Hereford Mantrailing

01/02/2025

📣 Our next Mantrailing Introduction Course is scheduled for 16th Feb but be warned - it is highly addictive to both man & beast!

The benefits of this awesome sport are endless but you truly cannot beat the feeling of working alongside your dog and giving them the opportunity to fulfil their needs. Their noses can do the most incredible things, give them the chance to show you and you’ll be blown away ❤️

Hop on the link in the comments to get booked on or drop us a line with any questions ☺️

29/01/2025

Massive congratulations to this super pair on achieving their Level One!

Beccy & Pepper started trailing with us 7 months ago today and yesterday they absolutely flew through their assessment in style 🤩
Assessment levels are a true test of teamwork, how far we’ve come and what we’ve learned along this exciting journey.

The wind meant that we didn’t take the exact course our trail layer took but a longer route presenting more problem solving for our team to piece together the puzzle - that’s what trailing is all about!

So well deserved this one!
Please join us in congratulating Beccy & Pepper!

Our next Introduction Course on the 16th Feb can be accessed via the comments 🤩

19/01/2025

👩‍🦰👩‍🦳 Split Trails & Decoys at Clive's Fruit Farm🧔‍♂️👨‍🦳

Yesterday’s mantrailing session at Clive's Fruit Farm was an absolute success! 🍂🍏 We delved into the advanced skills of working with decoys and split trails—critical techniques that challenge our dogs to distinguish between a decoy scent and the target trail layer. The beautiful setting of the farm was the perfect backdrop for these exercises.

The dogs were truly outstanding, approaching each setup with focus and motivation. Handlers had the chance to observe their dogs working through these scent challenges in real-time, gaining valuable insights to guide their future training. By the end of the day, every team had a clearer understanding of how to take their training to the next level.

A big thank you to Clive’s Fruit Farm for hosting us and keeping us fueled with delicious bacon butties and hot drinks throughout the day! 🥓☕ A special shoutout to Charlie, Anne, and John, who were fantastic trail layers and decoys—without them, this session wouldn't have been possible. 🙌

Huge congratulations to all the dog and handler teams who participated. We can’t wait to see how you all build on these skills moving forward! 🐕‍🦺💪

See you at the next one! ☺️

15/01/2025

🐾 Mantrailing Fun at Hop Pickers Retreat! 🐾

Three shepherds and a toy poodle walked into a mantrailing session... sounds like the start of a joke, right? Well, there was absolutely nothing funny about the results of yesterday's session—just some seriously impressive teamwork and fantastic performances all around! 😄

We returned to the stunning , a truly fabulous venue with plenty of interesting scent pictures for our dog teams to navigate. The dogs were in their element, and the handlers weren't far behind!

✨ Session Highlights:
- Super Sally had her first high find! Watching her work out that the trail layer was above her on the veranda was pure magic. This is only her second session - what a star!🧠
- Skylar nailed her indications at both standing and sitting trail layers—such precision! 👏
- Zack did an incredible job of navigating a trail with both fresh and aged scent. He really showed his skills on that one! 🐕‍🦺
- Griff worked through a displaced start like a pro, showing us a really lovely switch in his trailing behaviour when on and off scent! 🔍

What a thoroughly lovely session it was, full of learning, fun, and fantastic work from all the teams. Thank you to everyone who joined us.

See you at the next one!🐾👣

12/01/2025

What an incredible morning of mantrailing in Great Malvern! ❄️ Despite the cold weather, still air, and tricky distractions, all four teams did an amazing job navigating some challenging conditions. Special congratulations to Luna, Lucy, and Toska for successfully finding their hidden people on long trails upwards of 700m, aged by 30 minutes. 🐾✨ Digger also did an outstanding job completing her 250m trail with a fantastic indication at a road crossing and acing her line-up exercise. 👏

A huge well done to all the handlers today who played their part in the trailing team by giving their dogs time to work through the scent problem and reading their trailing behaviour really, really well! 🐕💪 Every team showed great progress, and we're excited to see more success in future sessions.

Lots of learning and we loved it!

See you at the next one 😊

09/01/2025

Our next Introduction Course is coming up on Saturday 25th January!

You’ll find a direct link in the comments so if you fancy giving your dog a super fun job jump on and give Mantrailing a whirl!

