The Koehler Method of Training Tracking Dogs [Hardcover]

William R. Koehler (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1984

For search and rescue work, to assist in law enforcement, and to compete in Tracking Tests, here is all the preparation you and your dog will need.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 143 pages
• Publisher: Howell Book House; 1st edition (June 1984)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0876057660
• ISBN-13: 978-0876057667
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.8 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #218,759 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not for practical search work, April 19, 2005

By 

H. Houlahan (Pennsylvania, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Koehler Method of Training Tracking Dogs (Hardcover)

I can't speak to the usefulness of this book for training dogs for tracking competition, and will leave it for those who have experience in that sport.

I urge those who are interested in training for search and rescue to look elsewhere. The techniques in this book will not produce a dog who can do the job of SAR. Airscent work is not covered, and the foundational skill of a real trailing dog -- individual scent discrimination -- is not covered.

This would be fine -- it's perfectly okay to write a book on the stylized form of tracking done in competion -- but the author explicitly claims otherwise, and the cover photos and an entire chapter dramatize "the real thing" in a very unreal manner.

I am not one of those people who get together to burn Koehler's obedience training books every Saturday night. But this one is not for search and rescue responders or police canine officers.

I recommend the American Rescue Dog Association's book Search and Rescue Dogs: Training Methods for beginners. For those specifically interested in SAR trailing, consider Lue Button's Practical Scent Dog Training. Note that Amazon has her listed as "Lou" Button, but her name is LUE.

30 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Decent Method for Tough Dogs, July 28, 1998

By 

Nancy Fredian Pritz ([e-mail]) (Champaign, Illinois) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Koehler Method of Training Tracking Dogs (Hardcover)

Koehler method's are appropriate for dogs who are tough and forgiving. For dogs who are soft or unforgiving of aggressive methods (such as Doberman Pinschers, Border Collies and many other breeds) softer methods must be used for satisfactory results. This book is good to understand tracking theory but many may prefer to use another method to actually train their dog.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Interesting Read for Koehler Fans, November 5, 2007

By 

R. H. Hardin "rhhardin" (OH United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Koehler Method of Training Tracking Dogs (Hardcover)

It's a specific exercise that's fun to train and fun to do ; and based on Koehler's forced fetch, in the Open Obedience book. If you haven't trained that way, probably you won't get anywhere with this book.

It works. You get a dog that will start on a track and stay on it, even if it's crossed by more interesting scents ; and take it as engaging work.

That said, I think Koehler didn't actually try running the exercises he gives, which are well out of the range of real possibility, time-wise. I don't think anybody could follow them out for long after the first few exercises.

However, with the forced fetch approach taught at the beginning, you can easily extend the tracks with the same correction principle on your own, and it works on your Koehler-trained dog.

I always recommend two essays from Vicki Hearne's ``Adam's Task,'' the chapters on Washoe and How To Say Fetch, for an understanding of Koehler and what he's achieving. If what she writes makes sense to you, you can use Koehler. If not, look elsewhere. You'll certainly misunderstand him.

Worked for my three Dobermans.