbing cheese (a particular Percy favourite) into the soles of my boots, trampling a whole hotdog onto the ground and then walking a very short track, and walking from grass onto a hard surface without success. HITT is working (I think) for us and has given me renewed enthusiasm for tracking but, hopefuly soon, we can phase the water out. I won't be slow to post a video if this does happen.


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## smokeybear (Oct 19, 2011)

An easier way is to scuff your way along.........................


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## samuelsmiles (Dec 29, 2010)

smokeybear said:


> An easier way is to scuff your way along.........................


Thank you - will try that this evening.


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## Moobli (Feb 20, 2012)

Wow - you are doing brilliantly


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## adamantis (Mar 14, 2014)

Looks awesome 

At the risk of looking really dumb here, is he tracking a line that you have walked yourself? So following your scent?

(I ask because I have a trainee SAR ground scent/man-trailing dog, and if I laid my own trail he would just turn around and look at me like I was daft, because I was stood there, I was the freshest example of the scent, therefore prize please  )

Also, oddly, he finds urban trailing much easier than rural, even aged 3/4 hours on a busy Saturday afternoon.


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## smokeybear (Oct 19, 2011)

adamantis said:


> Looks awesome
> 
> At the risk of looking really dumb here, is he tracking a line that you have walked yourself? So following your scent?
> 
> ...


When most of us track we lay the trackourselves.

The dogs are tracking not so much the scent of the person who laid it but the odours released from crushed vegetation, disturbed bacteria in the ground and, on hard surface tracking eg the rubber off the soles of the shoes etc as well as skin rafts and odours dropped by the tracklayer.

SAR etc is more about trailing ie dog using a mixture of air scenting and tracking to locate an individual which is what say police dogs and bloodhounds do.


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