The space we need for the first track is a square with the size of 100*100 meters.

We start it with a dog that is walked and has no need for “toilet”. The dog is either waiting in the car if you have a clear sight to the car from the area, or brought with you and tied up in a tree or fence close to the start of the track. If you have a help handler, it is great to let him hold the dog without interacting with it. All interaction with the dog at this point will take away focus from him when he needs to focus on what you are doing.  This is only needed for the first sessions, after that the dog doesn’t need to see what you are doing, he will have a memory of what he is supposed to do.

You will pack your pockets with what you need for the track, once you have started walking, you can’t go back the same way. You have treats, toys and maybe plastic ribbons with you. You mark an area in the ground by kicking and scuffing your feet over it - this area will be about 3 feet in square. You don’t talk to the dog when you do this. You turn to the dog and juggle his toy up and down in the air for a short moment, and then you turn your back to him and walk away. If you have a help handler here, he can take the dog away out of sight still without interacting with him.

You walk straight ahead and after 10-15 steps you put the toy down and walk 10-15 steps again and here you put your next object down. You continue to do this until you have finished a wide circle and you have put a total of 5 objects down. The end of the circle must be at least 20 meters away from the starting point. If your dog is more eager to find food than toys (some dogs doesn’t like toys) you must have small bowls or plastic boxes with hotdogs/cheese or whatever your dog likes best. I prefer to put down boxes with lids on, as there are ants more than happy to take over a bowl of food before the dog gets to it. If the dog gets a mouthful of ants, he will not be happy to find that bowl again! The last bowl can be bigger than the others, maybe with the dog’s dinner/breakfast in. The total length of this first track is around 30-50 meters.

When the track is down, you have a nice cup of coffee, waiting for the track to age. I do this close to the dog but I don’t interact with it, but if the dog is stressed by you being away, just give him calm assurance but not a play and no not fire him up. The first time track needs to be around 20 minutes old, for the airborne scent to drift away and to start and concentrate in the track core. (Otherwise the track will be like a tunnel of both airborne and ground bound scent for the dog)

Ok, now the track is 20 minutes and its time to bring the dog on. Untie your dog if it’s tied in the fence, and put the tracking harness on it. Stand on the lead if the dog is bouncing when you try to put it on. Put the tracking lead in the loop on the back of the harness and hold your hand around the line and in the collar of the dog. Walk towards the start of the track where you made the scuffing with your feet. Stand still for a moment and watch the dog to see if it has any interest in what it senses.

If the dog is sniffing in the air, and wants to put the head down and look what you did there, let him. This first time, you shall not give any command,; just let the dog go slowly. The dog can circle and sniff, and when it starts tracking, you just follow him without talking or praising. He will not be sure of what to do here, and if you talk to him, you might disturb him. Follow him slowly and when he finds his toy, you praise him. If he walks over the toy, too interested in where the track leads, it doesn’t matter at this point. Some dogs are more interested in finding out where the track leads than pay attention to the objects in the beginning. If you have put small bowls of food, and he starts to push it around, praise him and go there and open it for him to eat. After he has eaten, you must collect him again, with a hand in the collar and one on the lead, and let him go just as you did in the beginning. Everything must be calm and not fast, even if the dog is eager to continue. Let the dog go slowly again without saying anything. If you don’t give him any command, he will do nothing wrong.  It must be his curiosity that takes him around this first track. Again, when he finds the second object, praise him and help him to open it if its food. (Here he will have a click experience; he will understand that the track leads to rewards) After every stop, collect him and let him go slowly, this is for the continuing education towards tracking dog skills. If the dog is very tired and panting after the first two objects, stop after the second and praise him really much, stroke him and feed him treats. Take the harness off.  Bring him back to the start, by walking backwards, and give him some water. If he looks fine after a while, go back to where the last object was and put him on harness and continue the way you started the track. If he seems very tired leave him at the start point and go and collect your things.

If this is done without commands, you are just testing your dog’s willingness to track, testing his nose skills and his curiosity. You are not putting any pressure on him that he must accomplish something for you. You give him a positive memory of his first track.

If this has gone really well, you can do this again, without increasing the length for the first 5 times, then you can increase the length with 5-10 steps between the objects and the age of the track before you put the dog on with 5-10 minutes per tracking session.

If the dog wasn’t interested at all, you need to do some with another person helping you out.

And as with all dog training, you need to play with the toys on walks and throw them to the dog and encourage him to bring them back to you, trading them for treats. You need to teach the dog to find small boxes of treats hidden in the garden or house if that is what you are using in the track instead of toys. (See the nose work article to get tips on how to teach the dog to find)