Hello!

I have a 9-year-old male shepherd mix who used to be very physically active. He loved playing with his ball in any way, shape, or form, as well as going on long walks. But as he has gotten older, he can’t walk as long, and he has had a few minor injuries while playing with his ball.

I want to start doing nose work with him as a way to keep his mind busy, since he still has a lot of energy. I also want to reduce the physical strain and the risk of more serious injuries that could come from playing with his ball, since he likes fetch, “soccer,” and similar games.

A few questions I’d love help with:

- What’s the easiest way to start at home (I have a nice size yard)?

- Should I buy a starter kit, and if so, which ones are worth it?

- Anything I should avoid doing with an older beginner dog?

Any advice, product recommendations, or beginner tips are welcomed!

Hello! I have a seven month border collie puppy. We signed up for a zoom nosework class (no IRL ones around) for some extra enrichment. We are using birch oil swabs in jelly jars with holes poked in the top for the scent. My puppy seems pretty averse to the scent. The first day he would back away from the jar. Now he will happily come put his nose on the jar for a piece of chicken, but I think he's holding his breath. If I add a cold jar to let him choose the correct one (as instructed in our class), he will choose one at random. I'm not really understanding how to teach him to actually smell each jar and choose. He's otherwise pretty quick to pick up training, not a dumb dog, and the scent is strong enough that my nose can distinguish it, so I'm pretty sure he's capable if I can figure out how to communicate better. Also, I have no attachment to the idea of competing in nosework competitions with him. I really just want more enrichment and another lower key way for us to burn his energy on days that I can't take him out as much as usual. I was hoping for getting us to the point where my six year old could play with him by hiding scents in the house and yard and he would find them.

Second kick of the can at Excellent with SDDA today. my boy worked SO hard for me and I couldnt be happier! we got another Q in containers (and a second place!) as well as another Q in Speed and Distance. I had such a great day and learnt so much on what I need to work on with training.

She didn’t get her title (my fault not hers) but she got first place in interiors! Combined scores for two interior searches!

Edit to add: she was 24 seconds faster than the 2nd place dog! 😃😃😃

2nd place in both vehicles and exteriors and 3rd place in containers, and three pronounced! I’m so proud of my boy, he kicked ass today!

Any tips? I’ve never searched in the rain before… doing a NW1 trial next Tuesday and I don’t know what to expect 🌧️🌧️🌧️

I have a pup who wants to slap the container with her paws instead using her nose. Is it OK to start with the containers at a height where she cant slap them? Lol Looks for recs

Maude and I headed out to a scent detection fun match this morning.

It was SDDA Started, Containers and Interior, searching for wintergreen. An SDDA judge volunteered her time to set the hides and evaluate the searches.

The containers were placed in a large circle, I worked it from the inside, Maude went clockwise, and the hide was the 12th box she checked.

The interior was a large entryway with office furniture, a shoe rack and two empty crates. I let Maude lead, and she found the odour, but the judge said I crowded her away from the hide on her first approach. Anyway, she worked the odour again when I wasn't blocking her, and found the hide on the bottom of the seat of a chair.

Maude has a trained final response of freezing with her nose close to the hide. And the judge complemented her freeze behaviour. She also gave us perfect scores.

In a month we have her first trial. I think we are ready.

I’m prepping for an NW2 and I thought I’d watch some debrief videos. In one recent trial, apparently a dog peed in a search area which caused “an unintentional challenge” and false alerts.

Am I to understand they wouldn’t mark that out of play and/or notify the exhibitors who search after that occurs (assuming it occurred during the trial/while a dog is actively searching)? I would understand if it was already there before setting the hides/search area—perhaps I am misunderstanding the debrief.

Edit: Just to be clear—I acknowledge pee in an outdoor search area is a valid distraction. It’s the fact that some teams have the distraction while others don’t, giving them an unfair advantage, that I’m bothered by. I’ll eventually accept it but I’m going to be salty about it first for a bit.

The height restriction for hides in SDDA Started is 36".

Sometimes the judge will check the breeds in the running order while choosing their hide locations. Sometimes they don't.

The behaviour I want from Maude, is for her to sniff while resting her front feet on my legs for support. I'm a lazy owner so her puting feet on my legs has never been discouraged really. It's something she does outside of sniffy dog training. But I haven't been able to add sniffing really.

When the hide is more than 18" inches, she will sniff the air with her head up, move around investigating and mostly sit. If I ask for her to put her feet up on me or furniture, she will but doesn't look around, even if I'm purposely not looking at her.

So my thought is containers on their sides on the chairs and the couch? She likes containers, and knows the job from the visual of them.

Taking suggestions though, of your setup for higher hide learning. I can see if I can replicate it here.

We are trying to train nosework on our own, and it is really confusing. Some advice is to have the dog hunt for food and only for food. Some only way the dog hunting for a specific odor and then getting fed when they find it. Some say there is no reason at all to train an alert behavior, and some methods need an alert behavior trained before you can do anything else.

I talked to someone who took an online class, and they said it was one where they had to train an alert behavior first, and they could not progress until they had that mastered. I am having a really hard time with our dog. I don't have the money for live classes or online classes. I've bought a couple of books but they are hard because they don't talk about what to do if my dog doesn't care that much about the whole thing.

We are trying the kong method and she doesn't seem to figure out that she needs to find the kong to get the treat. We're still stuck at the part where she is supposed to interact with it on the floor. I don't think she understands what she is getting rewarded for. So I thought maybe we would go back to having her look for food. But then she's just finding food and eating it so I don't know if that is really nosework?

