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My tracking system

I have built up my tracking system in long term practice. In experience, what I have got training with different dogs (different breed and different individuals). I have been training dogs since 1994. For me it felt, that in obedience and bitework there is a lot of technical work and handlers give to dogs very much black and white feedback. In tracking there is much much more gray for the dogs. As much as for handlers it is difficult to understand how and what the dog feels in certain moments in tracking, handlers want to give also black and white feedback. So they love to turn tracking into obedience. Then it is easier to handlers to give feedback. But tracking is not obedience. Obedience trained dogs manage in situations, where everything is very standardized. When you look the results of IGP world championships, there is always huge number of dogs failing in tracking. Much much higher than in obedience and bitework. Tracking is so much easier to the dogs than obedience and bitework, as there is so much less exercises and it is more  natural to the dogs. So it is clearly shows, that people train wrong things. Dog nose is so good, that IGP 3 track is like highway to the dog. Dog can smell handler fingerprints from the wine glass even 6 weeks has passed. 1 hour old track is so much easier. In my experience 6 months old puppy can track IGP3 track  very nicely and get a result, as much as this is so natural for the dog.

I train my group dogs 1-2 times in every week. The rest of the time handlers train by my advices and schemas I draw. In my group I have trained very different breeds – malinois,  german shepherd, doberman, rotweiler,  schnautzer, border collie, bauceron . All these breed dogs I have trained both to the FH and IGP results. Number of dogs I have trained until different  results is over 100. I have also been making tracking seminars for 15 years. There is a lot of handlers who have participating in my seminars and call me after they have succeeded in different championships. I am really happy of this, but I would not never calculate them as my trainees as much as they are training by themselves. I understand, that ideas in my seminars have helped them a lot and I am thankful, that they remember me, it makes my soul feel warm but anyhow it is their work. So I do not post their videos and results in here.
I have also trained my own dogs and compeated with doberman and malinois and succeeded in IGP and FH nicely. In the end of this text I will put also some videos of my own dogs tracking.
With my own dog Daneskjold Hawk I managed to achieve 3rd place at the Estonian IPO-FH Championships with result 183 points (91/92) in and qualified to the FCI IPO-FH World Championships as reserve dog when he was just 2,5 years old. Steps of the different stages of his training are well visible also in this

My trainees from my group have been over last 10 year always every year in podium of different IGP and FH championships in Estonia. Nearly every year someone has compeated also in world championships.
Best result of my trainees in tracking is Kaidi Luik with Kiirastulen Eetu got 100 points in FCI IGP world championships 2024 in Croatia in quite difficult conditions, where a lot of dogs failed. There is several trainees who have got in different world championships tracking results very good or excellent. Not a single dog from my training group has failed in tracking in different  championships.

Now I will tell about basics – how I train and what I consider most important in tracking. If we speak about training tracking, I think the worst misconception is this one, that a lot of the handlers want to teach tracking to their dogs. As all dogs know, how to use the nose and can track from the first weeks of their life already, and at the same time, no handler can track, this way of thinking (we teach the dogs to track) leads to many mistakes. Handlers mess up the things that dogs own by nature. These mistakes are creating conflict to the dogs, make the training unnecessarily complicated and slow down the training process considerably. 

Another problem rises from the situation, that many handlers are often somewhat afraid of moving on and making more demanding tracks to their dogs, so dogs are not used to track with stress and solve problems under stress. So if dogs come across a problem during the track, they start to behave hectic and do not try to solve the problem. Dog’s sense of smell, ability to concentrate and rely on his nose are all dependent of dog’s self-confidence and overall state of mind. So the dog who is not used to working under stress, can make mistakes even on a really easy track, as his senses are blocked because of his nerves.
Here is the video of the same dog, who tracked 100 points, in the age of 1 year. When you look the video you see, that the steps are not seeable (otherwise dog would not act, as acting) and dog works really independently and solving problems with nice self confidence. 

I start with puppies as soon as they arrive to their new home. As a first thing I try to create maximal motivation as quickly as possible and make the first image of tracking really positive for the dog. The most important thing in this step is to move on quickly. If you train too long in this manner (food in every step, very similar tracks), dog won’t develop and he gets used to the idea, that tracking is just eating from this particular kind of ground. Also there is a big risk that dog will be leaded by handler and will start to use his head (following handler’s instructions) instead of the nose. I prefer to move on quickly.

