[jeanpaul]

Hello.

My name is Jean Paul and I am writing from Trento (Northern Italy).

My dog (a Spinone Italiano) and I are part of a local SAR group and since last March we have begun training in mantrailing.

The problem is that mantrailing is not something particularly common in Italy and we do not have many chances to exchange views about best training methods with other peoples. Our two instructors, who I consider as very competent, are mainly self-taught as far as it regards mantrailing. Once in a while an instructor from Germany come to help us in the training of our dogs. Nevertheless, I have many unresolved doubts and I hope we can here have a talk about some of them.

The most pressing doubt that I have now is about motivation - why the dog work with the handler? Few days ago we have met other SAR groups which use exclusively air-scenting dog. Instructors wanted to see us working with our scent discriminating dogs and after seeing us they emphasized one element that is motivation which they say is mainly provided by the "figurante" (I am referring to the person which hides himself, I do not know this word in English) who should act very excited and when found should be very playful. However, I think that from this point of view mantrailer dogs are essentially different from air-scenting dogs. In Germany the use of Spinone Italiano as mantrailer is quite common because of the calm approach of this breed. Good mantrailer dogs that I have seen did not jerk forward but seemed like marathon runners starting slower and finishing faster. I am under the impression that the running person acting a bit as a clown is fine for the first tracks while after is no more useful if the dog does not lack motivation. On the contrary when the two of uf make mistake is because of excessive excitation of the dog... I am not sure I am explaining myself well, also because English is not my mothertongue. Anyway I would dlike to know how you motivate your dogs to work and how the training of breeds as german shepard or border collie differs from the training of pointing breeds.

Thank you very much

 

[jeanpaul]

If I am reading what you wrote correctly, it sounds like you're dog is new to SAR. Instead of focusing on perfection, work to ensure your dog finds the work itself fun and rewarding. Then, when you know the dog loves to go out and do SAR, you can start refining the skills. So, maybe that's as simple as instead of the decoy being silly and fun, you're silly and fun and give the dog his reward for finding the decoy.

Thank you for your message Lillith. In particular I will take into account what you say here since in order to obtain the "certification" for go into intervention we need to do some agility as well.

Go on line and check out Jeff Schettler in the US in Georgia (GA K9). He has a website. He has books. The books are likely in English. He has a tracking school for police and the like so that is all about man trailing.

I will have a look, thanks!

If your dog lacks hunt drive, your success will be limited

Would you say something more about this? I am a bit puzzled since I would distinguish 'hunt drive' and 'willingness to work' and what seems to me crucial is the latter not the former..

 

[jeanpaul]

Thank you for your very clear explanation. In fact I realized that I was confusing 'hunt drive' with 'prey drive' and so I could not understand why in your previous post you were saying that hunt drive is so important for SAR dogs.

My impression is exactly that some dogs find gratification, or satisfaction as you say, in the search itself even if of course the overall activity should be pleasant for the dog. I mean if my dog after finding the tracklayer would be beaten with a stick rather than get treated I am sure she would refuse to find anybody else