by Dawn Chapman
Let me introduce myself, I am Dawn Chapman. Until 3.5 years ago I had never heard of Mantrailing as a canine sport. I was very interested in the idea of Search and Rescue work as I love watching dogs follow their noses and engage their inner hunter to fulfil their most incredible sense, the ability to pick up, follow and find the object or owner of the scent.
The dog I had at that time was not temperamentally or physically able to do Search and Rescue, so when I was looking for a potential new canine to join my home, I was looking at more hound types that may be more suited to this type of activity. However, when I found my perfect sidekick puppy he did not tick all the boxes that would enable him and allow me to engage in joining search and rescue.
Zebediah (my wingman) is a Miniature Long haired Dachshund who is profoundly Deaf and Partially Sighted. He does not like long grass, thistles, nettles, brambles and outright refuses to enter these types of terrain. However, he loves scent-work and excels at finding specific items around the home and garden.
Then I found Mantrailing, the pet dog equivalent as a sport which is non competitive (unless you love badges, then you can earn lots of badges). Open for almost any dog to try and most excel at it. Its a team sport which allow the dog to pick up a specific persons scent, trail the person using a combination of tracking and air scenting to find the person and gain a reward, all done as a fun game the handler and dog can work together on.
The handler has the job of reading the dogs body language and aiding the dog to be confident in it’s decisions to get to the reward, whilst reeling the longline in and out which should be worth a gold medal in its own right (there is a badge for line handling).
Each breed and personality of dog has their own unique style which makes watching them so much fun, even dogs that are less confident around people or other things can still enjoy this.
Mantrailing can often benefit anxious dogs greatly, giving them a positive outlet of sniffing the floor or concentrating so hard they forget they need to worry.
Trail Layers who go and hide are just as important to the ‘game’. They are the ones with the rewards. They get to go and hide whilst the hunt is on, waiting for a dog to find you can be as fun as the trailing itself.
All class participants work as a team during each session to enable each individual handler and dog to have a fun trail and continue to build their individual skills whilst being as safe as possible.
What better way to spend a day in the fresh air with your dog.
If you are wondering, my little Daxxie is very determined about finding his reward and will often trail through nettles, leaves, long grass, too engrossed in his quest to notice, his love of following his nose takes over, despite his reluctance on a normal walk to tolerate these terrains.
So once I caught the very contagious Mantrailing bug it was inevitable that I became an instructor with Mantrailing Global UK, and love showing new people and dogs the joys of the Mantrailing game.
Dawn Chapman, Mantrailing Instructor and Registered Veterinary Nurse
LITTLE TYKES DOG HUB 