Fenzi Dog Sports Academy - SH201: IPO Tracking

Course Details

In Introduction to IPO Tracking, we taught the dogs how to follow the precise footsteps. Now, on to the fun part, following those footsteps to the articles! This course covers introducing articles to the track, by far the most important part of tracking for the dog. We also discuss in detail how to start skipping and taking away the food rewards in the track itself. This course is driven more by the gold spots as we work each team through a problem area each week. Terrain differences, weather, age, and common scent challenges are all covered in detail. Towards the end of the course, we also look at simple problem solving. Laying bait and articles intelligently on the track can help train your dog to solve those problems and emerge a more confident and independent tracker.

Participating teams should come out of this second IPO tracking course with enough knowledge and information to successfully earn up to an IPO 2 track. More “dirt time” will be needed than the 6 week course, though!

Here's a video to see some of our class skills:

Instructor: Shade Whitesel

Shade Whitesel (she/her) has been training and competing in dog sports since she was a kid. Always interested in how dogs learn, she has successfully competed in IPO/schutzhund, AKC obedience and French Ring. Her retired dog, Reiki vom Aegis, IPO 3, FH 1, French Ring 1, CDX, was 5th at the...(Click here for full bio and to view Shade's upcoming courses)

Sample Lecture

This week’s homework:

If you have the kinks worked out of the skills in the third video, then you can start this first homework assignment. First, consider that “article track” with the flag, no food and articles your “real track”. We are now going to add baited footsteps back into this track. It’s harder than it seems for your dog! The dog has to think about searching, eating, lying down, etc… so quite the multi-tasking sequence for your dog. This would be a sample of a straight track: Flag with article at start pad, 10 steps with no food, 3 baited footsteps, 7 steps, article, 12 steps, baited footstep, 3 steps, 2 baited steps, 10 steps, article, and so on like that. I want no food steps anywhere near the article. We are asking the dog to concentrate on two things, tracking and eating food, and tracking and indicating the articles. For most dogs this is not easy. This is the beauty of tracking! So many dogs can indicate articles, so many dogs can track like rockstars. It is the putting it together that separates out the great ones (and the efficient training!).

Here is One’s first time adding in food to the article track. As you can see he has a bit of a hard time and I get to do quite a bit of management at the articles. Evidently tracking outweighs articles by A LOT! (I actually love to see this. I’ve had two really good tracking dogs and both of them had a hard time at the articles at first. It was like they couldn’t see the point of stopping tracking…)

Testimonials & Reviews

Read All Testimonials

A sampling of what prior students have said about this course ...

We made so much progress in Shade's tracking class. We went from food in almost every foot step to very little food on the track and we added in corners. We went from having a very basic start in article indication to a very good article indication within the track. Shade also picked up on some little things and helped us eliminate some conflict at the start of the track. I'm thrilled with the progress we made over the course of 6 weeks.

The tracking class is awesome. I've learned so much from Shade in both the IPO 1 and IPO 2 tracking class. I only wish the course was longer! I plan to continue with her tracking classes.

This was my fourth course with Shade. She gets better and better. She made me feel welcome in class. She was always encouraging and gave excellent personalized advice. We will certainly be enrolling in her next course. Can't wait. Amy S.

I think Shade is a very good instructor, explained things well.

Very competent advice and instructions. Was a big help. I especially liked the discussion board, where one could ask sometimes, ahem, rather unusual questions and get good answers. Great value for money/time. Looking forward to doing more in the future. Leonard "Buzz" Cecil

Shade's IPO Tracking class was wonderful! I've tried to start my dog on tracking a couple of times, but he was overenthusiastic about it to the point where I was being dragged across the field. That's not my idea of fun so we stopped working on it. This class helped break tracking down into achievable steps that clearly taught both the dog and I what to do in a way that was fun for both of us. Now we are well on our way to tracking successfully and can't wait to take the next class!

This was an awesome course! I recommend this course to anyone! Shade has great patience with us, and had fantastic suggestions when we were stuck!!! I cannot recommend this course enough. I had been struggling by myself for three years trying to train IPO tracking, and finally I can see my dogs making progress, after only 6 weeks of this course! I could not have dreamed up better results! I am so happy.

Registration

This is a self-study class. The lectures will appear directly in your library, under the "Self Study classes" heading. Self Study classes do not have class homework forums. You will not have any access to the course instructor for questions or feedback. Please note there are no refunds on self-study classes so review all the information provided carefully before purchasing.

You will have access to these materials in your library for one year from the date of enrollment. You can keep your library pass current by enrolling in at least one course or workshop a year. Alternatively, you can purchase a library pass for $25 per year for as long as you wish to have access to prior class materials.

SH201 Self Study

	Self Study
Tuition	$ 50.00
Enrollment Limits	Unlimited
Access all course lectures and materials	✔

Find more details, refund policies and answers to common questions in the Help center.

SH201: IPO Tracking - Skillbuilding