Before you allow yourself to be persuaded to alter the way your dog tracks
Let’s think about the reason that dogs naturally track accurately. In nature an important principle is the relationship between cost and benefit. Taking tracking as an example, it’s about the conservation of energy whilst pursuing the track layer.
If you are a dog you have excellent olfactory acuity and you will try to use it in the most efficient manner. The most efficient use of sniffing in the tracking phase of following a scent trail is to look into the densest or centre of the place where the track layers feet hit the ground.
That is where the differential in the odour molecules (volatile organic compounds (VOC’s) that make up the smell of the track, are most apparent.
From a human perspective it looks like the dog is tracking accurately. It is in fact nature being efficient with chemistry.
In that state a dog is also almost certainly experiencing a flow moment. A natural, mesmerising, glorious ‘high’.
It is for this reason that we teach people how to work with their own embedded skills so as not to disrupt the dog ahead of them. He is trying to be accurate, on purpose, here’s a little more of why…
The principles
Two of the main principles at work are odour plume dynamics and cost–benefit optimisation in scent tracking. Both areas are well supported by research in olfaction, animal energetics and search behaviour.
Dogs don’t seek accuracy because we want them to; they do it because it’s the most efficient way to solve an odour puzzle. Let’s break it down.
1. Olfactory gradient following
A track leaves a trail of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that disperse and degrade with time, humidity, wind, and substrate.
The highest concentration of those VOCs tends to remain in the centre of the footfall, where skin cells, sweat, and crushed vegetation overlap.
Dogs sample this by sniffing along the gradient, constantly adjusting to stay within the densest plume. That is the head and nose sweep in mini and micro adjustments, in the tracking phase that is not whole body movements left and right.
When dogs are able to choose freely, they naturally align themselves to the most information-rich line. From the outside that looks like accuracy to human eyes.
This has been documented in:
- Thesen, Steen, & Døving (1993) – Behaviour of dogs during olfactory tracking, Acta Physiologica Scandinavica, 147(Suppl. 555): 75–79.
- Jenkins et al. (2018) – Odor concentration gradients and tracking in canines, Chemical Senses.
2. Energetic efficiency
Let’s now consider cost–benefit and energy conservation. From an ecological perspective, searching has an energetic cost, and animals evolve to minimise effort per unit information. If a dog zigzags wildly or oversniffs it is wasting energy. A dog that locks into the odour core conserves both metabolic energy and neural energy. I mention neural energy because the dogs brain has a computational task to do, matching the VOC’s taken in with every sniff. These dogs are efficient processors.
Related work:
- Kareken et al. (2004) – Olfactory fMRI studies showing efficiency in odour detection.
- Bell & Bell (2012) – Optimal foraging theory applied to sensory search.
You can see that dog’s “accuracy” is not compliance or obedience; it’s efficient foraging behaviour through scent space.
3. Sniffing frequency as a control system
Going back to neural energy for a moment. Tracking dogs modulate sniff frequency to match odour complexity. When dogs are the agent in the task, they self-regulate sniffing patterns to maintain efficiency. This means they deliver odour molecules to their brain for processing, in an optimised sample.
See:
- Craven et al., 2010, Sniffing behaviour and olfactory flow dynamics in dogs.
To summarise
When people say their dogs don’t enjoy “accuracy,” it’s often because the dog isn’t allowed to be accurate. In nature, accuracy isn’t a trick, it truly is about efficiency.
A tracking dog that’s given freedom, because the handler learns how to feel/ read the line at neural speed, will find and stay on the richest part of the scent trail because that’s where the information lives.
It costs less energy, less effort, and it feels right to them. What we see as “precision” is just the dog doing what evolution demands, following the best data.
Foot note (pun intended)
Sorptive behaviour, solubility, and scent structure.
When a track is laid, volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from the person’s skin, sweat, and microbiome are deposited on and around the substrate (soil, grass, gravel, etc.). These compounds vary in polarity, molecular weight, and solubility, This dictates how they sorb (stick or dissolve) into that surface.
- Lipophilic (fat-soluble) compounds tend to adhere to organic material like soil lipids or plant waxes. These are slower to release but last longer.
- Hydrophilic (water-soluble) compounds bind to moisture, evaporate faster, and move differently depending on humidity.
The centre of the track, where foot pressure crushed vegetation and warmed soil, causes microclimate changes (slightly higher humidity, altered surface temperature). Those conditions amplify the release of VOCs, which is why dogs so often “correct” themselves back to that narrow line even when humans can’t see why.
Accuracy arises because dogs are responding to the most information-rich and energetically efficient zone, which is governed by sorption, solubility, and volatility gradients. They’re not being “obedient,” they’re being chemically precise.
Key words
I used the words freedom and agent. This article stresses the need for dogs to be able to track freely.
That is, enabled to utilise all the natural skills available to them. They will then choose accuracy.
Some people actually want accuracy and some people need to learn that actually dogs want accuracy too.
Learning about tracking is all about learning the partnership skills that permit humans to join a tracking dog without manipulating or disrupting the expert ahead of you. That’s where Get Cracking with Tracking comes in. On this course you will learn those skills. And you will learn them in the most evolutionarily efficient way, fast tracking you to matching the skill of your dog.
Dogtaggs -The relationship model with two entry points
At Dogtaggs, we don’t train dogs.
We teach people how to use the whole range of their sensory, physical and emotional communication to work alongside another being. This isn’t reawakening instinct — it’s expanding awareness. It’s learning to divide cognitive attention between inner self and outer purpose until communication flows without command.
The vehicle through which people enter this world of tracking described in this blog is Dogtaggs Get Cracking with Tracking.
Find out more about what we have available here and email hello@dogtaggs.co.uk if you have any questions.