Training Excerpts: Wound Bed Indication, Road Distraction, and Track Layer Scent Misdirection

by Andy Bensing

The main goals for training line on March 30 were as follows:

1. Continue working on wound bed indication by making the beds very small (smaller or equal to 6") with only a very small amount of hair and small squirt of blood.

2. Emphasize left turns which may facilitate the need for reinforcing previously taught search patterns.

3. Work on "saw toothing" (line control) http://borntotracknews.blogspot.com/2010/05/journey-to-win-part-2-training.html  which has lately been showing up occasionally in Eibe's work.

To accomplish those goals I laid out a 1600 meter (1 mile) training line using only 5 oz. of blood including the blood squirted onto 7 small wound beds. I used minimal blood and ran the line at 48 hours so that the blood line itself would not have a strong scent and the lightly scented wound beds would still stand out. I also wanted to further investigate the role of track layer scent on the artificial line so I thought the 48 hour age may help me learn if the blood scent or human scent lasts longer. I thought the light blood might also cause Eibe to be more likely to saw tooth. By laying the line out in a counter clock wise direction in the pattern seen below I could maximize the left turns and taking prevailing winds into account could be pretty sure that at least half of the line would have the wind coming from right to left as I desired to work on Eibe's right side saw toothing.

Click on the picture to enlarge

The 7 minute video below shows how I have been training the wound beds and working on saw toothing. As it turned out, Eibe had no trouble whatsoever with any of her turns. You can see on the GPS map that she spent very little time at any of them, left or right so you will see no reference to them in the video.

Wound Bed Indication 3-30-2011 from Andy Bensing on Vimeo.

As I was laying the line I ran into 2 opportunities to create additional goals for the exercise.

1. Track Layer Scent Misdirection - At the northwest corner of the line I decided to set the bottle of blood down and continue on for 20m over and down the crest of a ridge without blood and then backtrack to the blood bottle and make a turn. I did this to observe how Eibe would react when the blood ended, the track layer scent continued on down the hill as a misdirection exercise and then abruptly stopped.  

Sorry, I did not catch this part of the track on video but it did reveal some interesting information. When Eibe came to the corner she continued on and tracked along the bloodless tracklayer line without skipping a beat with no visible cue to me that she did not have the blood. When she hit the end of the bloodless line she made a brief but efficient check that started literally inches from the farthest place I stood 2 days before. This check was much more brief than she normally does at a normal blood line dead end. After the brief check she bee lined it right back to the blood line 20 meters back and made the turn instantly. Of course it is only an intuitive, educational guess on my part but there is little doubt in my mind that she knew she was using the tracklayer scent to "cheat" her way to the next blood but when the track layer scent ran out abruptly, I think she recognized the back track of the track layer's bloodless line and ran right back to the last place she actually smelled blood.

2. Road Distraction - I was about to make a left turn and I ran into a forest road so I decided to use the road to my advantage and give Eibe practice in not being sucked down roads. I made the left turn right on the road knowing Eibe would assume the line when straight across and then really kick in after working the check and finding the correct direction. I went down the road 125 meters and then made an abrupt 135 degree turn off the road. The 4 minute video below shows how that worked out. I was very pleased with her performance.

Lure Down a Road Tracking Misdirection from Andy Bensing on Vimeo.

John Jeanneney's commented on Andy's blog post:

This blog is committed to presenting different perspectives on tracking dogs and their training. Andy Bensing’s contributions, in the form of articles and videos, are an important part of the blog. It must be remembered that Andy is a professional dog trainer with many years of experience. However, people following this blog should not assume that his methods of working with his dachshund Eibe are necessarily the best approach for training their own dogs. Eibe is a mature and quite extraordinary tracking dog, who stands up well to close direction and rather stern discipline. It would be a mistake to assume that these methods are appropriate for training a young dog at a time when motivation, by making the exercise fun, is the first priority.

For example Andy’s emphatic “Downs!” at woundbeds may work well with Eibe, but they would discourage and weaken the confidence of some other good dogs, particularly younger ones, which I have worked with. Even Eibe shows by her tail and body action that she does not enjoy the “downs” part of the exercise. Andy’s methods are more appropriate for a psychologically tough Drahthaar than for many Bavarians or dachshunds. If a dog promptly drops down upon encountering a woundbed or other wound sign placed on the test track, this may impress test judges. However, training for such behavior doesn’t have much to do with making the dog useful for natural tracking.

A dog can learn that his handler/teammate wants to see the blood, bone or tissue clues along the natural track, but certainly he can show this by stopping and pointing with his nose, not by lying down. In dog language lying down tends to be a sign of submission rather than an indication of active cooperation.

There is no one cookbook method that can be applied to all dogs and all situations. I know Andy well, and I’m sure that he is not encouraging everyone to use his “Eibe Method” on every dog. He knows that the goal of training for most of us is to develop a dog’s initiative and heighten his motivation to work out tough tracking problems in natural situations. In this particular video Andy is training Eibe for competitions in the US and possibly in Germany. It is a special situation. Andy’s Eibe is an excellent test dog as well as a natural tracker.

Andy's reply to John's comments:

In this video I am telling the dog "stay" not " down" at the wound beds and only after she has already stopped. In previous video, earlier in her training I commanded "down" but not here.

I do take a little exception in the comment " training for such behavior doesn’t have much to do with making the dog useful for natural tracking." This past tracking season I had several very strong indications of hidden sign under leaves by Eibe that I would attribute to this wound bed work. Dogs can figure out that you want them to point out sign over time but this method will surely accelerate the learning process for the dog. My original reason for teaching the formal wound bed/sign indication was to benefit my natural tracking. The flashy look on a test line was a secondary consideration.