The instinctive movements of a young Dalmatian tracking an animal scent.

Prompted by a recent reading of a tracking article, Read any Trailing or Tracking Dog: Negative Indications I have been watching Lusi closely on our walks and have been trying to read Lusi's instinctive body language. With perfect weather conditions, a light wind/sunny/7 degrees C, and melting snow cover on the ground, I watched Lusi closely as she displayed her natural prey instincts in following several animal scent trails.


I was unable to record the first images of Lusi jumping up about three feet into the air from all fours, as distinct to when she does this on her hind legs, because it occurred so suddenly and unexpectedly. I also could not gauge what it was that she was responding to. It did, however, occur more or less at the start of our walk when she was let off the leash. There were also two distinct and separate times when she was "pointing."


Learning how to read a dog's natural movements is an important part of what a handler must do if they are going to work a tracking dog successfully. I have tried to piece together what it was Lusi was responding to and indicating by the changes in her behaviour and body movements in the series of photos here. 


This was in effect my first real opportunity to observe and record what Lusi does naturally when she is following an animal scent. ( I have a video of Lusi at 5 months old showing her early "nose to the ground" work in the forest when we are on a walk together and also videos of our early tracking lessons when Lusi is 6 months old and is learning to follow a human scent.)

#1. Facing into the wind: Air scenting 

In the stance shown, (photo #1), Lusi is indicating air scenting. She was facing directly into the wind, standing quite still, attentive and apparently gazing into the distance, but definitely focused. Her head movement was quite subtle, a gentle, rhythmic lifting of her nose, as though she was literally catching the scents in the breeze. 

#2 Following a ground scent-nose to the ground.

In photo #2 Lusi is actively engaged in following what is presumably an animal ground scent, probably squirrel. Her nose is to the ground and she is carrying her tail upwards.

#3 Tail has gone straight up in the air like a flagpole.
She is very animated, and digs and scratches at
the ground but after two or three minutes moves
away from this "hot spot" when she finds no prey.

Her behaviour changes dramatically as she reaches an area in the brush. Photo #3 shows how her tail changes position to an almost vertical stance like a flagpole indicating a scent "hot spot." I suspected that this might have been a squirrel's food store but I can only guess. After some very animated and determined scratching at the ground and uncovering of the area Lusi appeared almost surprised and perhaps a little confused that she had not found her prey. 


She appears to pick up a scent track again and moves a few feet over from the "hot spot" but by now her tail is no longer standing vertical, (photo #4). Again no prey, and at this point she loses interest and we continue on our walk.

#4 Finding no prey. Lusi  moves a few feet away from where she gave the "hot spot" tail up indication. Shortly after this she loses interest and we continue on our walk.

Walking with Lusi- trains, helicopters and aircraft.

We were greeted by Chickadees and the call of a Blue Jay, and a small flock of American Robins took flight and huddled in bunches on the nearby trees as we arrived. I had not seen so many birds for weeks and all this at noon. The temperature had swung back to a few degrees above freezing and small patches of grass were once again showing through.

Disappointed to find that the "low battery" signal came up on the camera when I tried to take a picture, (I think this camera will only take about six pictures before the battery runs out!): Mind you, I would probably only have caught a view of Lusi's spotted rear end, tail up, nose down, or maybe the blur of her careening at high speed through the thickets.

She is not a fearful dog. Now accustomed to the sounds of low flying small aircraft and helicopters from the nearby airfield she occasionally watches the sky for them. She is also used to the Toronto bound double decker "Go Train" and quite enjoys jumping on her hind legs for a better view when that passes us by. A few days ago she was puzzled though by the two strange vehicles on the tracks, one a truck and the other more like a large van, both of which were proceeding down the tracks on trolleys; these definitely attracted her attention and got quite a few scrutinizing jumps on her hind legs!


We came upon a gentleman walking; he was without a dog, so having no other point of distraction, Lusi greeted him by jumping up. We have to address her jumping up, I thought, make note to self!

Her new collar is, however, making it much easier to reach for her and to then manoeuvre her into a required position or even just to lead her along. I was surprised at how little resistance she offered to being handled by her collar relative to how she was acting recently with her last one. Quite clearly her previous resistance was because the "old" collar was now too tight.


I had an amusing time watching Lusi play her "apple game" with some frozen apples she had found. Tossing them into the air, she runs and chases after them as they roll away. She managed to keep this game going for several hundred metres before the apples finally disintegrated.