7th National Mantrailing Seminar

About a hundred dog owners gathered together on the 7th National Mantrailing Seminar in Hungary last weekend, and I was one of them. Here is my personal overview of the event.

From theory to practicing mantrailing

The National Mantrailing Seminar is a one-day event organised by the Budapest Mantrailing Academy (BMA). The program usually consists of theoretic presentations and practical dog training according to The Kocher Method (TKM).

The first speaker, Csaba Gránicz welcomed the audience and introduced the activity, history and goals of the Academy. He also spoke about typical mistakes during training our dogs.  I guess we need to remind ourselves of these mistakes from time to time, because even experienced handlers can make banal errors when they are too confident, but not conscious enough.

Csaba Habony talked about motivation from a practical point of view based on his experience in training. While mantrailing is a taught behaviour for dogs with its own rules and instructions, Csaba also highlighted the opportunity of leveraging the power of a dog’s instincts. His presentation inspired a popular discussion on Facebook among mantrailers about how much of a dog’s work is taught or instinctive and the motivation of a dog (in Hungarian).

The last speaker of the day, Gergely Janovszky led our attention towards practice. By drawing on a flipchart, he presented the most common signs dogs show when they follow a scent. He talked about the different types of training and the role of the dog handler. His presentation was a great teaser for the afternoon activity.

Developing by intensities

We continued our day with dog training in small teams led by BMA trainers. Our team worked in a peaceful and splendid park in Budafok (Google Maps). I was really looking forward to gain new information about Rosie’s performance. There were a few of us who practiced mantrailing as rehabilitation. Rosie was one of the beginners. We still work on the foundations, running only short, fast, motivating intensities with specific goals. Zsuzsi Dombvári, our team leader asked us to define a problem we wanted to address. After each trail we gave feedback to each other.

I felt that Rosie presented a great work compared to herself. I was really proud of her because she dealt really well with the whole situation. The long waiting in the car, those new people around her, and the unknown place could easily be too much for her. Still she worked on the trail really well following the scent of a complete stranger. Working with an unknown person can also be quite conflicting for her sometimes. We were lucky to have an experienced mantrailing trainer as our trail layer.

An opportunity for learning and socializing

Personally, I’m glad that I participated in the seminar. I feel grateful for the opportunity: I learned new things about Rosie’s abilities. I got a strong feedback that I’m on the right way in her rehabilitation. She behaved nicely and patiently throughout the whole day, and it was a big deal for me.

It was also good to see like-minded and friendly fellows who I meet mainly during these occasions. I believe that the mantrailing community needs more events like the National Mantrailing Seminar that provide an opportunity for learning and socializing  – since not only our dogs need that.