How to Train Your Dog to Track Humans

Hello Angel, You will need some volunteers to train this. With someone in the same room as you, tell pup to "Get Help" or whatever cue you want to use and direct pup toward the other person. If pup doesn't go, the person should coax pup over, then give a treat when pup arrives. As pup improves and can go to the other person without extra encouragement from either of you when you say Get Help, start increasing the distance between you and that person pup has to go to. Work up to pup being able to go to the from a couple of hundred feet away, adding one foot at a time to repetitions. You can use a long leash or a friend's fenced area to practice (you also want to work up to somewhere pup isn't as familiar with - like another person's yard and not just your own once you have gotten really far from the other person in practice). When pup can get the other person from far away, recruit a different friend and start the training process over again with the person in the same room at first. (it should go quicker this time though since pup has the basic idea, but will still need to be restarted). When pup can get that person from a couple hundred feet away, then do the same thing with at least 20 more people so pup learns how to go to anyone. When pup can do it with a variety of people, when you give the get help cue, act like you are falling or doing one of your other dissociated actions pup has learned to detect (you can also pretend to fall/pretend start the initial training with the acting out and verbal cue earlier in the training process too, while saying "Get Help"). Practice with the pretend episode and the cue until pup does well with that, then act out an episode and wait seven seconds before cueing "Get Help" to see if pup will get help when you just act out an episode, before you command them verbally to get help. Practice this until pup is consistently going for help just when you fall without needing the additional cue after. You will also need to teach pup how to lead the person back to you, which will start with the person giving pup your “Go Find” cue you are currently using, but adding your name to that, so it’s “Go Find Angel or Your Owner”. If those who don’t know you will be likely to be brought back to you, I would teach “Where is your owner” since many people instinctively say that. Practicing this the same way you taught pup to go to another person, but with pup coming to you, until pup is consistent, then waiting seven seconds before giving pup the cue to go to you, to see if pup will lead them there on their own. When pup gets to the person they are going for help to - that person should give pup a treat each time, and when pup leads the person back to you, you or the other person should give pup an additional treat. For the marijuanna training, that will need to be taught using scent detection with teaching pup to alert when they smell that, and not to alert when they smell another similar looking scented object. Because this involves directly working with that scent, I would actually pursue a trainer's help, who has experience with teaching scent detection for service work, so that that person can train pup on the scent without you having to interact with it. If you look into how peanut allergy or gluten with celiac is taught with scent detection, the training is the same, the difference being that after pup is trained with a solid sample, the person will then need to practice with an aerated sample a bit too (and pup bathed before being returned to you). This will require your helper to have medical access to marijuanna for training purposes, unless you live somewhere that that's not required, which may be the case from your description. Best of luck training, Caitlin Crittenden

Hello. The best place to start is to teach your dog how to scent track. I am going to give you some very beginner tips on training this skill. Start Early in the Morning To teach scenting a track, you need some treats and a grassy area, such as a baseball field or park. Although hot dogs are not the most nutritious food, I find they work best, and you won’t over stuff your dog’s belly. Begin early; many people start by 6 a.m. before anyone has walked on the grass. Create a Treat Track Have your dog sit or lie down and stay. Take a couple of inch-long pieces of hot dog and use your shoe to mash them into the grass. Make sure to crush the grass under the hot dogs, which will release a grass scent. Then, with the hot dog residue on the bottom of your shoe, walk a straight line away from your dog. Every six or ten feet, drop a piece of hot dog. Stop after about 20 feet and drop one of your gloves or one of your dog’s toys; your dog needs to find something at the end of the track. Drop another piece of hot dog on top of the item. Command Your Dog to Find the Treats Go back to your dog and release him from his stay, encouraging him to smell the ground where the hot dogs were. Tell your dog “Find it!” and let him sniff. If he begins to follow the track, praise him quietly by saying, “Good dog!” and let him lead the way. Don’t be too enthusiastic or you may distract the dog from his sniffing. Also, don’t try to lead him; let your dog figure it out. At this point, your dog is following several scents: the trail of hot dogs, which helps motivate him, the crushed grass where you mashed the hot dogs and the crushed grass where you later stepped. Your dog is also following your individual scent, which he knows well because he smells your scent every day. But now your dog is learning to combine the scents, to follow them and to find the item at the end of the track. Start Increasing the Length of the Track When your dog successfully completes this trick, make another one by taking 10 steps to the side. If your dog is excited and having fun, you can do three or four short tracks per training session. As your dog improves over several sessions, make the track longer, add curves and corners, and drop several items along the way, but put the hot dog only on the one you want him to find. When making tracks longer or adding curves, use small pegs, stakes or flags to mark the track so you can tell if your dog is off track. Air scenting requires your dog to find someone by sniffing the scents wafting through the air instead of following a track. Most search-and-rescue dogs have both skills; they can follow a track, but if people walking over the track spoil it, they can also use their air-scenting skills. Please let me know if you have any additional questions. Thank you for writing in.

