Nearly 15 years old ๐ค. The legs may be getting wobbly, the ears may no longer work, but the drive and the nose are both still strong ๐ฅฐ๐ถ๐ฅฐ.
#trailingforallages ๐ค๐๐ค
Meet Gaius - just 8 months old and this was only his second go at trailing ๐พ๐ถ๐พ. Dogs are born to do this - we're only harnessing their innate ability so that we can play this fabulous game with them ๐ฃ๐ฅฐ๐พ.
Trailing into the lift at a train station ๐.
๐ฅฐ๐๐๐คฉ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐คฉ๐๐ฅฐ
A fabulous day of urban trailing with Catterick K9 Mantrailing ๐๐คฉ๐.
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
