Mantrailing - Pongo's new game!

Rosie

Rosie

Location
South Wales
Has anyone else tried this? Pongo and I went on an "introduction to mantrailing" session yesterday and it was a hoot. There were just four dogs, and each worked individually (which was quite good for Pongers, because he finds it really hard to concentrate if there are other dogs involved!). We were following very simple and very short trails, but it was still really interesting to see him working it out. He thought it was great because there was a vast amount of warm, juicy, lovely roast chicken involved - and because it was obviously such a very natural thing for him to do, really using his nose and searching. The challenging thing for his hooman was learning how to hold onto the long tracking lead without a face-plant or tree-wrap!
And I have to admit, taking my turn as the "runner" for other dogs was quite a laugh too....it's several decades since I spent a morning crawling into little spaces under shrubs or hiding behind trees. Hide and seek for hoomans.
Having done the introduction I think we'll definitely go along to some of the "proper" sessions and see how he gets on.
 
Leanne

Leanne

Sniffer Dog
Location
Shropshire, UK
That sounds like lots of fun! We often play hide and seek with Hayden and Mas in the woods so I’m assuming it’s something like that? In my head I’m imagining you all commandoed out with black shoe polish on your face in an episode of prison break with the dogs chasing you 😂😂
 
HAH

HAH

Moderator
Location
Devon, UK
This is sooo good to hear about @Rosie, thank you for the write up! We've just remortgaged, so have signed up for a load of training with Kipper :LOL:, including mantrailing. From what you've written it sounds so much fun. We did a bit of scent work when we went to a full day of training recently, and Kipper loved it so much we decided we'd definitely do some more - so we've signed up for a 3-day course in June: Find It Workshop, 3-Days of Search and Innovative Games which does mantrailing, search and rescue, big area searching, building searching and pairing and imprinting which I have no idea about.

Keep us posted if you do more sessions, I'd love to hear how Pongo gets on :)
 
Selina27

Selina27

Location
Herefordshire, UK
Great read Rosie, I`m sure you and Pongo must have enjoyed it in equal measure. It`s something I`ve thought about with Cassie, but we seem to have turned a bit of a corner with the gundog training, so I`ll stick to that for now. :)
 
Rosie

Rosie

Location
South Wales
Boogie said:
Oh my word - that would really suit Tatze, she’s great with her nose. She’s no Retriever at all, but great at following a scent.

I’m going to look for a class in our area.

:)
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My session was by Mantrailing UK. They seem to run classes all over the place - their website is mantrailinguk.com

I do think it's a great idea - something very natural for the dogs to do, working their brains as well as their bodies, and the hoomans are really just along for the ride (although I'm told that at advanced levels there is more for the hooman to contribute...!). It's also brilliant for reactive or nervous dogs because they work individually, so everything can be tailored to suit them - one of the (more experienced) dogs I saw working was a little spaniel who was terribly, terribly jumpy and reactive, but one glance at the trailing harness and she was just super - focused, calm, waggytail happy.
 
Rosie

Rosie

Location
South Wales
Leanne said:
That sounds like lots of fun! We often play hide and seek with Hayden and Mas in the woods so I’m assuming it’s something like that? In my head I’m imagining you all commandoed out with black shoe polish on your face in an episode of prison break with the dogs chasing you 😂😂
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Yes, very like hide and seek. The main thing is that the dog is not searching for somebody they know, but someone else whose scent they've been specifically asked to find. There is also a bit of finesse in that the dog is on a (very long) lead, so the hooman challenge is to keep that long lead at just the right tension - not restraining the dog, but not dragging (or wrapping round trees, bollards, people....). And for the dog, it is learning that although they can pretty much go where the scent takes them, they can't dash off tooooooo fast because there is a poor little hooman behind them attached by a bit of string. To Pongo's credit, he seemed to cotton on to this really quite fast - much faster than when (not) learning to walk nicely on a shorter lead. We had a few times when I had to dig my heels in and stop him completely, but quite few and only at the beginning of the day...

No black shoe polish involved but my trousers were pretty well-coated in Monmouthshire mud by the end!
 
Charlie

Charlie

Location
Argyll & Bute, Scotland
I've just looked at their website but nothing anywhere near me :( This would be right up Charlie's street with his Pointer nose o_O He would be welcome even though he can be a little lead reactive. Enjoy if you all give it a go, I love the looks of it.

Lovely write up @Rosie I felt like I was being dragged through the undergrowth with you, oh wait Charlie does that all the time! :ROFLMAO: xx
 
Rosie

Rosie

Location
South Wales
The other nice thing about it is that dogs go at their own pace, so no risk of injury or strain - and even seniors who can't quite take agility or flyball anymore can still do it. As long as their hoomans can keep up!
 
Rosie

Rosie

Location
South Wales
Charlie said:
Hmmm ... what if your dog only has one pace - very, very, very FAST!!! :pull::pull::pull::pull: xxx :facepalm:
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Ha! I didn't mean no risk to the hooman!
Actually that is going to be Pongo's (I mean, my) greatest challenge - he wants to lunge off at top speed. But he did seem to settle quite quickly into a gallop rather than a full dash..... no doubt because while his nose is really working he can't go full pelt!
 
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