you can start learning tracking - by tracking yourself.
choose an area with mostly dirt, so it will be easier to start with. walk randomly around a large circle, weaving through brushes. do not make it too difficult!

as you walk, lay down a few small items on the ground. e.g. put a penny right beside one of your footprints (or partial footprints). when you start going over the trail again - try to recover all the pennies.

the goal of tracking when you start - it to literally find EVERY footprint and every partial footprint that you made. it will help you to have a tracking stick. see the following book to get started ...

"Mantracking - Introduction to the Step-by-Step Method" by Roland Robbins

The military has always had some excellent trackers. The US Border Patrol also used to have some guys who were outstanding trackers. You can enroll in classes from some of these guys. Like any other skill - it requires a lot of practice ("dirt time"). I'm prety rusty and need to get back out and spend some time in the deserts of CA or AZ. It will come back, if I put in the time.

And if you want to avoid a lot of frustration - start learning on dirt or sand. In spite of what you see in the movies, the number of people who can really track on difficult terrain (including hard rock surfaces and mixed vegetation) is not many. That is a very advanced level of the skill.

Pete2