We had fun yesterday having a go at walking trails, but this time where the trail-layer is walking back towards the dog instead of walking away๐ถ๐ถโโ๏ธ๐ถโโ๏ธ. Essentially the trail-layer lays a trail, but when the dog is getting close, they turn around and head back towards the dog โก๏ธโฉโฌ
๏ธ.
Commonly used by criminals, this evasion tactic is the nonchalant strategy of 'I'll stop running and fool them by casually walking back in the other direction'. Yesterday we did it as Zombie ๐งโโ๏ธ trails - after all Zombies are rarely seen running away ๐ง๐คฃ๐ง!!!!
This is a fantastic problem for the dogs to solve as it's a totally different presentation of the trail-layer, even if they've done walking finds successfully already. Often the dog will bypass the trail-layer and follow the trail to the point where the trail originally stopped. This is exactly what Roxy did the first time we gave it a go, so today was a good opportunity to try it again alongside teams Charlie and Gilly.
The dogs demonstrated three totally different ways of solving the problem, but they all did it brilliantly. Charlie totally went in on proximity and air scent - zero hesitation!!!!! Gilly initially alerted from a distance on the person walking towards him, but then resumed trailing. He went a very short way past her, stopped dead and quickly worked out that she was the person he was looking for. Roxy trailed with her nose down pretty much all the way up to her person - I fully expected her to go straight past and carry on trailing, but she blew me away by giving the most perfect indication with no hesitation!!!!
Awesome work from Charlie, Gilly and Roxy ๐ฅฐ๐คฉ๐ฅฐ. Score three to the dogs, zero to the Zombies ๐ง๐คฃ๐ง๐คฃ๐ง!!!
Not far from her 12th birthday and still trailing like an absolute star โญ. But it's not always thanks to me......
Mindset in trailing is HUGE. And after a few weeks of being a pretty terrible trailing partner for my girl, I realised that I needed to sort out MY end of the lead.
Feeling stressed and tired, feeling the pressure of time, feeling sad about not trailing her enough, putting too much pressure on both of us to make the most of the trails that we did have, rushing the starts, letting myself get distracted, feeling the need to get back to my clients and their dogs.... And then wondering why she was starting to make mistakes. No wonder she wasn't at her best ๐ช.
So after giving myself a major talking to, I've made a concerted effort to be better.
We've trailed on every recent session. We've done fun trails to get both of our mojos back. I've made sure that I'm focusing on her and on the trail. And then I've thrown some pretty cool challenges at her. And funnily enough, she's gone back to being her fantastic and awesome self ๐คฉ๐โ๐ฆบ๐คฉ.
Dogs are amazing at reading us - almost certainly better than we are at reading them. And what we're thinking and feeling DEFINITELY transmits down the line.
So if things aren't going to plan, I always encourage people to look at what's happening with themselves. It might be a training issue for the dog, but perhaps more often than we think, it's actually a mindset issue for us. And I've had another major opportunity to have this lesson reinforced for me.
We're never going to be perfect handlers, and they're never going to be perfect on every trail. But it's how we deal with it as a team that matters ๐ฅฐ๐โ๐ฆบ<-----๐ถโโ๏ธ๐ฅฐ.
#bothendsoftheleadmatter
#theirnoseknows
Look at the amazing problem solving from this little man!!!!!! ๐ฅฐ๐ถ๐ฅฐ
#merlinthemantrailingmarvel
Post-trail party!!!!!!! ๐ฅณ๐ถ๐๐ถ๐
When you hijack your neighbours' stroll in the snow for snow trails!!!!!
๐๐๐๐จ๐ฃโ๐พ๐จ๐๐๐
I hope you're all either safe at home ๐ก, out enjoying the snow โ๏ธ, or not feeling too jealous if you didn't got any of the white stuff โ๏ธโ๐จโโ๏ธ.
#itwasagoodcalltocanceltrailingtoday......
More bales ๐ฅฐ๐ถ๐๐ถ๐ฅฐ!!!!!!
#hideandseekforgrownupsandtheirdogs
Rox can take full credit for getting me hooked on trailing and also for keeping me hooked ๐ฅฐ. It's coming up for four and a half years since our very first trail, and it still gives me goose bumps when she pulls stuff like this out of the bag ๐.
We've just had a very busy fortnight, running our first Mantrailing camp of 2023, closely followed by seven back to back days of instructing.
