Track,Trail & Find Dog Handler & Instructor
This is where instinct becomes artistry. Imagine watching your dog drop its nose to the ground and lock onto a fresh track, then lift its head to follow the drifting scent of a person on the trail, and finally cast into the wind, catch a human scent plume hanging on the breeze and drive forward to find their missing person. That is the moment we have built this programme to create.
A Complete Search Dog. A Complete Handler. The Complete Adventure
Three Disciplines, One Instinctive Dog
Most courses teach a single skill in isolation. We do something far more powerful. By teaching tracking, trailing, and Air Scent Seeking side by side, we give the dog permission to think, to choose, and to problem-solve. Just as it would in the real world. Rather than forcing a dog down one rigid method, we develop a genuine searcher that instinctively switches between concepts, following a ground track, committing to a person’s trail, and working scent carried on the wind.
Tracking develops concentration, accuracy and methodical, step-by-step problem-solving. Trailing builds motivation, independence and the powerful dedication to find a specific person. And now, Air Scent Seek adds the exhilarating final piece! Where we teach the dog to work airborne scent, cast into the wind, locate a human scent plume and confidently find the source. Brought together, these disciplines transform our dogs into a purposeful, confident, air-reading, ground-tracking, trail-committed search partners. This is your dog performing at the very peak of what nature designed it to do.
For handlers, the reward is just as profound. You will learn to read your dog’s changing body language across all three disciplines, understand the subtle signs of scent commitment, know when your dog is on a track versus catching air scent, build unshakeable motivation and progress each dog at exactly the right pace. The outcome is a more confident dog, a sharper, more observant handler and a working partnership that feels genuinely extraordinary.
The Track, Trail & Find programme.
The Exciting New Addition — Air Scent Seek
Air Scent Seeking is the discipline that captures the imagination of every spectator and every handler who witnesses it. Where tracking and trailing keep the dog connected to a scent path on or near the ground, Air Scent Seek releases the dog to work the wind itself, to lift its head, read the invisible currents of human scent drifting through an area, and discover the source with commitment, freedom and unmistakable joy. It is fast, it is dynamic, and it gives the opportunity for a pet dog and its guardian to experience the excitement of search and rescue work.
Adding Air Scent Seeking completes the picture. Your dog will no longer be limited to a single way of finding a person. Instead, it will learn to seamlessly blend all three concepts, casting for air scent when the ground goes cold, dropping to a track when the wind falls quiet, and committing to a trail when a specific person’s scent leads the way. This is the full, instinctive behavioural repertoire of a true search dog, and teaching it as a sport makes it accessible, safe and endlessly rewarding for the everyday handler.
Why it matters for your business: For instructors and professionals, this is the differentiator your clients are crying out for. Air Scent Seeking gives you a spectacular, high-demand service that stands apart from every ordinary scent work class. It is the discipline people talk about, share and return for! This could be yours to teach.
Three weeks of in-person learning, plus online support for just
£2999 (+VAT).
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Monday 8th - Friday 12th March 2027
Week One. Foundations of Track, Trail & Find
Your first week covers core principles of three disciplines: how dogs use scent, scent behaviour on ground and air, and building emotional connection with motivation. You'll learn tracking starts, short tracks, scent articles, line handling, trailing, and air scent seeking, teaching dogs to read the wind, and find the source. Focus is on clarity, confidence, early success, and dogs developing their own problem-solving ideas. You'll also explore Dr Rob’s Hydrotrailing method, a valuable training tool.
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Monday 10th - Friday 14th May 2027
Week Two. Building Real-World Search Skills
This week challenges you with more realistic, demanding situations across all three disciplines, increasing distance, scent ageing, surface work, contamination management, decoys, and reliable indications. You learn to read wind, work scent plumes, and combine scenting with tracking and trailing for fluid switching. It also covers confidence-building scent work, emphasising safety, ethics, and boundaries. You finish handling complex searches and making better decisions in changing environments.
