Someone asked me recently if dogs had to have any previous training to be able to mantrail, if dogs had to be “well behaved dogs” to be able to do it.
My answer was a definite NO! Dogs don’t have to have any formal training in order to be excellent mantrailing dogs.
Any dog can do it, and every dog will enjoy it and benefit hugely from the opportunity to use their nose in a natural way.
Dogs are born knowing how to follow scent, we can harness that amazing ability and give them a chance to live their best life.
Unlike a lot of dog sports, mantrailing dogs don’t have to be super confident, extremely obedient, or have a recall. In fact we welcome the dogs that many other sports may have to turn away.
We welcome
✅ high energy “boisterous” dogs
✅dogs with high prey drive
✅dogs that may struggle with focus
✅laid back dogs
✅dogs that can’t be let off lead
✅puppies
✅adolescent dogs
✅elderly dogs
✅dogs with disabilities
✅nervous and timid dogs
✅”reactive” dogs
✅big strong dogs
✅tiny little dogs
✅rescue dogs
✅dogs of all breeds - not just “working breeds”
When we say Mantrailing is a sport that any dog can do, we mean it. The human half of the teams don’t have to be super fit either (I am definitely not!). We have all ages of people train with us. We adapt the trails and training goals based on the dog and handler in front of us.
At Trailblazers Activity Dogs we’re passionate about enriching dogs’ lives through scent based activities, and we’re also committed to helping dogs that may struggle with day to day life for whatever reason. We are also happy to liaise with any other trainers or behaviourists that you may be working with already, to ensure that your dog is getting the best possible training they can get from us to help their progress.
We have several people who trail with us who were almost at breaking point with their dogs before they found mantrailing. They were struggling so much with t
Mantrailing fun at Elsham Activity Centre last night, five teams all working on their individual goals and having a great time! #mantrailing #trailing #scentwork #thenoseknows #dogfun #canineenrichment
When we say Mantrailing is suitable for ANY dog, we mean it! Gorgeous old boy Fin has had a lot of health struggles recently, but he came out and managed a great little trail which really perked him up, put a spring in his step, and a spark in his eye again. It was lovely to see the transformation in him when he saw his treat pots being passed to his trail layer! 😍
Some happy faces to brighten up this grey afternoon!
We took five of our own dogs out for a training session tonight - it was the perfect way to kick off the weekend! It was a fabulous evening spent working on high finds, low finds, open space, working out of contamination, old vs fresh scent, and we started our youngest dog off on tracking too. We have some very happily tired dogs now 😍
Trail layers have the BEST job! Who wouldn’t want to be found by happy dogs and get to see their smiley faces as they come in for their reward!
We’ve had fun introducing six new teams to UK Scent Sport today. The dogs had a ball!
@UK Scent Sport Taster Day
We’ve had a brilliant day running our first UK Scent Sport Taster Day.
We were joined by six dogs who were totally new to the sport and one dog who had already done a taster day a few months ago, and they all had a great time.
Each dog excelled at at least one of the four components, making great progress at only their first session, and I’m really looking forward to seeing how they develop.
The great thing about this sport is that it’s so accessible for everyone and every dog, and the components are so varied that there’s something for every team - I LOVE it!
A rare Bank Holiday off meant that we could take four of our dogs for some swimming fun at SWIM 4 PAWS near Sheffield today.
Our guys love being in the water, as do I, and it’s so nice to be able to swim with your dogs in a nice clean, safe environment.
How did you spend your Bank Holiday Monday with your dogs? 🐾🐾
Spell and Secret took a trip to the new Seaside room at Tilly's Enrichment Rooms yesterday morning.
As you can see, they LOVED it! They were very enthusiastic to get in there (sorry to the staff for their hysteria! 🤦🏻♀️) and they were kept busy for the full 45mins finding all the treats.
They were very tired when they got in. It was the perfect activity for us to do while it was raining and hailstoning outside!
This special old boy deserves a post all of his own because he’s what Mantrailing is all about for me.
Fin started Mantrailing almost 3 years ago now, and took to it right from his first trail! He’d done agility in his youth, but it was never totally his “thing” and he frequently used to have different ideas to his Mum, Caron, when it came to running the courses!
The same independence and freedom of thinking that used to be his undoing in agility, is his strength in Mantrailing. He LOVES being in charge of the situation! He also loves little deviations from the trail in order to find extra snacks, such as donuts, but that’s another story! 😄
Recently Fin has been quite poorly. His age had started to catch up with him, and after being in at the vets for a few days with kidney problems where it was touch and go, he was then dealt another blow as he had a stroke.
Again, the vets weren’t sure if he’d recover, but Fin, being Fin, surprised us all, and with the extra love and care from his Mum, he rallied round and is getting stronger every day.
He came trailing with his brothers last weekend and of course he had to have a little go!
We set him a nice easy trail on flat ground so he wouldn’t fall over as he’s still a little unbalanced sometimes. He promptly tried to make it a lot more difficult than it needed to be in true Fin style, but look how happy he is to be out trailing!
