Tracking

A dog is "tracking" when he is following the scent trail or disturbed vegetation scent, left by a person (or other animal) that has traveled along a certain route. Following a track is one of the many useful things dogs can do to help people. Hounds track game, rescue dogs track lost children, police dogs track suspects, well trained pets can find lost items. 

Tracking, trailing and other forms of scent work are activities that bring you to the very essence of what a dog is.  Scent work is a partnership in which you are asking the dog to do for you what you cannot do for yourself.  When you work with a dog in scent work you quickly learn that the dog knows a different world.  

Just about any dog can learn to track.  The teaching of tracking is itself very instructive.  At the novice levels the dog is started at the beginning of the track, and the dog is encouraged to sniff around to identify the scent to be followed.  Because the direction is established the dog should be able to (with training) pick out the correct trail to follow.