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Saturday, October 9, 2021

Welcome to the exciting world of Mantrailing and finding people with a dog!

Welcome to the exciting world of Mantrailing and finding people with a dog! 

Mantrailing is a K9 Search and Rescue specialty that is quickly becoming popular as a sport and recreation for all dogs to enjoy. 

Mantrailing dogs use the nose to scent discriminate one person from all other people to locate the one particular person.

A truly amazing fact about Mantrailing is how quickly most dogs’ take to this type of training and how quickly the dogs find people. Dogs love to use their nose to find people. The fun part of Mantrailing is that we follow the dog and allow the dog to lead the way! 

To Read how to Start Mantrailing, Step by Step..(click to the book's amazon page in all countries) 

You and your dog will be finding a person from the first day of training and beyond. 

The book is available worldwide and features dogs from Scotland and the USA . The link should change to your country, if not, email me to get a copy sent to you,,, contact@familydisasterdogs.com

Each training session uses a time tested and proven step by step method for solid reliable success on the trail. 

You will learn to read the dog and the dog will learn to tell you what they find. Both of you will have a great introduction to the exciting world of Mantrailing dogs.

Order Ebooks directly from me at my online book store, the author of Family Disaster Dogs book and Start Mantrailing book

Have fun with your dogs today!

A part of the book profits go to Response Rescue International to support their volunteer mission to find missing persons..


For much less than the cost of  one in-person class get the book and train to advance level ! 









Thursday, October 7, 2021

The Dog’s Nose Knows!

 The dog’s nose knows!




All dogs have a natural ability to hunt with certain breeds developed and bred for specific types of hunting. 

Bird dogs are bred to hunt birds, herding dogs hunt missing herd members, fox hounds hunt fox, etc. 

Bloodhounds are the most well-known and oldest breed of dog bred to hunt people and the breed is classified as a trailing dog due the way they hunt.




Follow your dog's nose and look us up on Facebook at facebook.com/familydisasterdogs 
there's a group and a page
Twitter us at  @URDogCanRescueU

Tuesday, October 5, 2021

What is Mantrailing ? Where Man-Trailing Gets Its Name

 What is Mantrailing?



Me and Washee Mantrailing

Mantrailing is not a new way to train dogs, this way of finding people with dogs has been used by bloodhound owners for hundreds of years. Mantrailing is using a dog’s natural ability to follow cold aged trails to find a specific person who is hidden or missing.  

This method of finding people with a dog is quickly becoming a fun way to exercise reactive and high energy pet dogs that need more to do. Similar to hide and seek with a dog, owners of all breeds of dogs are learning how exciting this type of dog work is to participate in for fun and sport. 

Mantrailing is best known as a type of K9 Search and Rescue specialty in which the dog discriminates one person’s scent from all other person’s scent to locate the one particular person. Mantrailing is used by search and rescue dog teams or police to find missing persons and criminals. A few prisons today continue to use this type of trained dog and long ago plantations used mantrailing hounds to hunt down runaways.


Me and Washee Mantrailing

We found him.. look at my dog smile when she finds the boy! 
Dogs really love to find people!



Where Mantrailing got its Name

“Mantrailing” gets its name from bloodhounds. Many people believe the breed was named bloodhound because the dogs track blood trails which is not true. 

The dogs do not follow the person’s blood trail. 

The dogs follow the scent particles left by a person, sometimes many days, weeks and years later. 

The breed is named a bloodhound because this is the first dog breed to have a written recorded pedigree of its bloodline hundreds of years ago. They are the first “pure blood-ed -hound” or bloodhound. 
Bloodhound handlers long ago gave this type of scent work the name “Mantrailing” because the bloodhound is the trailing dog that hunts people.

My bloodhounds taught me how to Mantrail and now all dog breeds are learning how to do what bloodhounds do naturally. 

Family Disaster Dogs use Mantrailing to find missing and trapped family members after disasters. Any dog can learn to help its family in some way with the Family Disaster Dogs book.

Anyone who wants to train a dog to find people for Sport and Work can learn step by step with my new book "Start Mantrailing" 

Their legacy lives on in my books and this site



Wrinkledpups Daisy Mayham 

Bloodhound Wrinkledpups Daisy Mayham owner A. Higgins

Me and Rea Valley's Incredible Sue 


Blue Boy Homer


Wrinkledpups Sambo
Went to Work in CA and GA


Me and George he went to Texas



Pups went to SAR homes in several states, Canada and So. America





Sunday, September 26, 2021

Family Disaster Dogs Updates fall 2021 New Emergency Links, Guides, Books, K9SAR

 Hi everyone, 

I've been busy updating the site, getting the new book published and more as everything opens up again after the last year and half of lockdowns. I hope everyone is doing good as Covid19, Delta and current events continue to affect everything. 

