Customer Reviews

Tracking Dog: Theory & Methods

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I had never tracked a dog before. I followed this book step by step and in about 3 months I sucessfully completed my first tracking test and had put a T.D. on my dog. A lot of work is involved but worth every minute when your dog has that title!

This book sets down a well thought out, step by step system for teaching any dog tracking. Mr. Johnson lets you know up front that teaching a dog anything is time consuming but well worth taking the time. I have used this book and know that if you follow it it works!

This book is for the tracking enthusiast only! If you are looking for an interesting dog book, look somewhere else. But if you are looking for serious tracking info, this is your book. Few pictures (all black and white), excellent info! This book is for the person serious about tracking, believe me if you are not serious about this sport do not buy this book you will not like it. Tracking persons will appreciate the technically explained by the author which will help them understand better their dogs and dog's behavior. Excellent for trackers, not recomended for anyone else.

I was brand new to tracking, until I read this book. Great for beginners or advanced. Easy reading and written well. Very helpful.

I have been professionally training dogs for 30 years and have been training/handling tracking dogs for 20 years or so. I decided to read this book upon recommendation from a friend.....and it has been worth every minute I have spent reading it! The text is extremely easy to read, no technical long words or theories, just plain English. Although I may not use the initial stages as described, I will implement quite a bit of Glen's ideas into my training. His description of scent, especially the difference between fresh and aged, is an eye-opener. It has really cleared up my understanding and experiences from the field. Recommended!

For those of you looking to train a serious working dog, this is the book for you.

I have a police service K-9 and utilized the training found here to help my dog (German Shepherd).

But not all dogs can do this so, the selection tests at the begining of the book were a great help.

Well worth the needed concentration assuming you are a tracking dog enthusiast/wannabe. Detailed descriptions and instructions from A to Z. I wish there were more text books like this one.

This book was writtten by the guru himself.All thruout the book which is easy to understand the writer is very confident and shares his knowledge and expieriences.This book is very informative and great for the beginner to the expert.

This is not a book for training hound type dogs, this is a good book for any one that is training a police dog, or any other type of dog that can only track a scent two hours old. This book is great for teaching any dog to track that otherwise would have no interest in tracking game. A dog not part of the scent hound family. Hope this helps..

Reading fluency: 7/10
Content information: 10/10
Entry level requirement: 1/10

This book is a landmark. Here are some reasons why:
The author used the methods described here and had an incredible high rate of success passing the TD (Tracking Dog) and TDX (Tracking Dog Excellent) with dogs of all shapes and sizes.
Johnson uses no corrections, in his attempt to encourage the dog and to build up its confidence.
It's exceptionally detailed, with concise tracking schedules, useful for someone who doesn't know much about tracking, doesn't really want to learn the "why"s and just wants to start tracking.
Every concept is well presented and explained, so that Johnson's conclusions can be understood.
You can benefit a lot from it whether you're just interested in having fun with your dog, or whether you wish to enter in serious competitions.
Covers everything to do with tracking, from selecting a puppy, to wearing the right outfit.

There are a few cons, naturally:
Although the author does state the minor differences between TD/TDX and IPO/HF, his problem solving technics are geared towards the TD and not towards some specific IPO problems; the solutions to most of these problems are within the book, Johnson just didn't treat them as a whole. In other words, you can probably get high IPO3 or HF using this book alone, but you need to recognize problems and find the solutions within the book yourself.
There are a couple of (minor) better technics that are available now (haven't found them in other books, though), but they would only come in play when trying to get really great scores.