Motivation for Mantrailing

When people ask why we use reward-based methods in dog training, we often respond, 'We wouldn’t go to work if we didn’t get paid.' Just as we are motivated to get up every morning by the prospect of earning money – which allows us to buy food, cars, homes, vacations, and all the essentials and joys of life – our dogs, too, are motivated by rewards.

For us, it's a pay check; for our dogs, it's treats or other forms of positive reinforcement such as play or praise.  Some people tell us, ‘My dog finds trailing rewarding in itself,’ but that's really an assumption – we can’t truly know that without seeing how they respond to specific rewards. By associating their 'work' with good experiences and meaningful rewards, our dogs come to enjoy what they do, which naturally leads to better focus and effort.

Finding the right reward for each dog is key to helping them perform at their best. Just as every person has individual preferences, so does each dog. The ideal reward might be a favourite treat, like wet food, cat food, yogurt, banana, or a cherished toy.

Even the most driven dogs tend to favour food rewards during tracking exercises, even if they typically ignore treats in favour of toys. This preference might be tied to Mantrailing, which taps into their natural hunting instincts – they hunt, they catch, they eat. The act of licking, in particular, has been shown to release endorphins in dogs, adding a layer of calm and satisfaction to the experience.

Credit: Domestic Dog Cognition and Behavior: The Scientific Study of Canis familiaris

edited by Alexandra Horowitz