Fantastic couple of days tracking & trailing with Elliot Connor and Wes Visscher. I was so proud of Zuka in a completely new environment surrounded by strangers. She was ace!
There has been an unbelievable change in this puppy since she started mantrailing. Her mum had been working really hard with her to help socialise her. I wish I had a video of her first session. She was worried about people so even moving towards a person was a challenge. The trail layer was given instruction not to reach or move towards her and just to toss the food to her and we started her out just following a short trail of dropped food. This was her 3rd session. Look at her go! Bursting with confidence and that gorgeous happy trail. She loving it. You've done an amazing job Lehla.
Elsa likes a good bark at other dogs so I'm using 'look at that' to help her cope. I want her to be able to see the trigger, in this case 3 people and a dog. Rather than using the food as a distraction to try to hold her gaze away from the people and dog the food is rewarding her for looking towards them then looking back to me.
I am not expecting her to do anything. She doesn't need to sit or lie down though at the end she chooses to lie down. Some dogs will be really uncomfortable being asked to hold a static position around their triggers. I'd rather they had the option to move away if they want to.
I'm tossing the food to her. Sniffing for it will help to keep arousal levels down, keeping her head down and keeping her moving. Finding it takes a little longer than just taking it straight from my hand to immediately go back to looking. Tossing the food can also help move her away from the trigger.
We are at a distance where she is comfortable. If she is unable to drag her eyes away it is likely that we are too close and will probably react so we'd need to add a little more distance.
So what's the point of the exercise?
It teaches the dog that there's something else they can do rather than barking and lunging when they see something eg they see another dog and then either look or move towards you. This can result in them sort of going do you see that? That thing there? I see it, do you?
It also pairs food with the trigger so they start to think ooh there's a dog/person/funny noise/car etc great things happen when I see or hear these things. It changes their emotional response.
Have you tried playing Look at That?
Credit to Leslie McDevit's pattern games
I've been teaching Zuka the trick bang! You're dead! She's the happiest corpse ever. Look at that grin!
So windy it blew her bark away!
90% of my recalls are for no reason at all, except for the pleasure of my dog's company. If you only call when you need to get your dog back, for example if there's a person, dog or some hazard, or to stick them on the lead they will soon get savvy to this and will stop coming back, looking for the problem or expecting their fun will end by being put on the lead.
Call your dog often and reward their return generously with a game or treats before releasing them to carry on their fun. This is actually a double reward and will help strengthen your recall
Sometimes you just need an emotional support teddy
Handling your dog is so important. It should be practiced daily with young puppies so they become used to it. It will save a lot of stress for the dog in future, as well as for you, the vet and the groomer and it'll probably save you some money too.
Zuka has a sore bit on her face. Who knows what she did but the hair needed clipped away and ointment needs to be applied regularly. She's not that keen on it being touched and she has big teeth. Unfortunately this is one of those it, has to happen, moments, she doesn't really have a choice.
I work slowly and gently and try to stay sensitive to how she feels. I'm rewarding each small movement with something tasty. She gets to see the scissors and gets a treat. Hears the snip of the scissors and a treat and so on a little at a time. The choice of position was hers. She stands between my legs for nail trims and decided this was what she would do here. I'm not keeping her there. If she comes out it's ok. She's just telling me she's not comfortable with what I'm doing. Usually I'd do a few treat tosses to let her move away and take some of the pressure off. You also don't have to do everything at once. This was her 2nd session. I'd already snipped some hair off the first time. If you're doing nails there's no law says you have do all 4 paws at once. If your dog is uncomfortable with it and you manage to do one, celebrate the win and come back to the next one another time.
Zuka needs the cream applied 3 or 4 times a day so the goal is for her to be as comfortable as possible. I don't want to have to pin her down in a headlock as gradually the task will become harder and harder as she becomes less trusting and the risk of a bite will increase greatly. It also means that if I need to do things to her in future she will be far more accepting of it and it won't be a battle.
Yesterday's teddy surgery video looks simple enough but every part of it had to be trained. My dogs don't wear clothes so I had to take time conditioning Zuka to be comfortable in a shirt. She had to learn about getting on a dining chair as obviously a dog at yer dining table is no handy. Learning to hold something is our absolute nemesis. She was convinced a nose touch on teddy would do fine even though teddy is never normally out of her mouth. And of course teaching her to be comfortable wearing a face mask.
