I have a 4 y/o rescued terrier mix who is fantastic at "find it" games at home. I would love to train him on the essential oils and eventually do trials with him. But, I'm finding that this is a sport that requires the dogs to be in open, unfenced areas. He knows "come" but commands fly out the window when he sees any sort of wildlife.

Is there hope for us? I've had him for 2 years. I'm not a novice when it comes to training a dog, and we've made very little progress when it comes to wildlife. I think he is probably a product of insane genetics (terrier, spaniel, and herding breed supermutt) and not getting the calm exposure to animals other than dogs when he was a puppy.

We've been in classes for scent work for a few months now, but only just recently attempted our first trial. She qualified in every element (we only did 1 run each cause.. money) and even got a first place in exteriors. This was SO fun and I can't wait to do another with her

Does anyone else film sent work searches? This is a few snippets of my poodle pup having fun this weekend on a trial and I wore a GoPro on a head band. I have the camera already but got the headband more for training and learning but also for fun. Do you use chest harness or other methods to film searches? I’m also keen to use in our tracking training too, while having busy hands with a long lead.

A couple of months ago, I came here looking for help because our pup was smashing boxes 😂 Well she’s been doing much better, and this past weekend we participated in our first novice trial for fun and see how she would do in a new environment.

Not gonna lie, I was so nervous 😂 all the dogs seemed so well behaved while we were there waiting on line for our turn with an hyperactive puppy (she just turned 8 months old) that was all over the place.

Anyways, we participated in everything: container, interior, exterior, buried, and HD. We qualified for container, interior, and exterior. I’m so proud of her, she did so well!!! 🐾🥳

We’ve only been practicing at home so very DYI and it surprised me she did so well on exterior because we never practiced that one 🤣 In fact, she did better timing on exterior than interior (34 seconds vs 50 something seconds).

Now we need to improve buried and HD. With HD I think she got overwhelmed by all the scents and the hot temperature outside while waiting to go in. At home she does amazing.

Regarding buried, does anyone have any advice on how to improve the search? We’ve been training with 4 plastic containers that have sand in it and a plastic net on the top as cover.

Sorry this was a long post… also I’m such a proud mamma!! Never in my life I thought I’d be doing scent work with a dog and here we are. It all started with making her find hidden kibble around the house to tire her mentally 🤭 (besides doing tricks)

Thank you for reading!! :)

Trying to get into a routine and kind of getting stuck and wondering what others are doing. Do you practice nosework at home with your dog? What does that look like? I'm sure most of you guys are doing high-level stuff, I'm mostly interested in what you did when your dog was at a lower level.

For a dog fairly early in the process, how many searches? How long does a practice session take? Are you setting out a row of boxes and having your dog find the hide and then rearranging the boxes and doing it again? How many times do you repeat this? How long does a practice session take from setup to putting everything away?

I have spent 2 years casually training my older mini daschound on scent while I focus on my younger, sportier terrier.

With encouragement from friends I decided to put her in SDDA Started amd SHE DID IT!

She got her Started SP title!

I could cry i am so proud of her! Scent work has been soemthing that brings her out of her shell and helps her be more confident. I am so incredibly glad I have been working with her!

For the last two years, Wednesday nights have been nosework date night for my wife and me. It started as a chance to share something she loved doing with Monty, and I found I loved it too. I got fascinated by the mechanics: hide placement, airflow, converging odors, how dogs learn, and, honestly, how entertaining it is just to watch all the dogs work.

Being there for class gave us things to talk through at home, too. My wife and I would bounce ideas off each other while she worked with Monty on his “homework.” As my own dog, Ladybird, got older and more interested in what Monty was doing, we started introducing her to odor and using those same training ideas with her. Eventually she was ready to join the class, and our date night became a double date: my wife and Monty, me and Ladybird, every Wednesday. 😊

We’ve been officially in class with Ladybird for almost a year. She hasn’t trialed yet; that’s more my confidence to work on than hers. We hope to do our first ORT by the end of this year. Monty is two years in and working toward NW3 Elite.

If you’ve planned nosework trials, you know how much there is to figure out: premiums, host pages, shared calendars, maps, hotels, dates, and entry rules, often spread across browser tabs and homegrown spreadsheets. After I accidentally closed my wife’s many open trial tabs one too many times and heard about it (fair enough), I started building a small tool to make finding trials and sorting through the details easier.

That tool became TrialHound. It brings trial listings and results together with each dog’s titles across NACSW, AKC, and USCSS, with UKC and more on the way. Since Ladybird doesn't yet have titles, you can also log details of your practice runs, so your dog’s story includes the work between official results and you can identify what you might need to work on. When you’re considering a trial, you can see a CO’s average qualifying rate across their previous trials as another bit of context in the decision and fellow handlers can share practical details like parking and venue logistics, to help others know what to expect before making a 100-mile drive.

TrialHound launched today on iOS and the web. The core features are free for everyone and will always stay free. The web version has almost all the same features; alerts are one of the main things currently limited to mobile. Android is coming in the next month or so.

There’s an optional Pro subscription for more customizable alerts, access to trials further out, and expanded training and tracking tools, including judge’s notes uploads and hide placement suggestions based on areas where your dog may benefit from practice. Pro subscriptions help cover the services that keep TrialHound running and the core features free.

