Sniffing Around Scent Work

Last week I attended a two day beginner seminar on Mantrailling, offered by Mantrailing Global, only the second one given in the US! This is a brand new scent sport in this country (although I understand that it is very popular in Europe), and I have high hopes for it growing here.

But, before I dive into the details, What exactly IS Mantrailing?

Mantrailing is the art of teaching a dog to find a specific person by following a scent trail. It differs from “live find” dogs (generally used in Search and Rescue work (SAR)) which are trained to find any person in a given area, or tracking dogs, which are trained to follow a scent trail only on the ground. The AKC tracking program has the dog follow a track laid by anyone. Mantrailing is about the dog taking scent from a scent article and finding only the specific person associated with that article. (see article by AKC here: https://www.akc.org/expert-advice/sports/mantrailing-for-the-scent-driven-dog/)

This is traditionally practiced in a Search and Rescue context, and  Mantrailing Global uses the same teaching practices that Search and Rescue Teams use, but they are focused on teaching this activity as a sport, NOT for SAR or operational purposes.

It has some advantages over nosework/scentwork:

• There is a HUGE emphasis on watching/reading your dog’s behavior right from the start. “Your dog is giving you a steady stream of communication all the time, and it is your job to interpret it,” said one of my instructors during the training. I love this approach. I am sure it was the intention of NACSW when they started K9 Nosework, and I am sure that it still exists in many places. But I see so much training where this attitude isn’t present, where there is so much pressure for the dog to perform in a CERTAIN WAY, and where the expectations of the handler is what is prioritized, that this was a breath of fresh air.
• There is no BS about the indication/training the indication/not training the indication. I am so tired of listening to those debates in nosework. In fact, there is very little talk of “training the dog at all (which is how it should be!). The organization emphasizes that hunting is a NATURAL talent for the dog, and you are not training it at all. And there is no need for an indication, it is very straightforward in Mantrailing: a person has walked a distance and hidden. Your dog either finds them or doesn’t, it is obvious to everyone involved.
• There are no competitions, no placement ribbons, no prizes, NO PRESSURE. Don’t get me wrong, I like placements and ribbons. But I don’t consider them to be the ultimate goal of nosework. I love watching dogs use their nose. I am awestruck by my dog working out a complicated odor problem. Competitions help guide me in my training, and give me an external metric for how successful my training is. But it seems that with the growth of this sport, has come an influx of people who primarily care about ribbons and titles. It is, I suppose, an inevitable by-product of expansion. I was surprised by what a relief it was to work in a scent activity which has none of those things….at least not yet.  They do have levels, and assessments to attain those levels, which require working with an instructor. And the organization is considering developing competitions. But I rather hope that they don’t.
• There is an emphasis on working outdoors. You can trail inside, and at the seminar we did a portion of training in an indoor agility arena. But there is an emphasis on trailing outside. And I love being outdoors. I have a regular desk job, and I like my job. But if I had my preference, I would be outside all day long.

Astra on the trail

The training is started by using “intensity trails,” in which you have a handler and a trailer. The trailer feeds the dog a little bit of high-value food, lets the dog see that they have more food to offer, drops a scent article (something that they have handled, like a glove or a hat) and then walks or runs away a short distance and hides just out of sight. The handler encourages the dog to sniff the scent article, and  then lets the dog find the trailer, and the dog gets lots of food reward from the trailer.

Because the dog is starting the hunt by watching, and then transitions to using their nose,  It is an easy, very natural thing for the dog to do. All of the dogs in our training group picked it up effortlessly, and it was obvious that they were enjoying it. We had one young Malinois in the group who was a little worried about strange people, and he got to find one of his owners for the first few rounds, and then transitioned easily to finding one of the other members of  our group. I can see that like nosework, this could be a valuable activity for reactive dogs.

Gradually, over time, the trailer hides further and further away, and eventually the dog does not see the person at all, they just take scent from the article and find the trail only by nose. And then more complexity is added by adding distraction trails, using double blind scenarios, etc.

Here is Yeti, working a series of intensity trails at the seminar

Since we only had two days to train, we worked with always letting the dog see the trailer initially. But a couple of the dogs in the group were following fairly long trails with a couple of turns by the end of day two.

This was the best class I have attended in a long time. The instructors were very knowledgeable, and excellent coaches, there was a minimum of lecture, and lots of hands-on work and practice, and it was just overall lots of fun. The organization will be back in Texas in May 2023, offering more seminars and  I plan on being there. They should be posting more information on their website here soon–go check it out!