Trailing at Woodhall Country Park
We were back at the fabulous Woodhall & Glen Lodge Country Park this morning for a very windy mantrailing session. 💨💨
The five teams had to work very hard in the wind to sort out all the blown scent, using all their skills and switching from ground scenting, to using the edges where the scent had blown and stuck, and catching wisps of air scent to try and work out their trails.
Well done everyone, you all worked very well and there should be some very tired dogs and handlers this evening. 😴😴
Huge thank you to Woodhall & Glen Lodge Country Park for letting us train in their lovely venue that offers so many surface transitions and junctions as well as a nice mix of woodland and open spaces. Fabulous place!
More night time trailing!
We were back out trailing last night, with four teams working on their starts, road crossings, and walking finds. Super work from everyone 👏🏼 I LOVE the night sessions we do.
Wow! What a fantastic day we’ve had at the stunning Wold View Country Park & Fisheries. The beautiful venue put a massive smile on all of our faces even before the dogs blew us away with their brilliant work.
Twelve dogs, twenty six trails, working on building their starts, junctions, surface transitions, and displaced starts all condensed into three minutes of video. Well done to everyone, you all did SO well! 🤩
Massive thanks to Wold View for letting us trail there again, it’s rapidly becoming one of our favourite venues!
We had a mammoth trailing session yesterday, ten dogs took to the trails to bring a bit of happiness to an otherwise very grey day.
There was a wide range of abilities, with two dogs just starting out on their way, and some very experienced dogs who have been trailing for years.
The newbie dogs worked on building confidence to make decisions with hunting trails, and there were some lovely choices made at the decision points.
The more experienced teams worked on their starts with split starts, back trails from the start, and starting from highly contaminated areas. All of these exercises are useful for the handler to see the changes in the dogs’ body language as they check out the different scents before deciding on the trail and kicking over into trailing mode.
Night trailing!
Another great evening of trailing in the dark last night.
Night time trailing tests the handlers as they really have to concentrate to watch their dogs’ body language and feel what the dogs are communicating through the line.
These four hardworking teams tackled backtrails, road crossings, and multiple junctions to find their trail layers, and as you can see, made excellent choices and decisions along the way. 🤩
We’ve got the perfect antidote to #bluemonday - over 4 minutes of joyful dogs, super happy to have found their trail layer! 🐾🐾
The best part of being a trail layer is the dogs’ happy smiles and dances when they find you. It instantly cheers you up and puts a massive smile on your face. 🤩
Getting an incoming video or photo of the dogs finding you is an art in itself as depending on the environment and weather conditions they don’t always come in quite the way you expected them to - especially the Spaniels! 🌀🤪
We haven’t managed to capture all of the dogs that have trailed with us last year, but there’s a good selection and some feature several times. Can you spot your dog? 👀 Blink and you might miss them, as they’re not hanging around! 🤣
Also, look at all that luscious green vegetation and gorgeous blue skies 😍
This January has been tough, even for me, and I’m usually a put my big coat on and carry on kind of person. It’s been freezing cold, wet, icy, slippery, foggy, grey and miserable 🥶
The mornings are getting lighter though, and the evenings are starting to stretch out a bit. Lighter nights, better weather and good times are on the way! 🥳
It’ll not be long before we’re all back out having fun on the summer evenings. Hang in there. 🥰
We have been truly spoilt with beautiful venues to trail in just lately. Today we were welcomed by Woodhall & Glen Lodge Country Park, and it was an amazing space for us to train in!
This venue offered many surface transitions, open space, woodland, so many junctions and options, and plenty of hiding places. It was also so beautiful and peaceful, and made an absolutely perfect setting for our session today. Massive thanks to them for letting us train there, we can’t wait to go back!
The dogs all had a great time exploring the new venue with us, and worked very hard in some pretty cold temperatures. Here’s some of their decision making from today ⬇️
The little happy dance you do when you get to go mantrailing! 💃🏻 🕺🏻 Sweet girl Topaz has taken to doing a twirly little dancey-dance when she gets in proximity to her trail layers! She makes us laugh so much! 😆
The little happy dance you do when you get to go mantrailing! 💃🏻 🕺🏻
Sweet little Rommie rescue girl, Topaz, has taken to doing a little twirly dancey-dance when she gets in proximity to her trail layers.
Shes such a quirky little character, who is a perfect example of just how great and inclusive mantrailing is as a dog sport.
She initially took a while to get properly into the game as she was very hot and cold with what she found rewarding, so her Mum had to work hard on finding just the right combo of treats for her - we’ve tried all sorts in her treat pots!
Once we got the right reward, she hit the ground running and became an excellent little mantrailer, amazing us with her ability to figure out the puzzles we set her.
Unfortunately she then got quite poorly with pancreatitis, and also had to have an operation for a tumour on her spleen which took a long time to recover from. She still has bad days as her pancreatitis is proving difficult to get on top of.
When she’s feeling on top form, like she was yesterday, we push her a little bit and really give her something to work out. 🤩
When she’s a bit more fragile she either takes a break from trailing, or if she’s up to it we just concentrate on making it even more super fun than usual, so she still gets the chance to do come out and do something but that’s appropriate to how she’s feeling at the time. 🥰
I don’t want to say that she’s a diva, but Topaz is affectionately known as Her Majesty, and she definitely has very strong views about what are acceptable weather conditions and ground conditions to trail in, and she’s far too important to be expected to set foot off a path or go within 10ft of any kind of potentially prickly vegetation! 👑
We set her trails accordingly, and all of our trail layers know what to do and what not to do when hiding for her - otherwise they get the stink eye as she finds them, indicates from the path, and demands that they come to her
This is the face of a dog who has been struggling recently with his fading eyesight. His deteriorating vision has really knocked his confidence and left him feeling a bit vulnerable. His Mum has been fretting about him as it’s been upsetting to see him so quiet and sad.
As you can see though, he thoroughly enjoyed his trailing session this morning, happily leading out in front instead of looking to his mum for support. As soon as he knew he was going to trail he was like a different dog. He doesn’t need his eyes to trail, and he knows the game so well and knows that he can succeed, because he’s never failed yet!
That’s what I love about mantrailing, it’s accessible for any dog, and it leaves them feeling happy and successful! It’s just great for building dogs’ confidence and resilience and boosting their mood.
We’re “sniffing out” new venues and areas to mantrail in!
We’re looking for country parks, wedding venues, woodland, outdoor pursuits venues, farmland, business parks - you name it, we can pretty much mantrail anywhere! We just need a safe place to park up to 5 vehicles and some options to lay trails in different directions.
Please drop us a message if you have, or know of, a venue that you think we could use.
We’re looking for venues in N Lincs, NE Lincs, and the Lincoln area.
Thank you so much in advance!
High finds are no problem to Cedar, he just climbs straight up there! 🤩
This enthusiastic boy always makes us laugh on his trails 😄
I offer Mantrailing, UK Scent Sport, Scent Detection, Trick Workshops, and Interactive Play Sessions in North Lincs