The nose of your dog is its absolute superpower, come trailing and unleash it!

06/01/2025

Time to announce our Mantrailing Team of the Quarter and winner of our voucher!
Congratulations goes to…….

⭐️ Anna & Poco ⭐️

This cracking team have trailed with us since day one, quite literally!
Anna has worked super hard on her line handling skills, put real focus in to learning to read Poco’s body language and stuck with the process even though his strength and enthusiasm made it a challenge at times when starting out as a new handler!

Well done team, keep up the good work and we promise not to mention the infamous rose bush tumble! 😉🤩

Anna & Poco will receive a Hereford Mantrailing gift voucher as winners of the quarter ❤️

05/01/2025

🎉🐾 December's Mantrailing Dog of the Month: Gregory! 🐾🎉

Meet Gregory, a lovely Dachshund with loads of personality! By day, Gregory is an assistance dog, supporting his handler with specific detection tasks and always lending a paw when needed. Recently, he's been learning to pick up and carry items around the house—talk about a multi-talented dog!

Gregory and his handler are relatively new to the world of Mantrailing, having made their debut with Vic in October 2024. But it didn’t take long for them to get hooked! They’ve quickly become regulars on the Hereford Mantrailing circuit, and we think Gregory's handler caught the trailing bug from the start. 😄

While Gregory’s bond with his handler is incredibly strong due to his assistance work, he initially found it a little tricky working away from her on the trails. But with plenty of encouragement, positive experiences, and a focus on achievable successes, Gregory's confidence is growing with every trail. He now understands that his handler is counting on him to find the missing person—and he’s risen to the challenge! We love seeing those magical moments when the hard work and training pay off for both dog and handler.

December’s sessions were full of standout moments: watching Gregory self-cast to recover a trail, working his longest trail yet, and making a bee-line under a caravan to locate his trail layer on the other side. Not to mention, he successfully worked through his first split trail—such impressive progress! 🚀

Mantrailing is all about helping dogs develop independent thinking in a constructive and empowering way. When they are rewarded for using their skills in this way, their confidence soars — and Gregory is a perfect example of this transformation. We’re sure the skills he’s building on the trail will feed into so many other aspects of his life. 🐕💡

Huge congratulations to Gregory for being December’s Dog of the Month! 🏅 Keep up the amazing work! 👏🎉

03/01/2025

This! 🤩

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01/01/2025

🥳 Happy New Year, Trailers! 🥳

What better way to kick off 2025 than with a thrilling session in wet and wild Malvern! The conditions certainly threw out challenging scent pictures, but our dog teams rose to the occasion. It was fascinating to see how their trailing behaviours adapted to the head, tail, and cross winds. The teams should be incredibly proud of their work today!

🐕 Echo tackled a tricky scent pool with confidence, demonstrating beautiful proximity behaviour when close to her trail layers, which let her handler know that her nosework was spot on. Clever girl!

🐕 Lucy faced some tough trails where we saw her actively search for scent while eliminating possible directions of travel. Her handler worked on casting Lucy, which led to a successful find. Fantastic teamwork!

🐕 Luna was highly motivated on her trails and showed great sit indications. Her handler discovered that Luna sometimes needs a little more time to assess the direction of travel, especially during surface transitions. Once Luna worked through it, she quickly got back on track and found her trail layer!

🐕 Bailey exhibited contrasting behaviours when searching for scent and following it, adjusting based on the predominant wind direction. This gave her handler valuable insights into Bailey’s trailing behaviour. Awesome job!

We wish everyone a year full of exciting, fun-filled and successful trails in 2025!

See you at the next one! 😊

30/12/2024

After several days of persistent fog, it was a real delight to see the sunshine during our session in a lovely village setting in rural Herefordshire. The venue's terrain and buildings provide the perfect setting for creating trails that offer a range of challenges for our dog teams. One of yesterday afternoon's exercises for the more experienced teams was a casting drill, allowing us to observe the dogs' behaviour as they approached and crossed the trail threshold. On the other end of the experience spectrum, Oksana had the pleasure of introducing Sally to the game of Mantrailing. Sally, a toy poodle, has the honour of being Oksana’s first poodle student!

