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		I didn't knew anything in tracking/searching when I decided to train Lénidiège in this. So I searched a training club. I discovered another kind of tracking, called "utilitarian searching", because the aim was to make the couple dog/owner able to work in reality, to search real lost persons, while the traditional French tracking was only a kind of sport, in which the dog must carry out some clearly defined task and isn't allowed to do a lot of things, obedience is very important too. I've been told that in the "utilitarian searching", obedience was rather banished not to have any influence on the dog, the dog was the real "master" during the search, that meant too that the owner had to completely trust the dog and let him manage all. I don't like obedience because that reduce the immense possibilities of the dogs, and so the "utilitarian searching" pleased me more than very much. But the Kuvaszes don't like at all any kind of obedience, and "to be the master " during the tracking/searching, that's a thing that pleases them very well ... They just would think that it's a normal thing, and not only during tracking ...  Trusting the dog and letting him decide and manage, that's exactly what suits any good Kuvasz ! Lénidiège was still young when I took her for her first lesson in the training club. It was at the end of 1991. The instructor with a few other persons kept her apart while I was going away to hide, letting on the ground a few objects with my smell. Then someone put her on my track, she understood and found me quickly, the persons said that she showed no state of anxiety, but self-confidence and speed. For her second lesson, the circuit was already very long, in the ploughed fields, with a right angle, and with the crossing (perpendicularly) of a path. She found me quickly without any problem but on the path, she stayed there a little time. She seemed to like very much searching me, but it was the second and the last time ... Between the lessons, that didn't happen each week, I had to train her by myself, that is to say, I had to walk while letting a few objects with my smell, and then I had to take her and ask her to pick up the scent and find all the objects. I did. And when I came back to the training club again, so for her third lesson, the instructor asked me to do the same, that is to say to make her work on my own scent with my own objects, the instructor wanted to know how I did : he said that I was speaking too much, I was always asking my bitch to search, and that could disturb her, he said too that I didn't trust her enough and that I had to let her work without speaking nor asking. I tried to heed his advice, although I had really difficulties to trust her enough. Her fourth lesson consisted (already) to pick up the scent of another person, with a very long circuit, in the ploughed fields, with a freezing wind while it was always threatening to rain ; she seemed to be a little tired, she had already walked a long time before, while the other dogs were searching, but she found the whole track. But after that, some problems made me not to be able to come back to the training club during about 6 months. But I made her search on my own scent, in the little town where I lived at this time. Lénidiège wasn't at all an easy pupil. She really adored to learn something new, but as soon as she had understood and memorized, she was always opposing systematically ; more I was asking, more she was opposing - she has always had much fun bothering me, and I would easily write : more she teased me more she enjoyed tracking ! I learnt that she was able of an exemplary obedience for learning new thing, then nothing was to be done during the so long opposition phase, but   after that, suddenly, opposition disappeared and she carried out the task as if it was simply normal. She did the same while learning tracking. How many circuits did I make for her, and that she refused to search ? She was preferring hunting mice or so ... I was often irritated but I didn't understand how she was scoffing at me ! I often lost hope to succeed with her but I didn't give up. Then I wanted to try to make her search some  objects (with my smell) but without a track : in the green spaces where all the kids and the dogs of the town were playing every day, I threw a few objects with my smell, far enough from the track left by my feet. I was very astonished to see how she enjoyed to search and to find all the objects in the twinkling of an eye ! But it was something new ...  