My pick for Book of the Month is "Enthusiastic Tracking" by William Sanders. I have to say, this book was very enjoyable to read! I picked up quite a few new things that I can't wait to try out with the dogs. The main focus is preparing you to take the Tracking Dog (TD) test. Since this is the foundation for all further tracking work, it's very understandable. The author breaks it down into training phases, the types of tracks you should do, the length, number of turns, food drops, wind direction, and age of track. It's incredibly helpful and I'm totally going to be using this once I really get back into the swing of things with the dogs (didn't get a chance to do any tracking with them yesterday unfortunately). Towards the end of the book there is information about taking the two other AKC titled tracking tests. Reading that information was very overwhelming, especially considering where I'm at with the dogs right now. Those tests are going to be TOUGH! I did also pick up a valuable piece of information. Your dog must be certified first to take a tracking test. Which totally makes sense after I thought about it. There are limited spots at tracking tests, and you definitely don't want to lose your spot to someone whose totally unprepared and just randomly decided to enter a test when you've been training and preparing for a few months. I'm actually a little bit relieved with how my schedule is right now. I had a goal of entering both of the dogs in a test by the end of the year. However, that might be tough. Getting them both certified seems a lot more doable!:)
Monday, September 14, 2009
Book of the Month
My pick for Book of the Month is "Enthusiastic Tracking" by William Sanders. I have to say, this book was very enjoyable to read! I picked up quite a few new things that I can't wait to try out with the dogs. The main focus is preparing you to take the Tracking Dog (TD) test. Since this is the foundation for all further tracking work, it's very understandable. The author breaks it down into training phases, the types of tracks you should do, the length, number of turns, food drops, wind direction, and age of track. It's incredibly helpful and I'm totally going to be using this once I really get back into the swing of things with the dogs (didn't get a chance to do any tracking with them yesterday unfortunately). Towards the end of the book there is information about taking the two other AKC titled tracking tests. Reading that information was very overwhelming, especially considering where I'm at with the dogs right now. Those tests are going to be TOUGH! I did also pick up a valuable piece of information. Your dog must be certified first to take a tracking test. Which totally makes sense after I thought about it. There are limited spots at tracking tests, and you definitely don't want to lose your spot to someone whose totally unprepared and just randomly decided to enter a test when you've been training and preparing for a few months. I'm actually a little bit relieved with how my schedule is right now. I had a goal of entering both of the dogs in a test by the end of the year. However, that might be tough. Getting them both certified seems a lot more doable!:)
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Hi there! I just found your blog and as a fellow Dane lover I wanted to post and say Hi. I will have to check out your book recommendation. I am just starting on the adventure of tracking with my 15 month old Dane, Falkor...and we can use all the help we can get. LOL Have you read "The Audible Nose" by Judi Adler? It is a FANTASTIC tracking book. It was written with Newfs in mind but can be applied to any dog. If you haven't read it I highly recommend it!
Your Danes are completely adorable btw. :)
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