Hi! You can begin yourself with the basics. I will give you the steps to get started. If you feel it is something you want to continue to do on your own, there are articles online about advanced tracking. It is also recommended you work with a trainer for advanced work. Your puppy is young enough that it should be fairly easy to get started with the basics. Although it is a good idea to have other commands mastered. Sit and stay at the least. Below are some steps to get started. Start Early in the Morning To teach scenting a track, you need some treats and a grassy area, such as a baseball field or park. Although hot dogs are not the most nutritious food, I find they work best, and you won’t over stuff your dog’s belly. Begin early; many people start by 6 a.m. before anyone has walked on the grass. Create a Treat Track Have your dog sit or lie down and stay. Take a couple of inch-long pieces of hot dog and use your shoe to mash them into the grass. Make sure to crush the grass under the hot dogs, which will release a grass scent. Then, with the hot dog residue on the bottom of your shoe, walk a straight line away from your dog. Every six or ten feet, drop a piece of hot dog. Stop after about 20 feet and drop one of your gloves or one of your dog’s toys; your dog needs to find something at the end of the track. Drop another piece of hot dog on top of the item. Command Your Dog to Find the Treats Go back to your dog and release him from his stay, encouraging him to smell the ground where the hot dogs were. Tell your dog “Find it!” and let him sniff. If he begins to follow the track, praise him quietly by saying, “Good dog!” and let him lead the way. Don’t be too enthusiastic or you may distract the dog from his sniffing. Also, don’t try to lead him; let your dog figure it out. At this point, your dog is following several scents: the trail of hot dogs, which helps motivate him, the crushed grass where you mashed the hot dogs and the crushed grass where you later stepped. Your dog is also following your individual scent, which he knows well because he smells your scent every day. But now your dog is learning to combine the scents, to follow them and to find the item at the end of the track. Start Increasing the Length of the Track When your dog successfully completes this trick, make another one by taking 10 steps to the side. If your dog is excited and having fun, you can do three or four short tracks per training session. As your dog improves over several sessions, make the track longer, add curves and corners, and drop several items along the way, but put the hot dog only on the one you want him to find. When making tracks longer or adding curves, use small pegs, stakes or flags to mark the track so you can tell if your dog is off track. Air scenting requires your dog to find someone by sniffing the scents wafting through the air instead of following a track. Most search-and-rescue dogs have both skills; they can follow a track, but if people walking over the track spoil it, they can also use their air-scenting skills. Please let me know if you have any additional questions. Thank you for writing in.

Hello Morgan, First, teach him the Speak command. Check out the article linked below for methods to teach Speak: https://wagwalking.com/training/train-a-german-shepherd-to-speak Once pup knows that command, practice Find It games, and when he finds what he is looking for, command Speak and give a reward when he barks. Practice this over and over again, until pup is very good at it. Once pup is good at Speak in that context, when he finds something, wait seven seconds before saying Speak or offering a treat - to let pup start guessing how he can get the treat. If he speaks during that time on his own (in hopes of a treat), praise and reward with a treat. If he doesn't, after seven seconds, command Speak, then give the treat when he does. Practice finding something, pausing for seven seconds, then commanding Speak, until pup will consistently speak on their own before you command Speak; at that point, you can phase out the Speak command altogether - and pup bark on their own at the end of finding something. Best of luck training, Caitlin Crittenden

Hello Sadie, I would use a variation of both the clothing method and the spray bottle method. For the spray bottle method, I suggest using the fur of another dog instead of sweat and sprinkling that along a trail with rewards (practice with the same dogs fur until pup has learned that scent well before using a other dogs also to teach this). For the clothing method, work on teaching pup to also locate by sight by having another well mannered dog who will stay in place quietly hide for pup to find. Send the other dog out to their spot (preferably without having to walk the dog their so that your scent isn't on the trail), and then command the other dog to down stay and have pup track them by scent and sight. Best of luck training, Caitlin Crittenden