But in this situation it is really important that the dog gets the right kind information at every level and that there will not be holes in the “road”. The meaning of the first step is to build motivation and create a positive picture. To achieve this, I start with three short tracks (30-40 steps) laid after little pauses. Food is in every step plus more food at the end. The first track is steps at once (no tunnel or circle or square). I think that this is more honest towards the dog, if the track is as similar as possible to the one necessary in the future. Steps will be very small and there is just a little space between them, but anyhow they are steps. I also make corners already in first tracks. I like the puppy to feel, that track can turn, so he will be introduced to more real tracking right away. I take the puppy from the car, carry him to the starting pole and put him on the ground telling “track” and letting the dog move on. Usually in the first track the dog does not understand the meaning of the tracking. So I also help him. At the end I praise the puppy a lot and carry him back to the car. After 5 minutes I take the puppy again from the car and make second track and then after 5 more minutes comes the third time. This way the motivation is built up and dogs gets very sure picture what we do in the field. Usually one training is enough to reach the goal that is important in this step. When I work with the puppy, I always track with him from the first steps. I want to show him, that we are searching together and I am all the time with him. This is also important for the next step, when I start to introduce corrections in tracking. If necessary, I make also the second training with three tracks, but most often one time like this is enough. 

Next step is to show to the puppy, what I want from him, when I tell him to track. The goal of this step is to give to the dog the right – black and white – picture of tracking. Usually from 2nd or 3rd training I lay little longer tracks (about 50-60 steps), still food in every step and with corners. And again, I work closely together with the puppy, praising all the time for the right work, but also giving negative feedback for wrong moves. Not the kind of corrections, what make puppy to feel uncomfortable or sad, but more like feedback, what is the idea. I do not put any pressure to the dog as much as I want, that dogs solves the problems in older age by himself and actively It is amazing how quickly dogs understand, what handler wants, if it is shown in a black and white way. In this stage handler must be really-really careful, that the dog maintains the previously created image, that tracking is a lot of fun. So the corrections and motivation must be balanced in this way, that there would be more motivating moments than getting negative emotions. That is also the reason why I work closely together with puppy. If I would stand up straight and then felt the need to give negative feedback or praise at some point, I would have to come to the level of the dog and the puppy could become afraid of this situation where I suddenly lean over him. As I described for the previous stage, there is also a need to move on quite quickly in this one. As the dog is getting a lot of feedback from the handler (both positive and negative), he may easily acquire a picture, that the handler is tracking instead of him. I also start changing the fields and surfaces at an early stage, as anyhow there is food that is helping the dog to track. I want the dog to get the experience of different grounds as early as possible (before the picture of tracking has developed on the basis of just one type of ground). The dog that has not so many experience about tracking at this point, will understand, that the normal track also contains corners. In the same way I introduce cross-tracks and different grounds.

Next thing I change is taking food occasionally away from the track. I do not want the dog getting the picture, that tracking is just eating in the field. I also like the idea that dog would get the pure smell of the disturbed ground, not this smell mixed with food smell as soon as possible. I took 5 -7 -9 steps without food then 5-6 with food and again without etc. When I take the food away, I still continue with my positive and negative signals the same way as I did earlier. So this familiar thing is helping the puppy to go to through the empty steps. I start to make tracks with empty parts inside already during the 8-12th training, depending on the dog. 

As I do not want the dog to consider my positive and negative signs as inseparable part of tracking, I try to start giving independence to dog as soon as possible. If you have made the start in the proper way, it is possible already around the same time (8-10th training). 

After the first 3-4 trainings I try to age the tracks more and go at once to 1-hour tracks. The purpose of this is to let the dog know, that this kind of smell also exists. Also, as there is less smell of the owner on the 1-hour track, this makes it clearer to the dog, that he should be following the scent of disturbed ground when working the track.  I make cross-tracks, they are about 5-10 minutes old, so the dog can definitely smell the difference. As previously stated about corners, the cross-tracks are also introduced with food being near them to help the dog in the beginning. If dog goes to the cross-track, I am not correcting him first, but I letting the dog check this smell. Sometimes they decide to come back by themselves. But if the dog won’t come back, then I make the correction after being sure, that the dog really smelled the difference of the tracks. Dog must learn that he needs to control and analyze, not be like a robot, but on the same time he must be accurate enough.

