Hi Kris,
I want to say that I really enjoyed your book very much and I do hope you’ll do another on dog training in general because your knowledge and expertise is much needed among the general dog training population and the tracking book alone teaches a lot about learning theory that people need to know whether they track or not!
I love how you divided the book into three sections and made the principles of training and dog behaviour so clear and how it relates to tracking. The stuff on directing drive and energy on Page 106 is SO OFTEN missed by many in tracking, particulary in ANKC tracking. There is a myth that the dog will ‘just do it’ and that tracking erratically, leaking drive all over the place will produce a reliable result.
Your explanation on article indication and how to achieve it reliably and how to do it first… brilliant stuff so often missed. I found your method of corner teaching absolutely fascinating and can well see how it works.
I truly think I ruined my first tracking dog by receiving so many bits of incorrect and conflicting information. What I am now going to do is with my seven year old GSD female, who showed all the promise of being a very good tracker but used to go haywire and wander off so I gave up in the end and just stopped at her TDX, I’ll totally retrain her using your method. This should be a fantastic experiment and learning path for me, based on your philosophy of training.
Thank you so much for writing the book. Again, please do another one on broader training and training for obedience that as you discuss, does NOT involve crushing the dog but being fair and building love for work. Your training philosophy is fantastic. I wish more would adopt it. There would be a huge rise in very happy and successful dogs in comptetition out there!
Heather Hammonds