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Mantrailing |  |
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Bloodhounds were originally bred to scent large game animals. Nowadays they are mostly used for tracking down people, this is specifically called mantrailing. Mantrailing and tracking are two different things. Tracking is what e.g. schutzhunds do, they are taught to follow the exact footsteps of the person. Tracking is thus believed to be based more on following the scent of crushed vegetation and disturbed earth than actual scent discrimination. This also means that the dog is not expected to be able to discriminate between different people that have walked in the area. The difference between the two methods can also be termed as a question of different training and different requirements for working. Tracking dogs are not given a special scent article in the beginning of the trail, nor are there persons at the end of the trail to be identified, like in mantrailing. Tracking dogs are also required to work exactly or very close to the actual path, they need to be able to find the objects (eg. marked sticks) that the person who laid the trail (runner) has dropped on the trail. Mantrailing is based on scent discrimination, i.e. the dog follows individual scent of a person coming of the shed hairs, dead skin-cells and smaller particles from that person's body. As the rafts and particles are very very small in size they are carried by the wind so when the bloodhound is trailing he may be some distance from where the person actually walked depending on the terrain and weather (wind, rain..). In general, humid ground is easier and very dry ground is more difficult for mantrailing. On very dry ground the scent tends to be more faint, while on moist ground the scent is easier to follow. Also, open area is more difficult as the wind may blow the scent away from the trail. Wooded area is easier as the scent tends to stay closer to the actual trail. The bloodhound is scented in the beginning of trail with the trail layer's scent item, eg. a piece of clean (/sterile) cotton pad, T-shirt, sock etc. that the person has been wearing next to his/her skin at least for 30 minutes. The scent item is placed in a clean non-used plastic bag (preferably minigrip bag which can be closed & sealed tightly). When the dog is scented, at the same time it is given the command like "Find" (or whatever the handler wants to use). Do not use this word for anything else. To get started with the puppy When the puppy is roaming free, ask another person to hold him. Draw the puppy's attention to you, run away (eg. behind a tree or a bush), so the puppy sees where you went but cannot see where you are. Ask the person holding the pup to let go when you're almost in your hiding place. If the pup does not seem to be interested in running to you, you can call his name to motivate him. When the pup finds you make a big fuss and play with him. Let him know this was the best thing he has ever done. Little by little make these practice trails more difficult, make the distance longer, do it in heavy woods so the pup does not see where you went but he has to use his nose. Use other people to run the trails, make the time longer, so that you wait a minute or two before letting the dog go. Bloodhounds are so natural with the hide and seek game, that most of them instantly know what to do and they just love it. They do not have to be trained with treats like tracking dogs are trained by placing pieces of treats along the path - DO NOT DO THIS - it is unnecessary for Bloodhound and can even be detrimental when you want to train the dog to do mantrailing, not tracking. In the beginning the person hiding at the end of the trail might have some treats to give for the pup, but those are not necessary either: the biggest reward for a bloodhound is the joy of finding the person. Scent discrimination training Have two persons to do the following: on a field or other open area, have them walk side by side together straight ahead for about 50 meters, then split 90 degrees to left and right and both walk another 50 metres or more and stop. The dog sees this all the time and he is scented with the other person's scent article. The dog should run to the correct person. If he does not but goes to the wrong one first, tell the person to either not react at all (if the dog is not reacting very eagerly) or to react angrily by saying "Bad dog!" or something like that (if the dog is eagerly happy as if he was saying "This was the person"). Also the handler can correct the dog verbally and tell him to "Find!" again. If the dog immediately goes up to the right person, make a big fuss (both handler and the identified person) and tell the dog what a good dog he is. In the beginning do not use two persons of the same household (they partly share the same scents, so it can be more difficult for the dog). Gradually make this training more difficult: the other person is a close friend of the dog (eg. your spouse), and the other one (to whom the dog is supposed to trail) a complete stranger. Have more than two persons for it, have the persons to walk actual trails so the dog does not see it: first together, then splitting, later on maybe getting back together, or crossing each others trail etc. But do it gradually. Remember still: it is not wrong if the dog goes to all people at the end of the trail, what counts is how the dog reacts to them. When the dog has been trained to identify the "victim", he will only check the other people and identify the correct one. Identification training Sign of identification can be trained for the dog, it is a special behavior that the dog does when he identifies the person. Such behaviors include sitting & pawing, jumping up against the person, barking etc. As bloodhounds do not bark this is not easy with our breed. Depending on the temperament of the dog, pawing or jumping can be good choices. A very lively dog that loves to