When the dog has done about 20 tracks, it has gone through a lot of the pieces of the final track, such as empty footsteps, corners, different grounds (also more difficult), crossing tracks and also different ages of the track. I also use more leash length while tracking and have the surface changing within the track (see videos). Of course it is very important to make things right. If handler moves forward too quickly or makes things in a wrong way, he can also make dog unsecure, lacking self-confidence; teach him to run or circle and wonder off from the track. So it is really important, that handler uses its voice, hands and leash correctly. Inappropriate praising or correcting or a lack of them at the right moment can have bad consequences. All these new and a little difficult tasks for the dog must be carried out in this way, that the motivation of the dog would not disappear, but increase all the time. Even correction can actually increase motivation, if it is done correctly and dog basically knows the process of activation from the negative feedback. My idea is, that the dog experience the track in age of the puppy not like a model, but that there is everything – corners, cross tracks, from one surface to other etc. So dog understands, that track is just a track.

After puppy knows all basic things and works nicely on different surfaces I just start to build his self-confidence and give even more experience. As puppy’s ability to learn and analyze things is limited, I cannot move on with difficult and stressful tracks too quickly. But there is still really a lot of possibilities to develop the puppy and only limit is owner’s fantasy. So as next step I will start to work with dog’s self-confidence and right attitude on the track. It needs a lot of “playing” with different surfaces, grounds, lengths and schemas of the track. I always plan track in this way, that every part of it is playing certain role. This means, that for example, I put food just in these places, were I assume, that the dog will show the right attitude and state of mind when tracking. So food will be like a reward for this. To get the dog to the right state of mind, I use corners and different traps in the track. During the track I try to make the dog tracking in this way, that he would come to the trap or corner in the right way and I could use this element to change the mood of the dog. So element by element I guide the dog towards the right attitude and state of mind and at this point dog finds food.
Here is a video of Hawk 5 month old making tracking from one surface to other and back.

With young dogs it is necessary to make sure, that the tracks won’t be so difficult every time, that the dog would loose the fight against the track. Dog must always win the track. That means that if one day there is a difficult track, then another day there has to be a recovery. But recovery is also not just doing a track, it must still have a certain idea inside. For example, track will be easier for the dog, if handler makes more negative feedback or if there is food at the more difficult places. A negative feedback can also have this kind of influence to the dog, that it helps the dog and leads him to the right speed of tracking etc. So these recovery tracks can be for example working with left-right-left-right tracking technique. This kind of track is easy enough to raise the motivation of the dog and at the same time we had little improvements in the technique. 

Here is video of the dog, who trained with me and made several highest track scores in different Estonian championships. Here is video of this dog age 5 months and 4/5 steps without food

Here is video of my own dog in age 6 months.

If it is obvious, that dog feels self-confident and knows the basics of the tracking, I start to build up more of the right attitude. Usually the dog’s age is over one year at this point. Right attitude means, that the dog must be worried about track. He must be motivated enough about reaching the end of the track, but at the same time he must be worried about losing the track. I build it up in this way, that I play a lot with the leash. The leash can be used different ways – 

a) It can be like a correction
b) It can be like a praise
c) It can raise the drive
d) It can help
e) It can make dog unsecure
f) It can make dog secure

I want to work in the way, that dog cannot read me. I keep leach differently and I also act sometimes crazy, so dog cannot trust me, but needs to work and solve by himself. That builds up the self confidence.