This lovely old lad had a great time, out doing what he loves, using his nose and his brain to find his person and that all important pot of tasty food that he loves so much.
It put a smile on his face and it also put massive smiles on all of our faces to see him having so much fun.
Mantrailing isn’t all about the long trails, the aged trails, the technical challenges etc etc. For me, the best thing about Mantrailing is that ANY dog can do it, it’s accessible to dogs of ALL different ages and capabilities, and the dogs will benefit massively from doing it. I
Some happy dog faces from the last week of Mantrailing sessions to cheer you all up this rather miserable Monday morning.
Some highlights from our day at Paws In The Park at Normanby Hall Country Park on Sunday.
We were lucky enough to be invited to give two demos to showcase mantrailing at the event, as well as our stall promoting enrichment through dogs being encouraged to use their nose.
Although trailing isn’t really the easiest sport to show in such a small area, we managed to make it work with some very short fun trails set up to some novel hides in the arena.
We were so proud of the teams that represented us, the dogs were absolutely amazing!
It really wasn’t the easiest environment to work in, it was extremely busy, there were people and dogs all around the edge of the arena, there were competing scents of food stalls close by, not to mention that the arena itself was massively contaminated by the afternoon by all the dogs who’d been in for the show, not to mention all of the treats scattered on the grass!
Did any of this bother our dogs? No. Once they’d done their scent inventory and been cued to sniff and trail they set off like it was a regular trailing session in an everyday environment! Their strong foundations and their love of the game really shone through, and we couldn’t be any prouder.
Huge thank you to all of the handlers who brought their awesome dogs along to represent us and spread the word of mantrailing, and to the trail layers who volunteered to come up to join in the fun. It was a great day, and we enjoyed every minute of it as we got to spend it together doing what we love. 💜💜
We’ve had a great day at Paws in the Park at Normanby Hall Country Park.
We took our “Sniffari” stall and ran food searches for the dogs all day, and it was great to see so many very happy dogs and hear so many little noses sniffing away as they searched for the treats.
Thank you to Normanby Hall for inviting us to do a demo and have a stall, we’ve enjoyed every minute of today and I’m pretty sure we made a lot of dogs very happy too!
We took our little Jinx for an adventure to Tilly's Enrichment Rooms Woodland Room today.
Check out his little sniffer (sound up!) going ten to the dozen! I can never get enough of listening to our dogs’ noses working 😍😍
It’s #internationaldogday today (every day is dog day to us) and we’ve spent this morning at SWIM 4 PAWS swimming in their indoor pool with the dogs to celebrate! It’s fantastic to be able to get in and swim with them, just so much fun.
How are you spending today? What are you getting up to with your dogs? 🐩 🐕 🐶 🐾
We had to cancel tonight’s Mantrailing session due to the thunderstorms that we’re forecast, so instead we spent a bit of time making taster platters for our own dogs to test what foods our dogs really love so we know what they’d prefer as their reward for Mantrailing (and for other important training such as recall!)
They had a choice of ham, chicken, mature cheddar, soft cheese, peanut butter, sardines, tuna, hot dog sausages, natural yogurt, cat food, tinned dog food, and high quality kibble. The results were quite surprising with a lot of them! They didn’t go straight for the things that I thought they would, and I’ll definitely be revising what I put in some of their Mantrailing pots from now on.
It’s important to really know what your dog’s preferences are, as what you’re rewarding them with needs to be something the dog really wants and feels is worth working for - otherwise it’s not really that much of a reward! We do these taster platters semi regularly with ours as their tastes do change, or a certain food can lose it’s novelty and value if they have it a lot. I also like to add in some (safe for dogs) “curveball” foods sometimes, as just because we *think* that something is high value it doesn’t mean it is to that individual dog. One of ours will eagerly eat cabbage or broccoli over meat or fish! 🤷🏻♀️😄
One VERY enthusiastic Rottie girl who was very excited to have sniffed out her trail layer!
We love having her on our mantrailing sessions, she’s such a lovely happy, friendly girl, and she has us laughing so much at her antics! 😍🤣😍🤣
Happy #InternationalPuppyDay Here’s a video to make you all broody! 😍😍 This is our youngest boy learning to have his harness put on when he was 9 weeks old. He started Mantrailing when he was 12 weeks old and absolutely loved it, he’s now 1yr old and trailing is still his favourite thing to do!
Mantrailing is great for puppies because
✅It’s brilliant fun!
✅It’s a low impact activity to do with them while they’re still growing.
✅It’s a great way of introducing pups to new environments/things and get them exploring.
✅It can help build a positive association with people.
✅It helps build confidence and resilience.
✅It uses their brain and leaves them satisfied and sleepy.
✅It’s all done on a long line so they don’t need a recall or any other training.
Puppies can start as soon as they’re fully vaccinated. Drop us a message if you’re interested in getting started with your puppy.
