Choosing your mantrailing pots
Whether you're just starting out or continuing your mantrailing adventure you're going to need some food containers. In this blog we will lay out what makes the best mantrailing pot and why.
In order to establish what containers are the most suitable we need to take a look at how we are using the containers and what we need from them.
The containers are used to carry food rewards for our dogs and as we want the dogs to firmly believe mantrailing is the best thing ever, we need that reward to be a big one and not guzzled down in one mouthful.
The containers also need to be carried, and as the trail layer will need to reward the dog twice per turn, they’ll have to carry two containers. Ideally the trail layers also need to be able to conceal the pot until the dogs find them as this is an important part of proofing the dogs training.
A potential problem with the trail layer carrying the containers is that the dogs may be able to follow the scent of the food if it's kept in an open container. An open container may also result in someone's pockets becoming rather smelly very quickly.
So the best mantrailing food container must be large enough to contain a substantial food reward and for the dog to be able to get the food out whilst being small enough for either the trail layer or handler to be able to comfortably carry 2 of them. They need to be sealed in order to reduce odour escaping and wet food leaking, ideally with a twist or clip lock to stop the lids just popping off.
Finding the right size is the most difficult part, the containers used for things like rice and noodles at the local takeaway (typically 500ml+) are too big to put in pockets and the takeaway cartons for sauce and dips (50-120mm) are too small.
In terms of volume the sweet spot is between the two, around 200ml-400ml, anything bigger will be too big for pockets and anything smaller won't be able to hold enough reward. Of course there's always exceptions to the recommendations and our tiny and giant breeds may require something smaller or larger respectively.
The general shape which is controlled by the depth, width, length or diameter needs the same considerations to be made in terms of fitting the pot in a pocket, shallow pots are usually easier to get in and out of pockets as long as they aren't too wide, however this isn't the only thing we need to think of.
We also need to consider the dog being able to fit their mouth into the pot, or being able to reach the food at the bottom. Wide shallow pots work well with wet food as you can effectively use them like a lick mat, spreading the reward over the base. Narrow, deeper pots are great for dry reward as the depth makes them harder to get out.
The containers also have to be robust enough to withstand the dogs eating from them and survive occasionally being accidentally dropped. As glass containers are likely to shatter if dropped and cause injury to dogs and trail layers, plastic containers are a much safer option and the recommended material.
To secure the lids we recommend either screw on lids or lids with clip locks, the clip lock style containers tend to be easier to open and close and less prone to being overtightened.
So, the best mantrailing reward container is a plastic clip lock style put that is between 200 and 400mm in volume, with a wide, shallow shape. This 200ml pot Sistema is a great size container with a nice shallow shape for wet food rewards. Sistema also do a deep profile 400ml thats great for larger rewards, or prolonging the reward as its more difficult to get.