I set up the tracking schema in this way, that there will be corners and traps. When working the track, I can choose to let dog “running free“ over the corner, the leash is completely loose. In this case the dog finds out, that the help (partner behind him) is disappearing and he must work the situation out by himself. Very often this makes dogs work more carefully and they will start to worry more for the track. If the dog runs too far, then I give a correction with my voice and demand, that dog must be more careful and start searching with the right attitude. It is quite easily visible, when a dog gets too free working the track, from one moment he will be having wrong attitude and this is right time for negative feedback. When dog shows with his body language, that he does not care about losing the track and he feels like doing whatever comes to mind (running or circling or just sniffing around), then there is the right moment for negative feedback. On this level I do not correct for not being accurate anymore, but I correct the wrong attitude. That’s because on this level the dog already knows how to track. Usually he is still not tracking correctly in this sense, that he is not having the right attitude yet. So correcting about the attitude will immediately make the dog tracking in the right way. Letting the dog run over the corner and loosing both – the track and the handler – feels like double negative for the dog. He notices that the handler is not satisfied and rises the voice at him and in the same time he has lost the track and all of this is very unpleasant. I try to make this part as unpleasant to the dog as possible. I also do not help the dog in this situation, as I want to see, that dog finds out, that if he loses the track, he needs to find it by himself. So with this activity I can teach two things to the dog: 
a) that if he is going to the wrong state of mind, he will lose the track and this will be a really bad situation for him and he does not want to drop into this situation 
b) having stress in the situation, I teach the dog to handle the stress and work with stress 

After the puppy stage on the second year and on, my aim is to train the dog to have a right attitude to the track and work out of the stress. So I build up the stress with different things in the track. I want to teach the dog, how to work out of the stress. Dog sin competition need this skill as much as very often something strange can happen and dog need to know that he can win.

Here is interesting video of 4 young dogs working same time in the same field. One of these dogs is the Kiirastulen Eetu, who got 100 2024 FCI IGP world championships, second dog is Imzedrifts Nolan who made best track in all breed championships of Estonia in 2024 97 points and best track of the GSD championships 2023 also 97 point, third dog got 98 points in 2024 GSD Universal championships of Estonia. This is very much what I think about work of the dogs in the track. They need to be trained for everything, they need to be selfconfident and they need take care of the track.  These dogs are here 1,5 years old.

If I train like I described here, then it is also good in this way, that the dog never gets signals with leash in the same way. So the dog must be working by himself and not waiting signs from handler. 

I always try to show the dog, that if he has the right attitude and proper work, then I am as one team with him and help also with the leash. So the dog will feel, that we are on the same side and working together and his only responsibility is to work in a certain way. 

From this step I go on with just working with dog’s right attitude and state of the mind, as I believe, that there are two important things about tracking: 

a) the dog must be worried about track and about losing the track, then he works in a precise and correct way 
b) the dog must know, that working under stress is normal and he needs to find a way out of the situation. If there will be problems during tracking in the competition, then dogs knows, that this is just an exercise for him and he can win in this unpleasant situation. 

With a little older dogs (more than 1,5 years) I start to build tracks in this way, that if there is stress, then after solving the problem the dog won’t get food or peace, but is up against a new problem and even more stress. Then the dog knows in the future, that the dark tunnel can be long but in the end of it there will be still light. Very often in the trials we can see, that it’s not the first stressful part that is killing the dog in tracking, but the next one, as dog has learned, that when he finds the way out from the difficult part, then it is soon followed with food or help from the owner. But if in the real situation during the competition (not so much in IPO-3 but more in FH) the dog will lose some self-confidence with the first problem, then he cannot recover so quickly and he will be also little unsure about the next unpleasant moment and not tracking well. Very often he falls very quickly to the next hole. As he already feels not so well, the level of stress is rising very quickly. If it is not the second problem, then the third one surely kills the work. 

Like I said, with little older dogs (more than 1,5 years) I start to build tracks in this way, that I can make dog work and solve problems under the stress.

Here is one example of how I do this. This is 1 year and 10 months old dog. It is a 2,5 hours old track made by the owner. 30 minutes before going tracking, I went walking across the track with my dog . So there were cross-tracks made by me and my dog running around and playing in several places. At the end there was also a situation, where I made cross-track just 1 meter before the last corner and my dog came and took the reward (ball) from the end of the track. So there was a lot of things not letting the dog work in a right peaceful way. But if you look the video you will see how self-confidently the dog works the last long leg and last corner and all this is not creating a problem for her.