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Monday 13st - Friday 17th September 2027
Week Three. Become the Instructor Everyone Wants
The final week shifts from doing to teaching the work. You'll learn to design Track, Trail & Find sessions, coach handlers, structure classes, adapt exercises, and explain scent concepts. You'll develop your instructor toolkit with course design, adult learning, safety, risk assessment, teaching techniques, programme development, and progression plans. By Week Three's end, your skills will align, ready to build your own services and inspire others to discover their dogs' potential.
Easy Payment Scheme
Transform Your Future in Tracking &Trailing.
This is your complete professional evolution. Master Track, Trail & Find, earn your City & Guilds certification, and become the specialist your community needs. For just £10 a day with flexible payment plans up to 12 months, world-class training is within reach.
Here's how our partnership works: We provide expert instruction, City & Guilds credentials, and ongoing support throughout your journey. You bring the passion, commitment, and dedication to practice. Together, we'll build something exceptional.
This isn't a magic formula – it's a proven pathway to success. We'll equip you with exceptional skills and respected credentials. You'll use them to create your own thriving career in training tracking skills for others. Your enthusiasm and entrepreneurial spirit are what will turn this training into real-world results.
Ready to become the expert everyone wants to learn from? Let's make it happen.
Save over TWO HUNDRED pounds when paying in full.
The key highlights of our programme
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Your first week introduces the essential principles of tracking, trailing and air scent seeking. You will explore how dogs use scent, how scent behaves in the environment, and how to build strong motivation from the very beginning. The focus is on clarity, confidence and early success. Above all, creating that strong emotional link!
You will learn how to introduce tracking starts, short tracks, scent articles, line handling, trailing starts, subject motivation, reward placement and the introduction to air scent seeking.
By the end of Week One, you will understand tracking, trailing and air scent seeking, know how to set up simple foundation exercises, and be able to read the early signs that your dog is committing to scent.
Most of all, you will discover Dr Rob’s Hydrotrailing methodology, giving you another all-important extra tool in your training ‘Tool-Box’
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Week Two takes your skills into more realistic and demanding situations. You will learn how to increase distance, introduce scent ageing, work across different surfaces, manage contamination, use decoys and build reliable indications for subject finds. The aim is to progress each dog carefully while protecting motivation and confidence.
These concepts show how these instinctual skills can be used to create meaningful services and powerful training experiences, while always respecting safety, ethics and the limits of non-operational training.
By the end of Week Two, you will be handling more complex searches, making better decisions in changing environments, and understanding how to adapt training to suit the dog in front of you.
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The final week moves from doing the work to teaching the work. You will learn how to design progressive training lessons, coach handlers, structure group classes, adapt exercises for different dogs and explain scent concepts in a way that clients can understand.
You will develop your instructor toolkit with course design strategies, adult learning principles, safety planning, risk assessment, practical teaching techniques, business development ideas and long-term progression plans. The focus is on creating training experiences that are safe, professional, enjoyable and effective.
By the end of Week Three, your skills as a handler, trainer and teacher come together. You will be ready to build your own Track, Trail & Find services and inspire others to discover what their dogs are capable of.
Our Training Location
Location: Statfold Barn Railway. Ashby Rd, Tamworth B79 0BU.
The postcode/SatNav may take you away from ‘Statfold Barn Railway. We also have ‘What Three Words’ that can help, holds.soup.code for the front entrance and hails.games.reason for the entrance to the classroom where there is plenty of parking outside.
Timings: 09:00 – 16:00: Tea, Coffee and ‘Posh Biscuits’ provided.
Accommodation: Our training venue offers camping, caravan and motorhome hook-up with large exercise areas for your dog . This accommodation is available at an additional cost, via our venue managers, info@statfold.com
The booking secures a place for yourself and one dog. However, some people choose to bring two dogs, but these need to be rotated within your allocated ‘training/search slot’.
The first day of all our courses are predominantly classroom-based theory lessons, plenty of breaks will be given for you to exercise your dogs, and all our parking is within a private, safe and secure area.
Full joining instructions will be sent upon booking.