Customer Reviews

The Koehler Method of Training Tracking Dogs

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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.

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.

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.

This book walks you through step by step the process of training and answers all the why and what if questions along the way.