How k9 Nature Scouting is Different from Wildlife Tracking

Have you ever taken your dog with you on a wildlife tracking expedition?  If you have and you are an experienced wildlife tracker you likely noticed it is not the same as tracking by yourself.  In fact you may have even been frustrated by the experience.  The dog may have stepped all over the tracks you were trying to follow, maybe you were trying to pull your dog away from the scat or dead animals they found, the dog may have been moving so fast along the track that you felt you did not have time to look deeply at your surroundings.  Likewise, if you have ever been for a hike with your dog, you are likely to find that the experience of Nature Scouting with your dog is a whole different experience.  If you just “take your dog along for the ride” on either a hike or when tracking, you're both experiencing nature, but separately.  However, if you allow your dog to be your “Scout”, to be the one who is out in front, finding and searching, it’s a whole new experience, one where you are likely to find all kinds of things you never would have noticed on your own because dogs experience the world through a different lens.  A lens strongly influenced through their amazing olfactory system!

Your job in this whole arrangement is to be the “Guide”.  

You’ll decide where to go to look for animal signs, you’ll decide how best to keep yourself, your dog and the wildlife safe. 

And you’ll probably want to learn to identify some of the awesome sign your dog finds out in nature (although your dog won’t care if you can’t tell the difference between racoon scat and coyote scat or between skunk tracks and fox tracks)
 You will likely want to teach your dog a few “tracking etiquette” rules such as either a solid stay or how to calming be tethered a short distance away so you can measure and assess tracks, scat and other sign.  You’ll also want to learn some techniques to redirect your dog’s natural predatory and (ahem) scavenging instincts.  

Don’t worry if this seems like a lot. Remember dogs and people have been exploring nature and looking for wildlife together for a very long time.  We will go over some really great ways to work on training these skills.  It takes time and a lot of patience to cultivate a “K9 Scout” & “Human Guide” relationship– but it’s worth it and in doing so you’ll join the ranks of a long line of our ancestors who came before us.