Tracking Troubles

Well, I am not sure what method you used to teach tracking, Aging the track actually makes tracking easier....but as for the border track i am assuming you mean you made a track on the edge where the black top meets the grass. you said the track he started on was grass. if you used motivational tracking to teach in the grass. the dog is expecting to find food on the grass. I have never tracked on asphalt. but I would try scent pads on the pavemet just like you'd do on the grass. I know the dog is smelling the crushed vegetation on the grass but what is thier for the dog to smell on the asphalt?

Are you double-laying the track (if you are tracking people)? 
 
 

I've double tracked and triple tracked on asphalt to no avail,  but I didn't know aging a track on blacktop could HELP the dog, so this weekend I'm going to age the blacktop track about 30 minutes and give him a track to go on.
 
As for grass tracks, he's great.  He'll do a hot track or a cold track (aged up to 45 miuntes at this point) with no troubles.  Takes his corners well and everything.
 
As for Strauss expecting food...he really doesn't.  As much as he's motivated by food, he's motivated more by the scent of the track.  He only stops to pick up food because it's there, and I only bait the corners of the track.  The straight lines aren't baited at all.  He's got a reasonably deep nose, keeps his head down, and really works the track rather than searching for food (Which makes life so much easier).
 
If aging the track doesn't work, we're going to try scent in a bottle.

ORIGINAL: XephAs for Strauss expecting food...he really doesn't.  As much as he's motivated by food, he's motivated more by the scent of the track.  He only stops to pick up food because it's there, and I only bait the corners of the track. 

 
I was taught that if that's the case, you shouldn't be using food at all...  Dodger is very food motivated so we used food A LOT but 2 of the GSD's in our class were toy motivated.  They used food for 2 tracks MAX.  It sounds like your dog would do best tracking without any food (at least until the end or replace it entirely with tugging).  He seems so focused on the track that I think the food is distracting (not because he wants it but because he's so mersed in tracking mode and then is jolted out of it by food that he doesn't want or need).

He doesn't get lost on grass tracks *Shrugs* As soon as he eats the food, he immediately returns to the track, finds his corner, and continues.  Keep in mind this is my first tracking dog, we were on an 8 month traicking hiatus, and we've only been back at tracking for about a week and a half..

Unfortunately, it rained buckets today, and more is expected..  I don't know if I should try and traack him today, or keep him at home.  I'll have to see how the weather progresses through the day :-/

I'd REALLY like to get him his TD late next year, and if he keeps plugging along the way he is, once our asphalt issues are cleared up, I'd like to go for the CT.

I am sure you will both figure it out!  It sounds like he just needs some more tracking experience!  He'll get it!!![]
 
Good Luck!!! 

Could it be that the grass is moist and the asphalt is dry?  Moisture increases the dog's ability to find a scent...just an idea.

Are you sure he's tracking human scent? Or could he have learned to track crushed vegetation, and maybe isn't keyed in that it's the human-smell he's supposed to be following? If the tracks on grass have been done in a "clean" area (i.e. not a heavily used park), he may very well be confused about what his job is.
What about having someone lay a track with a long stick with something on the end, treading lightly and really thrashing the heck out of the vegetation 8 feet away from the real track, see how he responds? If he's "tracking" on crushed vegetation exclusively, that would explain the problem with hard surfaces.
Note that I'm coming from a SAR background, and NOT AKC-type tracking.

Are you sure he's tracking human scent?

Positive.  He'll cast on an aged track, won't on a hot.  I've also done what you've suggested and knocked the heck out of the vegetation away from the track.  He won't respond to the disturbed vegetation, only that which has been walked on.
 
I've also been bringing different people with me to track and they will lay a track for me, age it, and he'll still follow their specific track.
 
We track on both heavily trafficked areas, and places where people don't play often.  He does fine on clean and trafficked surfaces as long as there's vegetation.  People have crossed my tracks before I could tell them "NO!", but I allowed Strauss to do his track anyway.  He never deviates from the original track, even if the accidental crosstrack scent is stronger.
 
Good news is, we went to an abandoned parking lot today, I laid a straight line blacktop track, aged it 30 minutes....he was truckin'!