This exercise was built up in this way, that there were three different surfaces. The track started from dirt, which was quite hard and had little green inside. I wanted to make the dog immediately a little unsecure with a more difficult start, than she expected, then in this state of mind there would be the change of the ground and then crossing the deeper tractor tracks, just after a corner. The idea was to make the dog unsecure from the start and put her under stress. So as you can see, for the dog in this state of mind, it is easy to make the corner and track very close to the tractor track. Dog feels even so well, that there is no problem with making the next corner. But then the dog will start to feel a little too relaxed and because of this, she will circle too much. As there will be two traps on the way – the track is interrupted by stepping sharply to left or right, then the dog must find the solution. So I took the leash to give more help to the dog in the right way. You can see in the video, that after this the dog starts to track in a much more self-confident way and solves the first trap well. Then for the next trap I let leash much longer to get dog in this state of mind of working and solving situations more independently. You can see, that it won’t be a problem and the dog also solves the corner well. Then there is some food. The food is placed in the little “parking place” and there is a little more of it in quantity. So the dog gets the feeling, that she has worked the difficult parts and gets the reward. The idea of this food is also to provide little rest for the dog before the next longer leg with problems and also to mess a little with her mind, as getting so much food makes her more relaxed and not so worried.

On the next longer leg there are crossing tracks at two places. And as there are also articles, I know that these are also changing the dog’s state of mind. There is also little food in the some steps, to get the dog’s self-confidence higher and make the dog feel, that she can work this track easily. This is also like a trap. This is necessary for provoking a mistake at the first crossing. If she would have the right attitude, she would not fall into this trap. So at the first crossing the dog is going to the wrong track. I let her go, to be sure, that she understands the difference in the smell. After I saw, that the dog doesn’t see a problem in going to the wrong track that has more smell, I punished her for going to the wrong track and after dog would start to be stressed, I punished for wrong attitude. In this moment the dog feels really bad and will be much more precise after this. I help the dog a little with the leash, that she would get more self-confidence and after that I leave the dog work independently. As you can see, there is no problem for the dog at the next crossing and at the change of the ground. There are two purposes for going into the longer grass. First is to give the dog little rest for the last longer leg, but also to get her more relaxed (food also helps to achieve this), so that going back to the dirt will be little more difficult for the dog. Basically all the work, that was done on the first 2/3 of the track is just foreplay for the last 1/3. The idea of this track was to make the dog solve the problems under stress and show her, that she really manages to solve them and give her possibility to find the right state of mind. As you can see in the video, the dog is going from grass to dirt very accurately, she is not letting cross-tracks made by other dog, human or tractor confuse her and also she does the last corner perfectly even having crossing track just 1 meter from it. So the dog was tracking the last 1/3 part of the track in a perfect way, she got praised, she found peace and also the end of the track. So she learned, that if she works in this way, then she is winning the track and is unbeatable and also getting feedback, that this is the way the handler likes her to work and she will get positive reinforcement just for the right work. As I told before, this is the idea, how I like to train dogs. The dog must understand, that if he works in a right way, then he will win all problems, but if he works in a wrong way, then there will be really unpleasant consequences and not just because the handler makes corrections, but mostly because he creates next problems for himself. From the experience the dog will understand, that he really needs to work in a proper way.
I also make trainings like in this video to build up the experience for the dogs

Here is another interesting video I took in 2016. My dog was then 3 years old and won Estonian IGP- FH championships week after this video 🙂

All the things I wrote here about how I train, are just pieces about the whole conception. It is hard to explain everything within such a short story. The main idea of this article is to give some ideas for people, who are training dogs in tracking. Hopefully some of them got some. I also think, that it helps the people who have been to my seminars, as it explains the whole system. If you have some questions feel free to ask.
Here I will put some videos of my trained dogs (in my group):
Ruutipussi Nuutti and Taivo Maar FMBB 2017 tracking 96 point 

Estrellest Hurmuri Hundiin and Anu Oks best track  98 points of Estonian IPO Championships 2014


Estrellest Hurmuri Käbi & Merike Kungla  Estonian IPO-FH championships 2013 second place 186p (91+ 95)

Here is a video of border collie, who after made also FH1 result.

Here is her IGP2 track
Toberoi Etna & Leelet Kivioja IPO2 a = 86 p

Here is my own dogs tracks from different competitions
FMBB 2017 Daneskjold Hawk

Estonian championships IGP 2016 Daneskjold Hawk

IDC Doberman world championships IPO in 2009 Germany
Onaoma De-Light

FCI  World Championships IPO in 2009 Austria
Onaoma De-Light