She showed such a joy to search the objects that I repeat several times this experience. In fact, she really loved  searching the objects. Once, while a storm was raging, I threw an object on my right and another one on my left, then I came back home to take Lénidiège. I asked her to search the objects. I was surprised by her behaviour : the wind brought her directly the scent of one of the objects, but perhaps it was too much violent, she made a short detour to arrive behind the object, so the wind was throwing away the scent, but she find the object easily ; she find the second one too, because the wind was also bringing the scent far away from her. I thought that first she had recognized crudely the place where the object was laying, but that the violence of the wind prevented her to locate precisely. So I used her pleasure to search the objects to make her search the track too. When I put her at the beginning of the track, I asked her "where is the object ?" and that was a wonder sentence ! Little by little, she gave up to try to bother me, while she was enjoying more and more to search both my track and the objects. But she was very often playing around while she was tracking. I learnt not to speak, not to ask, only sometimes I asked again "where is the object ?". Then, I was able to return to the training club again, about 6 months after the fourth lesson. The instructor made her search directly the track of a stranger. In the "utilitarian searching", the dog must first search the beginning of the track in a large surface ; the owner open a plastic bag that contains an object with the smell of the stranger (plastic keeps smell), and sometimes during the searching, the dog can "ask" to smell again the object in the plastic bag. I had always began the searchings with my smell into a plastic bag, so Lénidiège understood immediately that she had to find on the ground the smell of the object in the plastic bag. But in town the beginning was generally a pavement, she wasn't used to search the beginning of the track inside a large surface, and for the first lesson after breaking off, she didn't succeed to start ; I asked the instructor to lead us to the beginning of the track, then she found it and she searched and found the whole track and all the objects, exactly as if that was my own smell like the previous times. We did several searchings with the track of a stranger. Once, I had to make a track, with objects, for the dog of another person, while he was making a track, with objects, for my bitch ; then I asked Lénidiège to search, always with an object in a plastic bag. She found all, but at a moment, while she was following the right track (the stranger's one), she find my own track and one of the objects that I had left for the other dog ; Lénidiège smelt my object during 1-2 minutes, but she didn't lay down (I taught her to lay down near an object if this object is searched, because in town a lot of other objects could be met, but she had to show only the right ones) ; then she continued to follow the stranger's track, and not mine, she knew perfectly what she had to do. But, while she was 12-13 months old, I got health problems and I couldn't walk any more during a few weeks, so no more training ! Unfortunately, I couldn't drive my car during several months too, the training club was at about 50 km far from my home, and Lénidiège never returned to a training club. But she enjoyed so much searching (and I did too), it would have been a pity to give up ! We continued to "work" together in the town or in the fields just around. So all the tracks were mine, with a more or less long time between my walk to make the track and her searching. Once, in the autumn 1992, I took her in a quiet path between fields, no one could be seen there. The track in the field, with 2 objects, that was more than easy. But, while she was beginning to follow my track, she saw a rabbit running away ; of course she tried to run after it, only "try" because I was at the other end of the leading rein, and I couldn't run like her ... So the rabbit outdistanced us easily ! When it disappeared far away from us, Lénidiège stopped running. Then I asked her a very embarrassing question that clearly hurt her feelings : "Where is the object ?" I saw immediately that she wanted to find it (offended !), so I didn't help her at all. Of course we were far away from the track and the objects ! She came back far enough before the beginning of the track, then she was able to find again the smell, and she made her usual "job" easily. Another day, I had just come home after having made a track with objects, and a thunder storm happened ; it rained violently during a few hours, then it was too late to go to search the objects. The following day, I tried to make Lénidiège search, I didn't know what she would do, the track had been made 18 hours before ... But that didn't disturb her at all. Lénidiège found easily the beginning of the track on the road. But she stayed on the road while I had walked on the field to put an object. I knew that she didn't like mud and when I saw that she often turned her head in the direction of my track, I thought that she knew where it was, but that she preferred to walk on the road ; when she arrived near the object, she continued on the road, but I asked her "Where is the object ?", and she accepted to go in the sodden earth to show me the object, then she returned immediately on the road, although my track was still in the field. But suddenly she turned left to enter in a (sodden too) field on the side of a little wood : it was exactly my track, this time she couldn't avoid to walk into mud ...  