Mantrailing | Object Search | Scent Detection

What a dog’s nose can do

Anyone who has ever looked more closely at dogs is fascinated by their sense of smell. Even though research has been studying it for a long time, we will probably never fully grasp what information dogs use in this field. We have only scratched the surface.

A dog’s nose has around 250 million olfactory cells, a human nose only 10 to 30 million. Around 10% of a dog’s brain is devoted to processing olfactory information — compared to dogs, we are practically scent-blind. In addition, dogs have a Jacobson’s organ in the palate that supports the nose in taking in scents.

Dogs can be used in cancer diagnostics, sniff out diabetic emergencies, search for drugs, explosives, money and people, and help with hunting. Dogs have been used as hunting companions since the earliest times; much later came searching for people with the police and rescue services, the various types of object search and — quite recently — work in medicine and in conservation projects. In many of these fields, dogs are still irreplaceable today.

Scent work as species-appropriate exercise

More and more dog owners now use scent work purely privately or as a sport to give their dogs species-appropriate exercise. The dogs can use their most innate abilities and are challenged mentally and physically without being unnecessarily „wound up“. Together with their humans, they can live out their hunting instinct in a controlled way. For canids, there is hardly anything as self-rewarding as hunting as a team for shared prey.

Meanwhile, the humans learn to trust their dog and to contribute their part to the teamwork. In doing so, they gain an insight into the dog’s world that no other activity can offer. This shared hunt also creates a degree of team bonding that is hard to achieve in any other way.

The dog experiences great success, and the resulting self-confidence is especially good for anxious dogs in other everyday situations too. Mantrailing in particular is very well suited to making dogs that are insecure in everyday life much more confident. It is impressive to see how everyday problems fade into the background when the dog is following „its“ scent with intense concentration. Even hunting problems sometimes disappear because the dog no longer wants to hunt without its team.

Besides the mental challenge, scent work is also physically demanding: the breathing rate rises significantly and the dog performs olfactory feats at the highest level. Even dogs that are far from tired after several hours of running alongside a bike sleep contentedly at home once they have done their work. And you will soon see how much they love this work: the dog is waiting expectantly at the door as soon as „its“ special equipment appears.

How mantrailing works

Talented and exceptionally well-trained human-scent tracking dogs — so-called mantrailers — can pick out and follow the trail of a specific person even when it is several months old, in a big city and even from people travelling by car. This is a feat that we humans can no longer comprehend and that is often doubted. That it is indeed possible has been demonstrated, among others, by the FBI.

Even though most hobby or operational trailers do not normally reach this level, it is fascinating to see what your own dog is capable of when its talents are specifically encouraged.

The dog follows the individual scent of a person that it has previously been presented with on a so-called scent article. To do this, it uses the microscopic scent particles that every human constantly sheds in incredible numbers. Unlike tracking dogs, mantrailers therefore do not follow footprints but these particles — which is why the work also succeeds on asphalt in city centres and sometimes even after several weeks.

Our courses in Bad Dürkheim

Beginners’ courses

Although we offer beginners’ courses from time to time, it has proven worthwhile to integrate beginners into ongoing courses as early as possible. As we train individually according to each team’s level, this is no problem. Anyone who has never handled a dog in this discipline is initially so busy with the line, the terrain and, not least, the dog that it is a great advantage to also be able to watch somewhat more advanced teams in peace.

There are also regular weekend workshops, or you can take part as a team to be trained in our trainer training to simply try out whether this activity is right for you and your dog.

You will find all our services and prices in our booking portal

What to bring: a well-fitting harness, a long line of about 8 m, plenty of good treats, a worn item of clothing — and of course a good mood.

Ongoing mantrailing courses:

On Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Sundays we offer ongoing advanced courses. Because we tailor the trails individually to each team, the courses are suitable for relatively inexperienced teams as well as advanced ones. If you are taking part for the first time, please let us know your level of training in advance so that we can choose the areas accordingly.

As the maximum course size is five teams and some participants travel from other parts of Germany, registration is handled via our online booking system under „Groups“ („Gruppen“). You are welcome to register for a free place; if all places are taken, the system automatically creates a waiting list.

Price: €25 per team and training session.
Trainers: Heike Jung, Michaela Lukits-Gross, Leo and Marion Klesius, Anja Dosch. You can see in the booking portal which courses are run by whom. All our trainers have successfully completed our trainer training.

Ongoing course for operational trailers:

On most weekends we offer a special course for operational teams and for teams working towards this goal. This is the only course for which you need to be approved by us, as it is genuinely reserved for operational trailers. Please therefore contact us in advance after you have registered yourself and your dog.

Price: €35 per team and training session

Trainers: Alun Williams, Ina Ziebler-Eichhorn

Coaching

Do you train on your own and would like a performance review, or to work on specific problems you cannot solve alone? We offer separately bookable coaching in which we focus entirely on you and your dog — bookable individually or as a group.

Price: €90 per hour. Flat rates can be agreed for groups.

Seminars

We give seminars several times a year, now throughout Germany and Europe. You will find current dates in the booking portal and under Seminars & Workshops. Would you like to hold a seminar with us at your location? That is also possible with sufficient notice.

Our view on methods

Due to the massive media presence of some business-minded groups, we have recently been asked more and more often which method we use for training. For us there is only one fundamental answer: good training — in whatever field — must be as individual as every human-dog team. Anyone who really knows dogs knows that there cannot and never will be „the method“.

The best approach for a Bloodhound will very probably be different from that for an Australian Shepherd, a Malinois or a Pudelpointer — to name just a few examples. A good trainer adapts the approach to the dog, not the dog to the approach. Recently we have seen a great many dogs that, through „a method“, have either lost their enjoyment of trailing, developed serious faults or not understood what is actually expected of them.

That is why for us there is only one method: we teach the dog to enjoy the shared „hunt“ and show every team its own path to hunting success together. Be very careful if someone tries to sell you a method as a universally applicable approach — as a rule, it leads to a dead end.

Mantrailing in operational work

Anyone working with their dog in operations knows how quickly small and larger problems can creep in and how important it is to constantly review your own performance. Finding suitable help is difficult, even within the relevant organisations. On top of that, mantrailing is often still an exotic discipline that leads a difficult existence alongside area search dogs: nobody really knows much about it, yet the trailer is expected to be a cure-all and is sometimes almost worn out in operations because there is not enough time for training and thus for reviewing performance. American conditions are transferred directly to the completely different European circumstances, without regard to the relevant breed dispositions.

The requirements are usually far higher and the training more extensive. This starts with choosing or preparing a suitable scent article, continues with selecting the right starting point and goes all the way to reliable negative indications and working intersections, even in large cities.

At our seminars we therefore offer targeted further training and practice scenarios, including video analysis of trails where necessary. We build up all dogs — including those from the hobby field — thoroughly. For operational dogs, the training naturally has to meet different standards. Thanks to our extensive experience, above all Alun’s, we can offer suitable options all the way up to police service dogs.