Your Trainer
Julie started mantrailing in 2019 with her two GSDs and qualified as an instructor in 2020 with another organisation.
About 18 months after this she started to change to the way she worked her own dogs by using Jeff Schettler's methods.
She began to introduce GAK9 methods to her own clients and in 2022 became independent.
Julie also started training regularly with the UK GAK9 Trainers and has been fortunate to attend two of Jeff's UK workshops and completed his 7 Phase Online course via Zoom at the beginning of 2023.
Julie qualified as a GAK9 Sport Trailing Trainer in 2024.
The GAK9 Method
The GAK9 method of sport trailing / mantrailing uses the natural ability of dogs to follow the unique scent of an individual for a reward.
Using their nose is something that all dogs know how to do from birth. It's how they find their mother's milk.
Scientists report that a dog's sense of smell is 10,000 to 100,000 times more acute than a human's. One of the reasons a dog has a much better
smelling ability than we do has to do with the number of olfactory receptors. For every receptor a human has a dog has about 50.
Self discovery means the dog will initially learn from their mistakes without any hinderance from their handler or equipment.
The job of the handler is to learn to read their dog's body language and understand what they are telling them. Whether it be they have lost the
scent or are close to the person they have been following.
Julie and Remi with Jeff Schettler, CEO of GAK9, and his wife Flery
History of Mantrailing
The practice of training dogs to follow a person's scent trail can be traced back to the 18th century
when dogs were trained to track down escaped slaves and criminals.
In the 19th century police began using bloodhounds to capture criminals and to solve murder cases. Although never
captured, bloodhounds Barnaby and Burgundy were involved in the hunt for Jack the Ripper.
In the late 20th century Search and Rescue teams around the world began using the discipline of "trailing", which
became especially popular in the USA and Europe.
Mantrailing is now used by police and search forces around the world to find missing people and criminals. It is
also an established sport in some countries and is growing in popularity in the UK.
The GAK9 Trainers (operational) and GAK9 Sport Trailing Trainers (pet dogs) use the same methodology.