An object was hanging in the brushwood, inside the little wood, but the previous day, I put it there from the field ; she didn't react when she walked in front of it, I didn't do anything too ; then she turned suddenly and entered into the wood, that wasn't at all my track, but she was walking with determination, and I was thinking that she was searching another smell (animals), but I let her do as she wanted ; I was very surprised to see that she arrived to the hanging object, she raised her head to it to show it, because it was above us, so she had recognized the object from the field but she had considered that she couldn't arrive to it by the field, she had to find another way to go near it. Then she came back to the real track and found another object. She continued to follow the track, but when she arrived near the last object, she didn't show it ; it was a rag, it was still completely full of water and she didn't show it even when I put her near it, it seemed that the fact that the rag was still full of water made her unable to recognize my own smell. Once, during a track inside the town, we were walking near a garage where the petrol odour was then so intense that I was feeling sick ; Lenidiège followed the track as if there wasn't at all this odour : was she able to smell my own scent in spite of this strong odour ? Or did she followed the pavement till she could smell normally again, expecting to find again my track there, or to be able to search it around ? In town, we were often meeting a lot of other objects, and too excrements (of dogs or cats) ; of course Lénidiège showed only the objects with my smell, generally she laid down herself near it, as I had taught her, but if the ground wasn't good enough for her (mud, rough weeds, ....) she preferred to sit or to stay standing without moving, if the object was above us, she raised the head to it, etc. Among all the objects that we could find during a searching in town, my own objects weren't glaring obvious for me ; but it seemed that Lénidiège didn't recognize them immediately too, I was astonished to see how much she worked with her eyes and not only with her nose ; smelling at a distance seems to be an effort and it seems to be more easy to work with the eyes : when she saw an object on the ground, she didn't smell at a distance to know if it was a right or a wrong one, but she went near it and really put her nose on it and only if she recognized my smell she stopped and showed it. Lénidiège was generally walking quietly, as "only for a walk", when she was following a track ; when she had the nose on the ground, it was always for another smell that pleased her (other dogs or animals, ...) ; in fact, she was doing a lot of other things while she was following my track, only from time to time she was checking that she was still on the right track. Lénidiège had a track in town about every week till I left this little town to live in a hamlet among fields. Then I made tracks only in the paths between the fields. At this time, I began to try to make Kirandàly search too. But such tracks were really too easy for Lénidiège, who liked to overcome difficulties. So I tried both to make her search other scent than mine, and to cover the track too. I was alone as a human being, and I tried to make Lénidiège search the scent of one of my other dogs, the one whose smell was inside a plastic bag (I put a little hair of one dog in the plastic bag, and a few collars on his/her neck to become objects with the dog's scent).  I walked with the chosen dog in the paths, then I walked with each other dog but Lénidiège in the same area, and after that - after the right track and 4 other tracks to cover the right one - I took Lénidiège and asked her to search the track and the objects according to the smell into the plastic bag. Although Lénidiège had searched only on my own smell for more than 3 years, she followed the track of the dog according to the plastic bag scent, and so she found the objects too. I made several time this kind of tracking, once in the snow, snow doesn't disturb at all tracking dogs. So I tried to make Kirandàly tracking too. My Kuvasz male was then nearly 2 years old. Normally, the dog must begin to learn tracking by searching his own master, but I was alone, and I couldn't both be hidden and lead the dog. I thought to ask Kirandàly to search his bitch, after a walk with her, I took Kirandàly on the same path and I asked him : "Where is Lénidiège ?" Finally, Kirandàly enjoyed this new game, perhaps because of more or less jealousy of the bitch, who had her walk before him.  