Motivation and Focus
Over the last week, I attended a 2 day Advanced Mantrailing workshop with Lisa Gorenflo, founder of Mantrailing UK, followed by a session this morning with Emma Cook, one of the head instructors, of Paws4Sports.
On being asking what I wanted to work on, I noted that my collie had recently , sometime swapped/investigated all the places where we had hidden previously, but not managed to find his misper.He demonstrated this beautifully on a double blind trail at Allerton Park( when neither the handler nor instructor know where the person is hidden) on the first day, missing his person by 40 foot.
The remedy decided upon was to increase his focus for that one individual person ( Jack’s motivation is not in short supply!), by going back to intensity and delayed starts ( intensity is when the dog is prepared for starting ie scent inventory completed, harness put on before the person departs , whilst delayed is when he sees the person depart( with minimal information as to direction ) , and then completes the scent inventory and harness is put on). These starts to be ideally done in contaminated areas so he really has to choose and focus on one individual trail.
The next day we practised this in Thorp Arch. So good so far …
Today, we had a session with Emma at Thorp Arch, this time it being Torrin’s turn. Having seen the benefits how increased motivation really helped the dogs become more focused to find their person, we decided to do some hunting trail with Torrin. This is when you do three short trails ( but they must be long/complicated enough for the dogs to have to use their nose to solve the puzzle, rather than coming around a corner and “happening upon” their person. I had been sceptical of doing this for a long time, as when Torrin initially started it took a little time for him to realise he had to use his nose rather than his eyes, and I wondered whether this would make him go sight orientated again.
I needed have no such fears, Hunting trails worked fabulously , giving a motivated focussed dog, who loved his game. Torrin can often be quite serious when trailing, but this gave him that extra level of motivation to really find his misper with gusto.
There are two caveats to this though - he must
1. Not see where the misper goes ( the entrance to the bunkers made excellent place to hide during his intensity starts) and 2. 2. The misper has to be well hidden, on a trail that has at least one puzzle point that his nose must work out. There was some great hiding today !
The aim is to transfer that same gusto to a scent article.
The above can be summarised in few words:
Advanced training often means going back to Foundations !