10/08/2025
“Trust your dog” has been a bugaboo of mine for years. John Rice explains why…
Do not “Trust your Dog” when training or working your dog, consider “listen to your dog”. This may seem like semantics, however it is more than that. It is a mindset and a shift in training. As students and instructors you will hear or say “trust your dog”. If this occurs it is a good indication that you are testing, even if you think you are training.
I will use the term “tracking” although you may insert any nose discipline. As you are working your dog and run into a problem, your instructor or spotter shouts out “trust your dog”. What exactly does that mean? It means that the observer has more knowledge of the situation than you do. For them to know more, you know less. For instance, you have arrived at a turn or difficult scenting condition, the dog reacts to the scent/odor consistent with where a track or odor is located. The dog has cast around, and then starts moving in a direction with the handler standing, or preventing the dog from moving forward. We then hear “Trust your dog”. This does not teach the handler anything. It is clear that the handler has failed to read their dog and conditions. The handler is in a situation where they do not know where the track is and do not know how to read their dog. We are hoping the dog does it’s job with us failing to be able to read and understand what is happening. Using the excuse "I was waiting for them to commit" means you missed all the things the dog was telling you earlier.
Look at it with the concept of listening to your dog. If the problem is at a turn, and you do not know it is a turn, or what direction it goes, re-learn how to lay tracks, or improve communication with tracklayer. IF you do not know where the track is, it’s a test that you have never studied for. Running a blind track without the ability to read your dog sets you up for mistakes. Knowing where your track is allows you to look for the good that you can reinforce. It allows you to focus on when the behavior is a match for what you expect. In the big picture the dog is using it’s ability to find the source of the scent or odor you are working. They are good at that. What we should be doing is looking for those moments that the dog is working in the style we want. When we shift our mindset and truly pay attention we will see all the nuances that the dog shows us when on task. Knowing where the track is, taking into consideration the conditions they are working under gives one the unique opportunity to praise when the dog is performing the way we would like. We also learn what the dogs speed, gate, and body carriage looks like when they are on task. Watching for these changes and reinforcing them, which may be fleeting at the beginning, teaches us to see the subtle changes between “on”, “slightly off”, or nothing to find.
We are not training the dog to scent, we are teaching it to use part of its scenting abilities in parameters that we want. For instance if we are expecting the dog to track, we are looking for nose down in the track. More than that we are looking for that combination of movement that occurs when they have their nose down and are "on". Every dog is going to have its own unique body carriage when they are working a track. Not having to be thinking of where the track is we can focus on the dog and reinforce that behavior. When one understands the shift between on, slightly on and off, praise can be given at the correct time. This praise can continue into blind tracks since you are looking for specific body nuances that indicate the dog is on.
On my first NAPWDA tracking test I initially was told I failed. I knew how to read my dog. I knew when they were on a track and when they were slightly off. The track I was given was a mix of pavement and vegetation in an urban park setting. I was given a start location of a 2 hour old track on a concrete path with the instruction that the track layer stood next to a refuse barrel. I started the dog and off we went with the dog in what I saw as a perfect tracking position. The dog was on and I knew it. I was continually praising as we briskly traveled on the pavement. After a short distance I was called off and informed we failed. I know my dog. I know it’s ability. I told the evaluator that my dog was on the scent presented to it. I then asked them to check with the track layer as to what the contents of the refuse barrel was when they laid the track. I was informed that it did not matter what was in the barrel and my dog was wrong. I stated again that my dog was correct and asked if they knew whether someone else had stood next to the barrel during the aging time, and if not to provide me with a scent article since the designated scent pad could have been contaminated. Begrudgingly they admitted that they did not know if someone else had stood there and obtained a scent article. I re-scented the dog on the article near the barrel, the dog casted a bit and locked in on the track. We completed our certification on pavement and grass through walkers and picnics without any wavering including finding keys the track layer did not know he lost. The response? “That’s one hell of a tracking dog”. This was only possible because I knew how this dog worked, listened to her and could read her.
The focus of all training was to read and listen to the dog. There was no guessing or hoping involved. There was no “trust your dog”, there was only listening and reading the dog. There were other factors that assisted to make this possible, the dog was structurally correct, physically capable, and the harness allowed for unrestricted movement. Her training was focused on reinforcing what was expected and reading her body language.
How do you get to this point? It will require going back and doing some basic training for the handler. Lay some 3 leg tracks with the wind predominately behind you on the first and third leg. Regardless of your discipline this will cause the dog to stay on the track for 2 legs and create predictable results based on your discipline. The first and third leg will allow the handler to see the body language the dog shows when on or near a track. This is the positioning that you should praise and fix into your memory. As you repeat additional tracks set up the same way, the second leg is where you get to practice reading what your dog is telling you and praise when the dog is in position. You can adjust aging and distances as you need. Start with some shorter tracks to accustom yourself to truly paying attention to the dog. Continue with tracks laid this way until you feel you can read the dog in known conditions. Re-lay later tracks with legs one and three cross wind and leg two into the wind. You should now know what your dog looks like on task. Only after you are sure that you can read your dog and conditions should a blind track be attempted.
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Suggested studies:
https://suzanneclothier.com/daily-observation-practice-dog-training-habits/
