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to CyberHound Some tracking trainers seem to believe the way to prepare for a tracking test is to run full-length tracks most of the time in training. This often means the dog leaves his best performance in the training field, and may become either bored or frustrated by the test.
It’s more important that your dog perform well at a tracking test than to perform well in training. I don’t hear other tracking trainers talk about peaking, so I thought it was about time to discuss it.
Marathon runners never run a full-length marathon (26.2 miles) in training. They usually run 8-12 miles a day, with perhaps a single long run of 15-20 miles once a week. Two weeks before a marathon, they start resting up, to build an energy reserve. Tracking dog trainers would be well advised to take a lesson from these endurance experts.
Kay and I have found that working short tracks in training, with specific goals for each training session, allows us to best prepare for a test. For the TD level, we usually train on tracks between 150 and 250 yards, with one to three turns. As we work age, article indication, or solve a particular problem, we don’t need to track more than this to get the point across to the dog. Also, this tends to keep the dog hungry for tracking, instead of bored or tired. Except for a certification or test, we never run a full length track.
In TDX, this philosophy is even more important. When working the various complexities of TDX like obstacles, crosstracks and age, we don’t want the dog to be tired after tracking for several hundred yards before encountering these things. So again, we use relatively short tracks, from 300 to 500 yards. We never run a full length TDX track in training anymore. NEVER. Since TDX dogs need more stamina than TD dogs, we roadwork the dogs at least three times a week, at a distance of at least one mile (about twice the length of a TDX track). This builds stamina, but does not create frustration like tracking long, difficult tracks all the time. Tracking, especially at the TDX or VST level, requires intense concentration, and is very exhausting at test-length distances.
Essentially, the idea of peaking is to train the various components separately, or in small groups, and not worry about putting them all together until a test. For TD, we work on age and turns primarily, until we are tracking at 30 minutes or so of age. Once we get to this age and the dog is tracking well, we try certification. Usually, there is no reason why a dog tracking two turns at 200 yards can’t track four turns at 450 yards, both at 30 minutes of age.
If successful at certification (the first peaking), we then focus on relaxing for a while and timing the training for a test. This may include a layoff, depending on the date of the test. We generally proof the dog between certification and the test, which consists of using different tracklayers, different fields and changes of cover. If possible, we try to track in the fields where the test will be held, to get the dog used to them. We’ve found that a 30-yard starter track, with food and glove, before a short main track (one turn, 100-150 yards) improves sluggish starts and leaves our dogs wanting more. We do this several times with dogs between certification and a TD test.
These same principles apply to TDX, but it takes more time, and in our relatively dry climate (Denver), we usually work just age, articles and obstacles until we get beyond three hours. We don’t work crosstracks until the track is more than three hours old, to duplicate test conditions. So, we usually work one or two things at each training session, without doing everything at once, all on relatively short tracks.
Some tracking trainers think they need to increase the level and intensity of training the last few weeks before a test, but we do exactly the opposite. Frantically working on last-minute problems often leads to overworking or peaking too early. We don’t track at all the week before the test.
Marathon runners know that their conditioning has about a two-week time lag, so nothing they do in the last week or so is going to improve the performance. The same idea applies to our four-legged "marathoners," especially at the more advanced levels (TDX and VST).