Webinar - Ilkka Hormila - How Building Strong Scent Foundations Leads to Successful Tracking Dogs

Webinar: How Building Strong Scent Foundations Leads to Successful Tracking Dogs

I'm excited to welcome Ilkka Hormila (Global K9, Finland) – one of the world’s most respected scent detection and tracking trainers to the mantrailing membership.

With over 40 years of experience in the Finnish Police K9 unit and now as the founder of K9 IlMa Global Training, Ilkka has dedicated his career to developing clear, positive, science-based methods for building strong scent foundations.

Hormila is an internationally sought-after lecturer and trainer, contributing training and seminars across Europe, Asia, the U.S., and India.

He also served on the Scientific Working Group on Dogs and Orthogonal Detection Guidelines, shaping standards in the field.

His methodology focuses on low-stress learning environments, science-based teaching, and planning with protocols—avoiding coercion or aversive tools.

I have been lucky enough to work with Ilkka with my own dogs and complete his handler course, but not pass the certification. I will be working with Ilkka, and Dee Atkins (who passed the Human ID tracking course with Squid. Now the only Dog and Handler team in the UK with this qualification and one of only 10 teams in Europe) to train more handlers in the UK.

In this webinar, Ilkka will share how the same principles that have shaped world-class working dogs can help sport and hobby handlers create confident, accurate, and motivated tracking dogs.

Learn how to:

Build solid scent foundations from the very beginning

Avoid common pitfalls that weaken tracking performance

Strengthen your dog’s motivation and accuracy in scent work

Transfer working-dog proven methods into sport training

This is a unique chance to gain insight from a global pioneer whose methods are used by handlers across Europe, Asia, and the USA.

11th November 6pm BST UK Time (CHECK YOUR TIME ZONES)

It will be recorded for future viewing.

Ilkka likes to be in-depth so this could be a long webinar but please if you can ATTEND LIVE, as there is time for Q&A.

Those already in the Mantrailing Membership and attending the Human ID Tracking Course with Trailing K9s and Canine Nose Skills will gain access for free.