The History of Mantrailing - Where did it all start?
Throughout History, Dogs have been at our side and trained in order to assist us with hunting for food. The use of particular breeds was key to the success of a hunt and so certain breed traits and abilities were sought after and developed.
Over time, humans were able to take the trailing abilities of certain Scent Hounds such as Bloodhounds, Coonhounds and Fox Hounds and use them to hunt people. In the southern states of America, scent hounds were often used to capture fleeing slaves during the 1800’s
By the nineteenth century the use of bloodhounds was employed by the Police in order to capture criminals. A rather famous example of this is evidenced after the murders of Elizabeth Stride and Catherine Eddowes by infamous ‘Jack the Ripper’.
A bloodhound breeder named Percy Lindley wrote the most confident endorsement of all in an editorial letter to The Times after contacting the Metropolitan Police suggesting that hounds may be able to catch a killer that had so far eluded police.
"I have little doubt that, had a hound been been put upon the scent of the murderer while fresh, it might have done what the police failed in,” Lindley wrote.
His letter, published on the 2nd of October, two days after the “Double Event,” inspired the Metropolitan Police’s experiments with sniffing dogs to begin immediately.
Bloodhounds Burgho and Barnaby
Sadly, it is suggested that the press coverage of the open training of these trailing dogs across London led to Jack the Ripper putting his killing spree on hold. However, ultimately the cause of these dogs never being deployed in a search was down to money which the Police budget simply could not cover.
Source www.whitechapeljack.com
By the late twentieth century, the discipline of ‘trailing’ had been adopted by Search and Rescue teams around the globe, becoming particularly popular in Europe and the USA.
The sport potential of trailing was recently identified and Mantrailing as a leisure hobby was born.
Now you can do this with your very own dog by participating in one of the fastest growing dog sports in the UK.
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