Best Way to Teach Article Indication - Page 1

Hello everyone. 

I'm a novice int he ScH sport and was wondering if any of you veteren's out there have any pointers on teaching article indication.  Any help is appreciated!  Thanks! 

Me & Ziva practicing!  :o)

I teach articles using positive motivation for food and teach them off the track.  I hold an article between thumb and forefinger and have a treat in my fist.  I hold the article to the ground and command the dog to "platz".  Then as soon as the dog is down I mark the behavior (clicker, "yes", whatever you use to mark) and open my hand for the treat.  Once the dog downs on his own when I set down the article, I start putting articles on the floor and having him walk up to them and platz.  Each time I mark and reach down to feed a treat when I pick up the article.  I don't put food under them because then my dog chews or nudges at them, and as a general rule in training I like rewards coming from me.  Once the dog understands to down on the article, then I start article tracks which is just a straight track in fairly easy conditions (like damp manicured lawn) with a dozen or so articles 30 feet apart each.  During all this time I am still tracking my dog but doing it separately.  I don't put an article on an actual track until the dog is 100% reliable on the shorter article tracks.  Then I combine everything and put articles on a normal track, then slowly decreased the amount of articles and increase the distance while also working on other aspects of tracking.  Once I moved articles onto the "real" track I no longer used food on the track except for the scent pad and sometimes to mark a difficult corner (this is more for me to know where the corner is b/c the dog will pause and eat food, my dog actually tracks better without food on a corner).

Now when my dog is tracking, if he completely blows and article, I just pick it up.  Since my article training is based on positive method I want it to always be that way.  I only correct the dog if he pauses at the article (I know he knows it's there) and wants to continue.  Then I give a correction and platz command.  Luckily though we rarely miss or have hesitation at an article and the dog is very quick with the platz and very straight.   He does not show any avoidance or pressure at an article.  I've used a bit of pressure elsewhere with tracking but so far not for articles.  Since the dog sees the article as good, I strategically place them on my tracks.  Like if there was a bit of a challenging leg, I might place an article after that, as a way for the dog to earn a food reward and have a bit of a pause before continuing on.  Likewise if there are any areas on my track where I feel the dog might be a bit more hectic, I will use an article to break it up and pause at that article longer than normal.  Obviously in trial this doesn't work but I like to train for all sorts of scenarios, don't just train based on a trial track.

There's lots of ways, this is just what worked for my current dog. 

Thank you VERY mich for your response.  I knew this question would take a "novel" to respond to.  I appreciate you taking the time!  :o)