We spent a thoroughly enjoyable day in a variety of fields in Yorkshire today, filming a dozen bloodhounds doing what they do best - finding people! The Association of Bloodhound Breeders run training days throughout the year and enthusiastic members bring their hounds from far and wide. Finding the land to train on seems to be one of the biggest problems, but with a lovely local landowner, the team set up over a dozen trails throughout the day.
It was lovely watching the pups learning and the more experienced dogs following the trails straight to the 'missing' volunteers. Although the thrill was most definitely in the search, most of the dogs didn't seem too bothered when they eventually found their person, it just meant the search game was over! One thing that amazed us was how far ahead some of the hounds work, when they are on the hunt, they can pick up quite a speed, and off lead over a mile track, the poor owners didn't have much hope of keeping up!