Many factors contribute the the ease or difficulty of a track. Not taking these variables into consideration and evaluating them in relation to your dog's ability and experience may lead to some unfortunate tracking experiences both your you and more importantly for your dog.
When we begin tracking it is our job to plan the best program we can for our dog. Once again, what works for another dog in your club may not work for your dog because they may very well have differing abilities. One dog, for example, may never be bothered by cross tracks but have trouble with change of terrain. Other dogs may have a problem with age and still others with wind. You won't learn these thing about your dog until you start tracking him. One of the reasons I recommended the tracking notebook was to be able to record and analyse these characteristics of your dog. For the newcomer it is very difficult to pull up the information how your dog did three weeks back on a particular track.
Lets look at a few of these elements.
Weather -
In New England the weather can change from the time you lay your track to when you run it. In other parts of the country, say Seattle, you can almost always count on some rain, in Phoenix,well, you get the idea. So how does weather figure into the planning of your track. In order to plan we first have to understand how the various weather conditions affect the ease or difficulty of the track.
A few general rules apply.
It is easier for the dog to track when it is cool out rather than hot. When it gets into the 80-85 degree range you will see even experienced tracking dogs start to pant early in the track and have difficulty because there is less scent. With this in mind I recommend tracking (not the scent pad exercises - those can be done at any time) early in the day for quite some time, or late if you must because of work. Early means there is usually some moisture on the ground, which enhances scent and makes it easier for your dog to discriminate track from non-track. I will not go into the theories of scent on this website, but there are some excellent books available on this -- Glen Johnson's, though older, is one of the best for that kind of information, and a fascinating read.
Yes, you need to track in the rain. Yes, it is easier for the dog (with the exception of large puddles) and yes you will have to track in trial if it is raining, so you and your dog may as well get used to it. Please note, rain will disperse the scent, so while it increases scent the other side of the coin is that it may produce too much scent and set your dog to casting (fringing, i.e., scenting the track edges which we do not want).
Generally speaking, at local trials, the Schutzhund 1's will track first, in the better conditions, but if you plan on competing at the regional level or above, you may not have that luxury. You may very well have to track when it hot and dry. I would not worry about that in the beginning of your dog's tracking career, but it is definitely something to think about for later (for FH and FH2 for sure). If and when you decide to track when it is dry and hot, start with shorter tracks so your dog can acclimate to the increased difficulty in condition.
In the morning there is usually less wind. This is better for the initial learning phases, but as with any aspect of weather, something you can't control at trial. Some pepople recommend starting your tracks walking into the wind. I have never really understood this. As I've mentioned before, for schutzhund we want the dog to track with a deep nose, as close to the ground as possible. Having the scent of the food blowing into the dog's face will only cause him to lift his head, cast about, pull too hard, and generally not give us a very good picture. This is why I strongly recommend starting your initial tracks with the wind to your back whenever possible. This will change later on, so don't worry about the dog learning to deal with any kind of wind condition. What we are doing here is trying to instill correct habits for the dog from the beginning. This is your responsibility.
(to be continued)