jump on people may not like to sit down and paw after the find - jumping is then the choice of identification. Likewise, a very calm dog is easier to teach for sitting and pawing. This is simply carried out by practicing: every time at the end of the trail, the runner should make the dog do the ID sign. After doing the ID, the dog is treated (also clicker can be used to reinforce the behavior on the moment the dog does what it's supposed to, in case the dog is clicker trained). It makes things a lot easier if the dog knows the commands already, like "Sit", "Give a paw" or "Jump", "Up", or whatever. Crossing trails and city trails Practice crossed trails. The dog should ignore all other trails there might be, either of human or animal trails. Start practicing by having a person walk in the woods a straight trail and mark it with ribbons. Next day have another person to walk a trail crossing the old trail vertically, ask him to mark the fresh trail with other colour ribbons. Work the fresh trail. See how the dog reacts at the crossing, if at all. Gradually, add the number of crossed trails, decrease the time interval so that in the end the correct trail is a lot older than the fresh crossing one, still the dog should ignore the crossing trails. Work in an area where you know there are a lot of animals (moose, deer, other dogs, people). Work in crowded parks with lots of contaminating scents and disturbances. But remember to decrease your requirements for the dog in the beginning when lots of disturbances are around, first use fresh trails and gradually make it more difficult and rise your criteria. You can also practice with a backup dog. This is a good way to teach the bloodhound to ignore other dogs on the trail. Ask a friend with another dog to walk some distance behind you when you are working the trail. Use various other dogs, also your Bloodhound's best buddies. It is very beneficial for scent discrimination to practice in urban areas as asphalt and concrete are difficult surfaces for mantrailing. With lots of people, bikes, other dogs etc. going by all the time this is a challenge compared to doing the same in the woods. Not to mention traffic: cars make the scent to be blown far from where it was initially. Typically, a bloodhound works a zig zag pattern on asphalt. The scent does not stay on asphalt but is retained in the grass surrounding the pavement or street. The dog keeps checking both sides to be able to determine whether the person walked straight ahead or turned somewhere. Bloodhounds are fully capable of working in city environment as well and are known to have worked even two weeks old trail in urban area, which might seem unbelievable. Planning and marking of trails It is advisable to plan the routes carefully on map. This way the runner knows what kind of terrains he will encounter in the woods and you can plan the sites for angles / turns on the trail on map. Try to plan the trails so, that as many types of terrains as possible are included in it, as well as crossing of roads, small creeks etc. It is also very important to mark the trails carefully when practicing. This way the handler will always know where the exact path goes and is able to determine when the dog is on the trail and when not. The more you train, the better you will come in reading your dog. You will learn to see when he is on and off the trail by looking his body postures, tail, lowering of head and general impression. Use colourful ribbons for marking the trail. Clothespins with ribbons attached to them are very handy and re-usable. The distance of marks should be short enough: in general you should be able to see the last two ribbons when you look back. In open areas distance between two marks can be longer than in heavy woods. Also when crossing roads or creeks, it is good to mark the crossing sites on both sides. Correcting A frequent question is, what to do when the dog goes off from the trail and starts to follow a crossing trail for example. If you clearly see the dog is not on the trail anymore and is very determined in following the crossing trail, call the dog and close to the actual trail scent him again on the scent article in order to make him continue with the original trail. Unfortunately some dogs have very strong hunting instincts and they will ignore human scents when game animals are around. To correct this, determined training is required. Scent articles In the beginning use as "pure" scent articles as possible - a sterile cotton pad held against the person's skin works nicely. It will not have any other scent in it, that could possibly confuse the dog. When the dog progresses in training, start using variable scent articles. Using the same type of scent article might lead to a dog that does not accept any other type of scent items. Use car seat, bike saddle, footprint, cigarette butt, brush, pillow case - anything that has the scent of the person in it. As was mentioned earlier, members of the same household share some same scents. This can sometimes cause a problem, if the scent article of a person actually belongs to another family member who has also worn it, the dog might trail to the owner of the item and not to the person who wore it last. Air scenting Also Bloodhounds use air scenting when needed. Air scenting means that the dog helds its head high and smells airborne particles giving the scent. Typically one can see a Bloodhound air scent at the end of the trail if the wind blows from the direction of the runner. After getting the fresh scent this way, the dog can take a shortcut to the runner and not follow the actual walking path. Ability to switch from trailing to air scenting is economical for the dog and "victim", it would be stupid to still follow the longer route (path) if the dog got the possibility of a faster shortcut. Important training tips and facts
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Bloodhound Mantrailing |
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