The first time, the circuit was short, with 2 right angles and then a collar with Lénidiège's scent. As soon as I came home with the bitch, I took Kirandàly and asked him to search her, while smelling myself on the ground, expecting that he would understand. Kirandàly walked on the path where we was at the beginning, but at the first crossroads, he showed clearly that he hadn't understood, so I sniffed again on the ground with the same words, and I led him in the good path ; at the second crossroads, I did the same but just before the crossroads, and he and not me chose the direction : it was the right one, so I congratulated him ; then he found the collar, he smelled it but he seemed not to be interested. A few weeks later, I tried again to make Kirandàly search Lénidiège's track. I knew that Kirandàly would have quickly refused to do what I wanted if the time between 2 searchings was too short. This time, Kirandàly seemed to have understood, and memorized too, because he followed exactly the right track. But the objects didn't interest him at all. The following day, I took Kirandàly for a walk just after coming home with Lénidiège, but I didn't ask Kirandàly to search her, because I was afraid that he would have refused to "work" if I asked too much. But less a Kuvasz is asked and more he enjoys to work ! And Kirandàly followed exactly the track of the bitch, although I didn't ask him anything. He seemed to enjoy, at least when I didn't ask him ! With the bitch, I had looped back, and I was astonished that Kirandàly had followed the loop in the right way, although that wasn't natural according to the situation. I wonder whether he could differentiate 2 walks at an interval of about 10 minutes, or whether he could know the walking direction. So, two weeks later, I tried the same experience, walking with Lénidiège on exactly the same circuit but I looped back in the opposite direction. Kirandàly followed exactly our track. Then, a week later, always with Lénidiège, I looped back 2 times, so at the first crossroads (like a T), and about 1 hour later, Kirandàly found both our first track  going left and our second track going right : Kirandàly followed the whole track in chronological order, and without any hesitation, so he turned first right, looped back like us, continued right in front of him at the T crossroads, to loop back home like Lénidiège and me. So he was able to differentiate chronologically different tracks. The following day, I didn't want to ask him to "work", he could have considered that I asked too much ! I took first Lénidiège for a walk, but not in the paths between the fields, but on the road that leads to the village (the hamlet is at about 2 km far from its village) ; I had just a letter to put in the letter-box, then I turned and came back home. I took Kirandàly for his walk, in the paths because I didn't want to make him search Lénidiège. Kirandàly looked at the road where we came, but then he joined the first path. He followed exactly the circuit of the previous day, but when we arrived near my home, he turned to the road that leads to the village : so he had followed the whole track of Lénidiège, first the track of the previous day (2-3 km), then the one we'd just made (4-4,5 km). But when we were at the letter-box, Kirandàly seemed not to know what to do, he was searching around and seemed not to understand : the track had disappeared because we turned and go back ! I showed him the track beginning to go back, but then I thought that I would have better done to wait and see how he would solve the problem ! Kirandàly followed the pavement like Lénidiège and me, but I was surprised that he turned suddenly to go to a large box (for glass collection) : I went there with Lenidiège but only when we were going back, not when we were going to the letter box ; so Kirandàly followed exactly the first track, from hamlet to village, and the second one, from village to hamlet, and he differentiated 2 tracks made at an interval of a few minutes (the large box was at about 20-30 m far from the letter-box). The previous day, after the walks with Lénidiège and Kirandàly, I had taken my 4 other dogs for a walk in the same area, so Kirandàly was searching Lénidiège's track, and not mine, because he wasn't at all disturbed by my other walks with the other dogs. To find the track of someone about 24 h 30 after he walked, that seemed so to be as much easy as natural for a dog ! During the winter - in 1996 -, while a lot of snow were still on the ground, I tried to make Kirandàly search another dog than Lénidiège, after having covered the track with another dog (but not Lénidiège) ; I chose Kristàlyos to be searched, the little Mudi male has always been the preferred Mudi of Kirandàly ! He didn't really want to search Kristàlyos, but I used words that always worked miracles with him : I asked him to be gentle, and he searched and found the right track. He met too the object that I had put to make Lénidiège search the track of my Briard, he seemed to be interested with it. So the following week, I tried a short circuit with my Briard and an object with her scent : Kirandàly seemed to enjoy the objects. For the first time, I had put some hair in a plastic bag to make him know what scent he had to search. In spring 1996, I made a circuit with 3 objects and 2 angles, and with my Briard, then I covered the track by walking with Lénidiège. Kirandàly followed the right track and found the objects. But this time was the last. I had health problems again and I couldn't walk normally during a few years. Then Lénidiège died, she was only 6. I didn't try again to make my ageing Kirandàly, nor my second Kuvasz bitch, search any tracks. 16-18/04/07 Isabelle Coquinot Back to "Dogs of my own Contents Back to Home