She is confident about putting her face into things as we've done a lot of the cone game and she is muzzle and halter conditioned. I started off with a nose touch so that she has thoughts that touching with her nose might win the prize. Then I shape the mask. Any interaction to start with would get a reward, then switching up to touching with her nose to get the reward. If she tried to mouth it I moved the mask away and then represented it to see if she would just touch it. From there we added some duration and then moved to fitting the strap. Each step is at the dog's pace. I wanted her to be actively pushing her face into the mask rather than me just sticking it on her face and going there you go, get over it. You can see at 1.38 she is distracted so I just wait and then she turns and pushes her nose in herself. It was important that she felt comfortable wearing it and that she didn't feel the need to claw or rub at her face.
The video shows the steps but doesn't show all the repetitions at each step. It is not a one session exercise and needs to be done at your dog's pace
Teddy required life saving surgery again. He could also do with a good wash.
I'll no be getting across the burn the day. It's a bit wet 😂
Teaching your dog to wrap around you to end up beside you is a fun game to play with them with lots of benefits for both leadwalking and recall.
For walking we want to develop lots of value for being at your side so that the dog learns that if I stay with you this is where I'll get paid.
For recall we can use it in games to develop the recall cue, it makes your reward super exciting and it also brings the dog in really close to you, ending up beside you making it easy to get their lead on
Giving pills to my dog... Try this. You want to get the treats in as fast as possible so that they don't even have a chance to think about what they're eating. You'll need to experiment with the treats. They should be super tasty and a softish texture that won't require much if any chewing and they need to be small enough that the dog will eat them really fast. Cheese, sausage or cat food should be good. If your dog is already suspicious about taking pills practice this at a time other than when they would get the pills and do it without them to start with. Practice until they are inhaling those treats as quick as possible before you think about adding the pills in. You'll probably want to change your pill time a bit if they are already suspicious that pills are given at meal times so try giving them half an hour earlier. Mine are so used to gobbling pills they don't even need the handful of treats
Elsa is not impressed with the clocks changing. She feels that we got up too late, her walk was too late and her tea was so late she could've died of hunger. She has sucked her teddy and whinged all afternoon in the hope this nightmare would end
Be careful dog walkers at innermessan someone has smashed up a whole life and of pumpkins. I hope this is just a well intentioned effort to feed wildlife but the smashed up dinner plates everywhere are less intelligent. They are a serious hazard to dogs paws, not to mention wildlife and they're also right where cards turn so are a risk to tyres.
Train the cat to go to a mark, it'll be a laugh and then folk wonder why you'd rather work with high drive dogs. Look at the sheer zero f*cks she gives. Totally non chalance.
The benefits of trailing are that it is great for meeting your dogs mental and physical exercise needs. It allows the dog perform their natural behaviour of hunting and sniffing and gives them a safe outlet for it rather than chasing wildlife. Because of this great stimulation the dogs feel happy and fulfilled leading to lovely tired dogs even after comparatively short trails.
It is great for relationship building between you n your dog. While they do the hard work the human still has to there to support them so that they can be successful. Improved relationship and fulfilled needs could have a knock on effect of improving other behaviour, such as recall, and boisterous over excited behaviour or other unwanted behaviours.
It is a huge confidence builder for the dogs they have to work independently, away from you. They get well rewarded for their efforts and can feel very empowered. Fred in the video below is a great example of this. He was nervous of everything and was very shy around people. Now he is charging past kids milling about and other people with dogs and he is loving finding his person and earning his sausages. He is loving trailing and has taken to it as you would imagine a spaniel should.
It can also help reactive dogs as they become so focussed on the job in hand that their previous triggers are ignored.
So why wouldn't you want to give trailing a go and see what it can do for your dog ?
Little Aria on the trail of her missing person.
Although dogs have to learn about following human scent, trailing taps right into their desire to hunt. It is a great outlet for dogs who would like to take themselves off sniffing out and hunting wildlife.
So whose dog can do mantrailing? In theory if your dog has a nose and you can develop the confidence and motivation then any dog can do it.
Even reactive dogs can do it and in fact once they've got the motivation they will often work right through the things that would usually trigger them.
My current group of dogs is a bit of an eclectic mix of dogs, a Jack Russell, a boxer, a livestock guardian Romanian rescue, and a springer spaniel, that you wouldn't necessarily expect to be gifted trailers but all of them are finding their missing people and loving it.
If you'd be interested in trying trailing message me