Here's some updates to the site's emergency links page.

The emergency links page is a long page full of helpful links-check it out at the link above and keep scrolling once there.

Keep scrolling this page has many resources and helpful sites to see!

Click the Blue links to be taken to that web site, thank you for visiting  Family Disaster Dogs...if you want to be added here or to advertise with us email me from the contact page in the menu 

Other books by the author of Family Disaster Dogs

Nov 2019 The children's book "My Puppy Can Find Me" with UK dog cartoonists Scotty King artwork teaches children and family how to train their puppy to find mom or the child.  


Sept 11, 2021 New book released "Start Mantrailing" Step by Step for fun, sport and work. Here's the full cover.  Featuring photos from RRI North Scotland search and rescue dogs plus USA K9sport top dog, Super Kludde and dogs I have trained for mantrailing.

Cover dog RRI K9 Amber  (For UK K9SAR training and response look for RRI North Scotland on Facebook)

The paperback is available at Amazon worldwide and the eBook as a direct download from my new store below. 





New Family Disaster Dogs store has the books and eBooks available for those who do not shop at Amazon.  I will be adding a few dog training items and more in the future. 

Visit the new store here at FDD K9 Books Shop


Please leave me reviews on my books at Amazon, Goodreads, Barnes Noble, facebook and wherever you happen to see them. Reviews really help other people find the books. Thank you  

"My Puppy Can Find Me" picture book is your child’s first step on an exciting learning experience that will teach them what to do if they are lost or find themselves alone.






Be sure to visit our home page at Family Disaster Dogs FamilyDisasterDogs.com





We are now part of the Missing Persons Center  (click blue name ) please have a look  and join if you would like to help find missing persons.


I'm also a member of the American Mantrailing, Police & Work Dog Association.

Although I will not be attending the event, I want to share with everyone who is interested that they will be awarding the Fall 2021 "United States National Champion Mantrailing Team" in Sept 2021 to each division upon completion of the AMPWDA Fall National K-9 Search & Rescue Seminar.

The participating Team with the highest score on a Level 1 Certification, the Team with the highest score on a level 2 Certification and The participating Team with the highest score on a Urban Certification will be named as "United States National Champion Mantrailing Team" in their category. For information about training and seminars click here.





Here's another great resource for Search and Rescue dog handlers and those looking for a missing loved one. K9 trainer, handler and author Harry Oakes has over 49 years experience working to find missing persons. He is well known and liked by many but not by some which happens when you have been active in any field for so many years. His expertise and his track record speaks for itself. Read his books at his site.




Here's a great Article about a Dog's Nose from Your Dog Advisor website. They just published an updated, comprehensive guide on dog nose. It is completely free and you can find by clicking here



Here is equipment I use when training a dog to find people. (We do make a few cents from amazon when you purchase through the links, all proceeds are used to help cost of publishing the site and free lessons. Thank you for your support)








In Dogs We Trust



Featured Lesson

Use a Pet Dog to Find Lost and Missing Children, Seniors, Friends and Pets

Copyright  2024 Amber Higgins Use your dog to find Family and Friends, especially disabled and special needs loved ones. Even other pets! Th...

Author Amber Higgins and Washee

Author Amber Higgins and Washee
Click Pic to Visit my author page

Advertising Disclosure

Disclosure: Some of the links on this site are affiliate links that I have reviewed and approved. Additionally links to products such as at Amazon are products I have personally used. Affiliate links means that, at zero cost to you, I will earn an affiliate commission if you click through the link and finalize a purchase. The proceeds earned are not much and used to keep this Family Disaster Dogs website free to the public. Thank you for your support.

Welcome UK and Worldwide Visitors

Welcome UK and worldwide visitors and friends to Family Disaster Dogs online! Although I'm an American author and dog professional the worldwide web has given me the opportunity to connect with some wonderful folks who have contributed pictures for my books. The "Start Mantrailing" book features RRI K9 North Scotland trained Search and Rescue Dog "Amber" on the cover and her teammates training in the book, plus American dogs using my training methods. A portion of sales of the Start Mantrailing book or copies were donated to RRI North Scotland. The children's picture book "My Puppy Can Find Me" has my daughter and bloodhound as illustrations by UK cartoonist Scotty King. You can find the books on Amazon UK or use the contact page to order from me. When you click the links will take you to your own county pages of this site.

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Look at the dates listed in the sidebar to the right and below, click one date to bring up all the articles and lessons published at this site in one page for each date.

There are about 300 pages that have been published here at Family Disaster Dogs since 2011.

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