Spontaneous Trailing Weekend

I’ve fallen in love with the discipline of trailing. The partnership and connection between handler and dog is like no other search work I’ve done in the past. With every discipline comes training technicalities that need to be learned and applied to create a cohesive team.

Denise Alvord is my favorite trainer of all time and I could barely contain my excitement when I received the e-mail stating she’d be in my area and had an extra 3 days to spend training with a small, select group of handlers. This was the perfect time to follow up from our May workshop. I learn so much each time I work with her, my confidence builds, I get better at reading my dog, my leash handling improves and I learn strategies and drills to continue advancing our level of efficiency.

Now that my clumsy application is becoming more fluid from practice, we can really work on my technique and sharpen my responses to Glacier’s clues supporting, rather than hindering his efforts. My style is becoming much calmer and I’m learning when I need to step in versus when to give him control.

During this training, we worked on my response to his movement, slow when he slows, stop when he stop, take majority control when he loses scent and how to help him get back into scent.

I had been using the opportunities when he slowed or stopped to catch up and take in the line. My motion was pushing into his space and prompting him to continue charging forward when he was out of scent. He can be quite convincing when he’s in hunt mode and not always easy for me to read when he’s lost the trail. I practiced focusing on responding to his movement and felt we immediately had more reliable communication.

I’ve begun thinking about searching with a different perspective. Rather than the sole focus being on finding the missing person, I’m thinking of the clues he’s giving me at every turn. He continuously informs me where the subject has not been, helping to reduce probable search areas. Additionally, determining the direction of travel from the last known place is extremely valuable for search strategy. My mind is broadening as I observe his behaviors considering the entire message.

I have a tendency to let Glacier do all the work and not supporting him or taking control when needed. I’m focused on being mindful of the 65%/35% rule which gives him 65% of the decision making control when in scent and me 65% control when he’s out of scent.

He is a fast worker and I need to quickly read his negatives and adjust my strategy on the fly. Practicing Swedish Cross style intersections, getting him back into scent using the most probable areas and noting the location he was last in scent to circle out from are a few techniques I need to continue working on.

We work drills taking us off trail to find our subjects, because people rarely get lost on trail. Glacier is pretty good at this from his airscent days, but struggled a little with the backtrail when the person crossed over the path from a vegetative area. We did work through the challenge, but it was a great learning experience as to how this can be confusing. We learned simple drills to help him to recognize the decreasing intensity and correct his direction more quickly.

Off trail problems pose an extra challenge with managing the line. On one such exercise through the heavy underbrush, Glacier circled back toward me tangling the line around a bush. In my attempt to quickly untangle the line, trying hard not to leash check him, I backed into a thorny bush, or so I thought. I took a step forward and got poked again. In my confusion, I looked down for the culprit and realized it was not a prickly bush, I was covered in bees from the nest I’d been standing on. I dropped the line that I had fortunately gotten untangled, flew down the hill trying to swipe the bees off my body, thankful I was wearing gloves. While mom was in a crazy panic, Glacier continued his search via airscent and found the subject, without enduring a single bee sting. I on the other hand came out with 11 burning, itching, welted stings.

He seemed un-phased by my strange actions, good thing he’s a well-seasoned, confident dog who loves to search. I’ve set up problems with crazy subjects, but never a crazy handler. You just never know what you might encounter on a search. We try to prepare for everything, guess this should be added to the list of variables.

I enjoyed the casual style, 3 days of impromptu training. It was so relaxing and fun, despite the bees and horrible traffic returning from the airport after dropping off our trainer. I experienced several days of calmness and reduced anxiety, even during a drive I typically dread. I was in a zone, focused and patient. I joked the venom from the stings must have contained an anti- anxiety attribute. I actually feel my relaxed state comes from spending time building a deep connection with my partner, Glacier, and my teammates who share the same passion.

You do not have to be a professional or competitive team to build a positive working relationship with your dog. Their are a multitude of fun things you can participate in as a team using the environment and engaging games. I hope the stories of my journey contribute to helping you experience this type of companionship and joy with your four-legged friends. Dogs are truly the greatest!