- Location
- Isle of Man
We had such fun. A lady called Dawn from Preston Trick Dogs came over and did several sessions over 2 days. We were on the last session, with 3 other dogs & Dawn's young puppy. We did 3 trails, each split into 2 parts. We had 2 jackpot pots of food for each trail.
At the start, the trailee stood with their scent item, a hat or glove or similar, on the floor in front of them, and also the long line (and the harness if the dog wasn't already wearing it - Coco was wearing his) on the floor. Dog & handler then walked in a circle around the trailee and for the first one the trailee whipped the dog up into interest, waving the food pot with encouraging squeaks then disappeared around the corner, down a little lane and behind another corner. Meanwhile the handler puts the harness on and clips the tracking lead to it, then we issued the cue TRAIL (only once) and let the dog follow the scent, staying behind the dog. If the dog stops or is insistent on going the wrong way the handler backs up in the direction of the quarry, encouraging the dog to move in the right direction, quickly changing to behind the dog as soon as he picks up again. When the dog reaches his target he gets to lick the pot of food clean. Then the trailee set off again and "hid" on a bench a bit further on around the bend. Cue "TRAIL" again and off we go to find them.
The second trail went along a lane and up some steps, up a grassy slope then more steps with a left/right choice at the top. The trailee was off to the right, hiding at the end of the footpath. Coco was a bit distracted by dog-wee smells, but he managed to come back to the job in hand and find his quarry. Then from their, the second pot was right again then along a wall to a bench in a niche. It was quite gusty here with the wind blowing up from the prom and both Coco & Dawn's dog Lenny jumped up at the wall - probably the scent was blowing over that way, but they both decided the trailee wasn't actually over the wall and picked up the scent again .
The final trail was across the car park onto the prom then left to the third bench for the first pot, then for the second pot the trailee was walking slowly along the prom and the dog had to locate a moving target. There was a fair number of members of the public walking on the prom so the dogs had to ignore them and sniff out their target person.
For the second and third trails, Coco didn't need whipping up at the start and was able to set off with the cue "TRAIL" as he knew the game, he knew the person had his pots of food. There was one little Spitz type dog who was hot on obedience and really struggled to set off on her own. For once, Coco's over exuberance was a positive attribute.
So we got to try different surfaces and different wind exposure. We got to try T-junction choice of direction. And we got to try trailing through distractions of random people. We were encouraged to really read our dogs as they lost the scent and thought about it and caught the scent again. How they had to decide at a left/right turn being quick to follow and praise when they made a right choice, giving the dog confidence to make decisions.
At the start, the trailee stood with their scent item, a hat or glove or similar, on the floor in front of them, and also the long line (and the harness if the dog wasn't already wearing it - Coco was wearing his) on the floor. Dog & handler then walked in a circle around the trailee and for the first one the trailee whipped the dog up into interest, waving the food pot with encouraging squeaks then disappeared around the corner, down a little lane and behind another corner. Meanwhile the handler puts the harness on and clips the tracking lead to it, then we issued the cue TRAIL (only once) and let the dog follow the scent, staying behind the dog. If the dog stops or is insistent on going the wrong way the handler backs up in the direction of the quarry, encouraging the dog to move in the right direction, quickly changing to behind the dog as soon as he picks up again. When the dog reaches his target he gets to lick the pot of food clean. Then the trailee set off again and "hid" on a bench a bit further on around the bend. Cue "TRAIL" again and off we go to find them.
The second trail went along a lane and up some steps, up a grassy slope then more steps with a left/right choice at the top. The trailee was off to the right, hiding at the end of the footpath. Coco was a bit distracted by dog-wee smells, but he managed to come back to the job in hand and find his quarry. Then from their, the second pot was right again then along a wall to a bench in a niche. It was quite gusty here with the wind blowing up from the prom and both Coco & Dawn's dog Lenny jumped up at the wall - probably the scent was blowing over that way, but they both decided the trailee wasn't actually over the wall and picked up the scent again .
The final trail was across the car park onto the prom then left to the third bench for the first pot, then for the second pot the trailee was walking slowly along the prom and the dog had to locate a moving target. There was a fair number of members of the public walking on the prom so the dogs had to ignore them and sniff out their target person.
For the second and third trails, Coco didn't need whipping up at the start and was able to set off with the cue "TRAIL" as he knew the game, he knew the person had his pots of food. There was one little Spitz type dog who was hot on obedience and really struggled to set off on her own. For once, Coco's over exuberance was a positive attribute.
So we got to try different surfaces and different wind exposure. We got to try T-junction choice of direction. And we got to try trailing through distractions of random people. We were encouraged to really read our dogs as they lost the scent and thought about it and caught the scent again. How they had to decide at a left/right turn being quick to follow and praise when they made a right choice, giving the dog confidence to make decisions.
