Last weekend was very busy for us. ¾th of G TEAM went to seminar with Roksana Moska to acquire knowledge about mantrailing. Mantrailing – following a scent of a missing person and later identifying that person at the end of a trail. I have to say I am in love with this activity.
At the beginning, I was mostly focused on improving Gunia’s relationship with strangers. I thought that searching unknown people may be helpful in eliminating her fear. I was not mistaken. Mantrailing has become one of the primary methods in her therapy. During last seminar she was happily greeting all the participants, who stood there looking weird at me when I said she has issues with humans :D
So with that in mind, I started to work more and more with Gunia and finally I became very passionate about it. I have decided to take Gapcio for training. For him mantrailing is a great opportunity to strengthen his self-confidence and ability to make his own decisions. For me it is a amazing because mantrailing is an “art” I am constantly learning from and with my dogs. They work using theirs noses and I have to use my sight and body. I have to read my dogs on a trail to be able to help them and not to interrupt. I can also see how much fun they have working.
Short digression; Gacek is not doing mantrailing, he thinks walking on a long line is humiliating. He is polishing his skills on cinnamon’s searches and in the next Fall he will make his debut on Nosework trial in Czech Republic :)
We had had various teachers at the beginning. I had been able to get to know many different schools. Some had been more convincing than the others. Overall, I am currently working on my own, acquiring knowledge during seminars. That is the way I like to do it most. In any discipline. Obedience, Nosework, Mantrailing and Agility. I like to be able to get the knowledge from everyone, to make my own perfect plan. This is is how it work for me.
During the seminar with Roksana I have received a dozen of crucial tips and tricks. What is the most important she has helped me to make training plans. This was our biggest weakness and something I have really been missing. She has also given me many technical tips, how to make a trail, what should be the focus of the particular training, how to make a trail to work through certain issues. Such attitude is very close to my own. I think that if we have properly work through basic elements for any sport then increasing the level of difficulties is like doing a puzzle.
If we have all missing elements then creating a pictures is not difficult. But if you miss even just the one puzzle, you will never be able to get the whole picture. It is the same with working with dogs. If you skip some basics, fundamentals, you will never be able to do something more complicated.
I was happy to hear Roksana was pleased with our work. We have returned home with lot of homework and I have received a nice feedback on each of my dogs. Gunia is a very confident and independent girl. I should just let her spread her wings! Gapcio is clever boy but he needs more exercises to strengthen his independence and self-confidence. He is doing a lot of obedience training which could have made him more dependent on me.
I really recommend seminars with Roksana. She has a huge knowledge and she likes to share it with you. I have a great training plan and awesome motivation to work! Thank you Roksana :)