I started teaching scent articles just before Christmas. In the beginning, she was so quick to simply do *something* with a dumbbell that she wasn't pausing to think about what was getting clicked. Previous learning was over-riding everything; she knew she had to grab that object for me!
I started clicking for just nose touches to the correct article, interrupting the retrieve, and Laev grasped the scent discrimination idea within a couple of days -- which was longer than I would have guessed it would take, but still pretty fast for the utility scent exercise.
But that wasn't the end of the job, oh no. I've discovered that Laev gets so wired at the thought of scenting that she barrels into the pile, air-scents the target, and grabs the first object in that direction. She is too excited to focus on the exact origin of the scent and wants to just be lazy and go with the immediate area.
Sound familiar?! That is exactly what we've been fighting in tracking!
So I'm hoping that this will improve her tracking concentration as well. I can't really affect her in tracking much -- physically slowing her makes her hectic, so I'm left with trying to induce slow concentration instead of the self-reinforcing air scenting -- but I can establish consequences in this kind of scent work. Laev seemed to get it more quickly when I snatched up the correct dumbbell after she grabbed the wrong one, preventing her from switching to the right one and requiring a reset before she could have another chance at earning her treat.
We'll see how progress goes. It's telling that she got the concept within a couple of days but now is stymied by her old nemesis of self-reinforcing speed.
Idea for tracking
Hey, I just had an idea about your tracking problem. You said "physically slowing her makes her hectic." Have you tried clicking her for pulling hard? When I was working Bandit as a SAR trailing trainee, whenever we established the direction of travel, or made a change in direction, I would wait for him to commit to it, then stop, and wait for him to make a strong committment to it again before going with him. It was like:
Bandit: It's this way.
Me: Are you sure?
Bandit: IT'S THIS WAY!!
Me: Ok, let's go!
That ended up teaching him to dig deep and pull hard whenever he committed to the trail. If he was pulling really hard from the beginning, I wouldn't stop him. Hard pulling meant he was ON IT. Well, you can't pull hard and run at the same time, can you? If that dummy at the end of the leash is dragging her feet, you have to squat down, dig in, and drag her with you. This could possibly be a way for you to train an incompatible behavior...
Now, I won't kid you, my little 50 pound mutt was strong enough to pull me off my feet or straight up a 60 degree hill, so you best be working out your arms and have a nice soft leash handle, because it's gonna be tough to hold on to big, strong Laev if she's really pulling, but it just might work!
Good thought
That's a good thought! Do you think it would work for deep nose? I have seen Laev, when I took up line, dig in hard and tear up turf trying to drag me down the track with her. But she was still air-scenting, not footstep tracking. (Air scenting is GREAT in trailing work! but anathema in Schutzhund.) What I really need is calm, focused, quiet tracking rather than the "OHBOYOHBOYTRACKINGLETSGOHURRYUPNOW!!!" response I get. Love the enthusiasm, but the deep nose has to come with it.
I am really curious to see if the utility articles carry over into tracking. We'll see.
Laura &
More ideas
I'm not sure. I've never done Schutzhund, and when I was working in SAR, we didn't care if they were footstep tracking or air scenting. (Well, most of us didn't, there was one girl who really wanted a footstep tracker, but she was constantly frustrated as well, because her dog wanted to trail.)
But I do know that most dogs put their head down when they are really pulling hard and continuously. So it's possible you may be able to use that to your advantage, but I wouldn't expect it to automatically create a deep nose. It would help you slow her down, which may help her catch a turn before it's too late, but otherwise you'll still have some work to do.
In my (limited) experience, footstep tracking versus trailing habits are established in the early, beginning foundation training, and are difficult to retrain later (as you've noticed!) It might be easier for you to figure out a new way to train footstep tracking that is completely different from how you've trained her so far, and start over with a new cue word. Then use your current "track" cue for trailing (for fun), and the new track cue for deep-nose competition tracking.
I never liked the food-in-the-footsteps method, but maybe you could start her over on short, straight tracks with visible footsteps (try sand, mud, or snow), maybe use some sort of interesting scent like perfume or soap or dead critters or something on your shoes, don't cue her for anything, and then just start clicking her for putting her nose closer and closer to the footsteps, then for following them. If she breaks away from it, she gets nothing. Try it off leash and without a harness at first, just wandering around the backyard.
You may also want to have her wear her harness around the house every now and then without doing any work at all, or when doing obedience or other things, so that the harness is not a cue that you're going to go air-scent tracking. Lots of dogs get into "work mode" as soon as they see that harness. If it's already associated with high excitement and air-scenting, you need to break that association.
Just some more ideas. Let me know if any of it helps!