I've loved EVERY minute of teaching ๐ฅฐ. But a HUGE thank you also goes to all of my trailing gang and my fellow instructors who have taken the time to set up trails for me and Rox to have a go at - you hopefully all know just how much we appreciate being given the chance to keep doing what we love too ๐๐ฅฐ๐.
There are way too many highlights from the last few weeks to share them all, so here is just one. Not every trail is or has been perfect ๐๐๐ - but you learn a HUGE amount from the ones that go wrong. And when it all goes perfectly, there is no buzz quite like it!!!!
Rural, urban, open spaces, woodland, formal gardens, fellside, tourist hot spots, empty car parks, surface transitions, river crossings, distractions, contamination, fresh, aged, short, long, scent pool problems, high finds, buildings, gates, known, blind and everything in between - she's simply been a trailing superstar (mostly ๐ฅฐ๐คฃ๐ฅฐ)!!!!
Dogs are flipping amazing - we have only just tapped into a tiny tiny portion of what they can do.
NB The roads in the video were empty and the super-high-find fire escape steps had been thoroughly safety checked for both dogs and humans beforehand!!!!
#healthandsafetyfirst #addictedtotrailing #thenoseknows #whathighfindtheyjustwentupthesteps ๐
Nice try, but the nose knew!!!
๐๐๐ถ๐๐
Today's 'High Find' Collection ๐ฅฐ๐ถ๐ฅฐ.
This isn't snow โ๏ธ. This is mist.
And this is the movement of mist when there is a barely perceptible breeze. This is the movement of water particles in the air on a calm night when you have to focus really really hard to work out (without the help of a torch ๐ฆ!) which direction that breeze is coming from ๐ฌ.
I was simply out in the field watching Roxy doing scent games when I got my headtorch out - and then I spent the next hour watching the air as well as watching my girl!!!!!
I turned in circles, I disrupted the movement of the air with my hand and my body to see how it made the mist swirl, I watched the impact of my breathing, I looked to see how far I could see my breath travel (not how far it actually travelled, just how far I could see it travel), I marvelled at how different the movement of the air was in different places - by the stables, by the hedge, under the trees, in the middle of the field.....
I also watched Roxy trying to track down her toys in these highly moisturised conditions and saw just how much more difficult it was for her than 'normal'.
And I wondered - yet again - just how do our dogs even begin to work with complex scent pictures when we can only begin to comprehend the absolute basics of how they might be doing it ๐ฎ.....
And it confirmed to me - yet again - that we need to trust that they know better than we ever will ๐ฒ๐ถ๐.
#thenoseknowsbuthowdoesitknow?????
#watchandwonder
#mantrailingisamazing
Lynne and Tess - the most awesome of trailing teams
My third breed from the Working and Pastoral group day - clearly showing that dogs that were bred for a specific job are more than capable of multi-tasking - is the Border Collie (also now crowned the winner of the Pastoral group!!!!!) - and/or the Working Sheep Dog.
Border Collies/WSDs by far and away make up the biggest proportion of all of the breeds that trail with me - partly down to to where I live (they're a VERY popular breed in this part of the world!!!), partly down to how many agility people I know (they're a VERY popular breed for agility too ๐), and partly because they're just so flipping awesome at trailing.
Their natural ability combined with their work ethic, inherent drive and seemingly endless stamina mean that they just naturally excel at this sport.
I had so many amazing choices of trailing teams to pick from to showcase this breed - but the team that I just had to pick out are the awesome Lynne and Tess ๐๐ถ๐. Lynne was sadly taken from us far too soon in early 2021, and we were all left devastated by her loss.
Lynne brought Tess along to one of my very first trailing introductions, to see if she could find something that this beautiful but very troubled rescue girl would enjoy. Well right from the off, Tess just blew us away. She was a natural from the start. Her ground-scenting ability was second to none, and her calm/methodical approach never let her down.
We nurtured her slowly and they became a truly awesome trailing team. They were about to take their Level 1 Assessment when Lynne was taken ill, but I am supremely proud to say that when I sent video footage of Lynne and Tess trailing to the founder and head of Mantrailing UK, she immediately agreed that we should award the assessment posthumously.
Lynne and Tess we still miss you, but your memory lives on.
This video is from their first ever single blind trail - the look on Lynne's face says it all ๐๐๐.
#thenoseknows
#anybreedcantrail
#rescuedogslovetrailingt