-Tommy is really getting the hang of the game. We slightly extended the length of the trails, and it was lovely to see his trailing behaviour evolve. At just 7 months old, his enthusiasm and energy were a joy to watch!

-Sally is a little dynamo. She grasped the task right away, and we can already tell she's going to be an excellent trailing dog.

-Nelly had a standout session. We noticed that her breed instincts kick in in a truly unique way when working the trail, which will be incredibly valuable for future training.

-Zack is such a sweet boy, with a playful approach to his trails. He often solves scent problems by self-casting, and we were able to pinpoint a characteristic behaviour that helped us identify when he was crossing the trail. Zack also gave a flawless 5-second sit indication on a clear trail layer—well done!

-Griff was absolutely on form today. He worked methodically on the casting exercise, successfully eliminating decoy cross trails and honing in on the correct trail layer. He also navigated a trail with multiple surface transitions and distractions. As he neared the trail's end, we noticed a shift in his behaviour, and he skillfully guided us to the trail through a gate. What a clever boy!

A fantastic session filled with valuable lessons.

See you at the next one 😊

25/12/2024

Merry Christmas to all of our awesome trailing teams and followers!
We hope you have a wonderful day!

24/12/2024

Great find Sparky!

22/12/2024

🎄🎅 Christmas-Themed Mantrailing Session Highlights! 🎅🎄

What a fantastic festive mantrailing session we had yesterday morning! 🎉 We had three trails featuring novel scent articles that kept everyone on their toes. The (don't) jingle bells skill was a hit, with our trail teams racing against the clock for gifts and prizes! Well done to Holly who won the challenge in a cool 45 seconds 🎁🔔 We also had the Not the North Pole Trail, where the dog teams approached the scent article from different directions, and the Secret Santa Split Trail, where our handlers didn't know who their Trail Layer was...but just like magic, the dogs knew all along! ✨

A huge shoutout to everyone who made the day so special, including the amazing venue - Plume Of Feathers, Castlemorton – for hosting us on their amazing grounds and for the much needed cups of tea! We will definitely be back again!🍻

Here are some of the session highlights:
🎅 Gregory found his Secret Santa in his split trail – a magical moment of discovery!
🎁 Lucy aced her double-blind end with incredible focus and precision!
🌬️ Skye showcased her amazing thinking skills, navigating a very exposed area in strong winds!
🐾 Maisie did wonderfully on a slightly aged trail with a contaminated start – so proud of her determination and progress!

Festive fun was had by all, and we can’t wait to see what the new year brings! Thank you to everyone for making this a memorable session filled with joy, teamwork, and a whole lot of festive spirit! 🌟🎄

See you at the next one 😊

15/12/2024

Congratulations Cheryl and Rex on nailing your Level 1 Assessment today!
It’s been a joy to watch Rex grow in confidence around his decision making and this fab pair worked beautifully as a team this morning showing us just how far they’ve come!
👏 Well deserved guys! ❤️

04/12/2024

Check out the clips from last night’s session in Malvern! The temperature dropped below 4°C and there was a slight breeze, adding an extra challenge to the warm-up trails. For some dogs, this was their first time trailing in urban environments, while for others, it was their first night-time trail. With cars driving by, the smells of restaurants, pubs, and takeaways, there were plenty of distractions – though it seemed like the handlers were more affected than the dogs! 😊

🐕 Sprout was his usual enthusiastic self. Once we turned up the motivation, he absolutely crushed his urban trails. For a newbie to both urban and night-time trailing, he was a true star!

🐕 Cassie was coming in hot on her trails. The cars shifted the scent around a crucial junction, but she did an amazing job checking different directions. We saw a fantastic change in her behaviour when she recovered the trail. Two road crossings and eliminating pub entrances and a pet shop as possible sources for the trail layer – we'd say that's a job well done!

🐕 Maisie was incredible on her trails. She breezed through a tricky start, navigated automatic doors, eliminated decoys, and cleared a car park with ease. She gave clear negatives and displayed great confidence in her decisions. Amazing work!

🐕 Poco – November’s Mantrailing Dog of the Month – was on fire! We had a lovely learning moment when Poco exhibited new behaviour while distinguishing between new and old scent. Of course, he found his trail layer in the end!

Well done to all the dogs and handlers – this was a tough but rewarding session, and you all did great!

See you at the next one! 😊