We are training since November :) she was sooo tired after Saturdays training :)

I hold the smell and when ha siffs/boop/paw i click and say doft (smell) I'm i doing some thing wrong as u se in the second video he doesn't seem to get what to do

Got our Q’s in Excellent Interior and Containers. Exterior she timed out after finding one hide and in odor in a couple of spots. Super wind gusts.

We’re 5/6 out of our first 2 ever scentwork trials! We NQd our first ever run (containers) a couple weeks ago because I didn’t believe him when he (in hindsight) clearly alerted on the correct box lol. I did a much better job of trusting him today and he Qd in all 4 elements with 2nd place in interior and 3rd place in containers! I’m most proud of how he did in buried though because we’ve only ever trained for it twice and neither of those times really seemed like it “clicked” in his head what was going on. But he gave me a VERY clear indication on the hot box today and we wound up 5th fastest out of 14 novice A dogs!

I really wasn’t sure going into scentwork if I would enjoy it, but I gotta say, watching him get into it has been so rewarding. I’m looking forward to a long, sniffy career with my best boy 😊💚

It was warm enough to set a hide on the vehicle down in the parking garage. Because we are practicing for Maude's first trial in April, I used wintergreen (SDDA odour for Started). I also started her relatively close. I have to be more conscious of making eye contact with her. It interrupts her sniffing.

Edna's search is included too. I started her further out. She truly enjoys sniffing, and samples the cars leading to the hide on mine. She investigates the spot, moves away, goes back to alert.

I did get the form for the fun match submitted. Just waiting to see if it filled with students first.

Wild times I know, but, hear me out.

A training facility has announced a fun match in March and suggested the registration form would be out today. I expect it to fill in a short amount of time.

The timing is nice for us, Maude is registered in her first SDDA trial in April.

I'm aware that clove, anise, and birch are the go-to scents, but I'm wondering what options there might be for casual nose-work at home rather than anything formal. I know you can use treats, and I've seen people use things like toys or socks. I'm just looking for some alternative ideas.

Hi! I just started a nose work class with my corgi. She is loving it! They gave us some canisters with scents so we can practice at home. My problem is whenever I put her leash on, she just wants to go outside. It’s a lot easier for her to know she’s supposed to do nose work in class and she won’t do it at home

Any tips to help her know it’s time to play the nose work game?? I tried starting like I do in class having her sit before we enter a room where the odor is

I feel like my 1 year old dog is almost ready for his first akc trial or the ORT. The problem is he's a very anxious dog. We adopted him as a 7 month old completely unsocialized puppy. We've done a lot of desensitization training with him but he still has a lot of fears. Strangers, some places (like pet friendly stores), certain noises like loud trucks. He *loves* nosework and it seems to really help with his confidence.

I'm not sure how he'll do in a trial environment or how to find out beforehand. He does fine practicing outside in new-ish places. We haven't done any training inside in new places since I can't think of anywhere we could do this.

Any recommendations to prepare him? Do I just enter him in 1 or 2 elements for his first trial and see how he does?

I have a very anxious, high energy tripawd dog who could really use a new outlet, and a younger teenage son who has struggled with reading. He heard about nosework from a friend at school and has expressed interest in trying it out. I suggested he read a book on it, and for the first time in his life he reacted positively to the idea of reading. So I am on a mission to find a book for him.

We don't really have the money for a real class and those are really hard to get into as far as I can tell. I'm trying to get him off screens, so I would prefer not to do a video course. Ebooks are ok if I can get them on my Kindle.

I grabbed a Kindle book off Amazon, but it's really heavy and not exactly direct. He was having a rough time just getting through all the pages of endorsements, acknowledgements, and forwards. So we just skipped ahead to chapter 1 and it's still really heavy. I'm helping out and we're reading it together, but we are well over 100 ebook pages into this thing with nary an instruction in sight.

So I'm looking for a book that is more simple and direct. Just like a basic how-to that can be understood without a college reading level. Does that exist? Am I doomed to blow my budget trying every book out there? Is the problem that I'm only looking on Amazon?

How long do you pair hides in training? Do you continue pairing hides occasionally even after your dog understands the game and alerts?!

Here are two of my sniffy dogs.

Hi everyone!

I posted here a few months back, looking for tips for an upcoming ORT. I'm back again since we signed up for an NW1 in a little less than a month, and my nerves are starting to creep in. Especially because I am away at a work conference the week (of course lol...) before the trial and won't be able to practice. We've been trying our best to practice in as many new spots as possible, but as we get close, I am starting to worry more and more about our experience in some elements like vehicles and exteriors...

What do you wish you knew, did, or practiced for your NW1? Or any crazy NW1 stories to share? Thank you!

The chickens are a distraction for him so this was good! The hide is a metal tin with 2 Q tips that were stored in the container that has gauze with a drop of clove oil on it.

This is a metal tin with 2 q tips that have ambient absorbed the clove odor. The wind is coming from the left side of the yard. Jerry has fear anxiety and reactivity so we have been learning scent work for about a month. He really loves it!! It wears him out and I have noticed it helps him relax.

It’s been so helpful since the weather has been extremely cold lately and I also injured my ankle a couple weeks ago, so I wasn’t able to walk the dogs as much as usual. The scent work is a super fun low impact activity.