What is Mantrailing?

Being asked at coffee break on a Monday morning what one did at the weekend, often creates a wave of rather surprised looks! The sensible answer is explaining it is when our dogs use their noses to follow a specific scent of a person and find that person. The dog takes the scent from anything the person has had contact with, examples being an article of clothing, to a car seat, a door handle, or even a half eaten sandwich.

The other answer it is essentially a game of hide and seek ( generally for adults, though children are allowed to join in!), where someone hides and you and your dog as a team find them.

The difference between mantrailing and the search and rescue dogs that you see on the hills, are those dogs are off lead and rained to look for and locate any human scent, whilst in mantrailing the dog trails ( on lead) after one specific human scent only.

Every one of us has a distinctive scent , akin to a genetic fingerprint. This scent is made up of all the debris that falls off out body , consisting of skin cells, sweat , hormones and bacteria . Nobody really knows which part the dogs use , when they trail a missing person.

Trailing can occur in all environments, both rural and urban . Generally , urban , and hard surfaces are harder for the dog to trail, though some dogs, such s spaniels who find pheasant very enticing, may find trailing in urban areas has less distractions in the environment!

Torrin, my whippet, using his nose