by Wendy Amon

I’ve been mantrailing with my Vastgotaspet Saga on and off for several years now, she had time off for
puppy duties but still worked right up to whelping and was always keen to get back to work, I now have a
daughter of Saga who has just started her journey and is taking to it like a duck to water, Vastgotaspets
love to have a job to do!

Mantrailing – what is it?
In a nutshell its a game of hide and seek, its a low impact sport that is achieved by the dogs ability to
follow scent as it might hunting for prey, as its natural instinct is to follow animal tracks or animal scent
and as we know all dogs love to use their noses, so its fully accessible to all people and their dogs,
regardless of breed or age, handlers do not run, the dogs are taught to work at your speed as you could be
going through a wood or on uneven ground.
It really makes the dogs use their incredible olfactory senses, which is basically the dog gathering
information about the environment, recognizing individuals, making decisions and learning. Dogs have
100 million sensory receptor sites in their nasal cavity compared to 6 million in people and the area in the
canine brain devoted to analysing odours is about 40 times larger than comparable part of the human
brain.
As well as providing physical exercise it gives the dog a good mental workout, plus its brilliant fun for
both dog and handler, watching your dog work out which direction and path the trail layer took is amazing
and rewarding, ideal for building a great relationship with your dog.

So how do you start?
Firstly you need to find an instructor in your area, preferably one who understands how different breeds
work and do an introduction to mantrailing, they should teach you everything you need to know to get
started, you will need a harness and longline and high value treats in sealed pots, you will be taught line
skills and also how to be a trail layer (not as easy as it sounds) if you already use a harness for everyday
use, add a bandanna or similar so the dog knows its going to work, they soon learn the starting ritual.
The dog is taught through stages how to follow a specific scent, its all achieved through encouraging your
dog with their favourite food, toy or praise and how to build their confidence for success, its also teaching
the dog that he/she is in the driving seat and you are just the co pilot who has to learn to read your dogs
movements and behaviour and keep them safe when working, most dogs have been taught to heel walk
and you are now asking them to take the leading role, which may take a session or two to build up the
dogs confidence to work ahead of you.
You start by the dog being shown its treat pot by the trail layer and the dog is encouraged to go to the
person for a reward, this is done at first with very short distances, it builds the dogs confidence to go up to
a stranger and take reward, after a few very short trails the trail layer will then hide out of sight and the
dog who by now thinks this is the best game ever trails on to find them, every dog is different in how they
approach the trail layer and some need more encouragement than others, the trail layer may have to
crouch down to encourage the dog to them, this is when it helps if you have a good trail layer who
understands dog behaviour.
You then move onto teaching the dog to take scent, this can be done at home or out on a walk, it can also
be invaluable for some reactive dogs to redirect their attention, so something worth teaching all dogs! You
basically teach the dog to smell whatever you point to, glove, stone, twig, post, brick etc you need the dog
to take scent from anything as later on you may ask the dog to take scent from a door handle, car seat,

where someone has sat on a bench, but in the first instance most are taught to smell an article of clothing
as these hold the best scent, they soon learn which scent they are following and which is the freshest
scent.
Your dog also has to learn to indicate that it has found the trail layer, this is normally a sit in front of the
person, who may be sitting, standing, laying down or even up a tree or climbing frame (some trail layers
can be quite devious!)

Progression
So now you are hooked on the idea and love that it mentally stimulates your dog and also they are
mentally tired after trailing and like to chill out, you can do progression trails, these can be anything in
excess of 200 metres, you start to put in changes of direction, different terrains, door/gate indications.
As you progress and work longer more difficult trails, in varying locations and differing weather
conditions, all of which impact on the scent, you are learning to read your dogs body language and
hopefully now working as a team, you build up to longer trails, trails where neither your instructor or you
know where the trail layer has gone (double blinds) and aged trails, this is where the trail layer leaves
their scent and has left some hours earlier, you and your dog also works up to split trails, this is where
there is the trail layer and a decoy person.
There are certain levels you can achieve in Mantrailing depending on which instructor you trail with,
Mantrailing Global do up to five levels, some instructors also do an “in house” assessments where you
have to pass urban and rural trails, you normally have to do quite a few days trailing to be able to pass the
levels and prove you can work as a team, your instructor should suggest you record all your trails in a log
book, these can be purchased online or via your instructor, there is also a mantrailing app that can be used
to record length of trails and deviant from the trail layer, it also gives information on weather etc which
can be useful when you record your trails.
So if you like the idea of mantrailing, find yourself a trainer, get a harness and long line and give it a go, I
know you will be amazed at how good your Vastgotaspet is.