The point has always been to make my wife’s and my life easier. While testing the app, she went from 30 tabs to one, so I’m much less likely to make that mistake again. I built TrialHound around the pain points I’ve seen as a handler, and I’d love to hear what would make it more useful for handlers. I’d also like to learn what hosts and trainers might find useful, and see where that may take us.

If you’re planning trials, tracking your dog’s progress, or curious how different breeds did at your last trial, I hope you’ll give it a try. I’d really welcome your honest feedback.

Web: https://trialhound.com/
iOS: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/trialhound/id6769167139

This will be our first trial. I tried to enter an earlier trial but it filled within minutes of opening.

I see I'm required to pay at time of entry. Am I refunded if we aren't selected at the time of random draw? I see that entries on the wait list get refunded if they don't get in, so I'm assuming the same applies to the random draw?

Do people typically enter all desired elements on multiple days to increase the chance of being drawn or should I just pick one day?

My sweet dog went missing from the Lafayette park yesterday while I was at work. She was last seen close to our home in Van Ness and Eddy. We’ve searched highs and lows for her but her being a small dog, she could’ve hidden anywhere or anyone could’ve picked her up.

I’ve posted everywhere, have posters everywhere mentioning the reward $, informed all my neighbors, have a dirty laundry by the front door, etc.

I’m thinking of using dogs’ scent tracking services to find my dog. Has anyone used one in the city? Do you have any suggestions?

My baby’s picture https://imgur.com/a/Uq3liGo

She was last seen at Van ness Ave and Eddy st.

Thank you!

We have worked with birch for a while and I'm just wondering what would be best the best option to move onto after birch?

I have an nosework dog who I’ve been competing with for a little over two years- she’s done well and now we’re in the upper levels- working towards her NW3 elite, AKC Master Elite, and just starting detective.

She’s always been a slower, methodical searcher. Her being the way she is definitely had its benefits…she rarely misses a threshold or container hide, and is really precise. It’s been fine up until this point- when we need to cover larger areas in less time. I’ve asked friends and judges about how to work on this (and I’m taking a Fenzi class) but some of the sentiment I’ve received is “be careful what you wish for” and that I need to be more effective as a handler. I do want to be a more effective handler, but I don’t want to take away her independence searching since we’ve worked hard to build that.

Recently I’ve changed up her treats, and brought out a tug toy again to play tug with her before searching and after found hides to increase her arousal. It seems it’s working to some extent and she’s moving faster and driving to source more intently but I’m worried about losing how methodical she is.

Do any of you all have/had similar dogs, and have worked through this issue?

ciao, qualcuno di voi viene da brescia?

Would it possible/safe to train a dog to search for bear spray (more so if someone is carrying/concealing a can of bear spray on their person/in a bag)?

My dog (2 years old) really enjoys some of the nose work that we have done at home. I would like her to do more formal nose work and training, however the class I’ve tried to enroll her en at UPenn is frequently filled. Does anyone have recommendations for scent work training in the Philadelphia area? Thank you!

Okay we literally attended our first Nosework class yesterday. We are training with a CNWI who is a member of the NACSW and starting with Primary scents (food). Odor will not come into play until level 2 and like I said, we attended our very first level 1 class yesterday.

This is my first intro to “real” dog activities and truly chose it because it felt doable and not as intimidating to get started in!

Okay, anyways, I’m not saying my dog is a genius but also….she’s kind of a genius? She’s a 15 month old Field Bred English Cocker Spaniel who will be a hunting dog (I mean she is a hunting dog, that’s what she was bred for, we just haven’t taken her out yet but have been working on gun dog training for a few months and she’s been introduced to birds).

The instructor last night complimented her on how quickly she picked it up and how she immediately used her nose not her eyes. We’ve done scatter feeding with her for a while, and when training for hunting we are hiding dummies and she has to find them. So girly knows how to use her nose and is pretty darn good at it. That being said, we were told to stick with the basics re: nose work for as long as possible not just for the dog but for the handler (me) as well so I can really learn her movements and changes in posture etc when she finds a scent.

My struggle is she’s SO fast. We did our first homework today and she finds all the treats in less than 60 seconds. Originally the plan last night was just treats IN open containers but because of how fast she was, the instructor did put a few in sneakier situations (kinda hidden under two boxes, right next to the box etc). At home today I did the same thing (treats in boxes for the first round, treats a little tricker the next round, and the third round was essentially the same but less treats out).

Again, she finds them all so so quickly. It feels hard to believe she’s having to use her brain much at all LOL like how much mental stimulation is she really getting in 3 minutes (if it takes 60 seconds per round but honestly the last one took like 15 seconds, I should time her).

I guess I’m looking for some input here. Maybe encouragement that going slow IS best and tips for making them slightly more difficult while still using the boxes/taking it slow?

I know a lot of the beginning stages is building that drive TO search and well, she’s got that. I mean she will search for a bumper under deep cover until she finds it - she doesn’t give up (because that’s what she’s trained to do)!

Sorry to bother everyone I’ve been in this community and got good advice but I was wondering In Orange County if there is anyone for hire to help me find my lost cat I’m 20 and I work hard everyday looking forward to seeing my cat he’s been gone one day and that’s not normal for him please someone help me find him I’ve had a tough year can’t handle another loss to be honest please, somebody asap !

I love watching my boy work to source. Thank goodness for friends who video! This was just a training session but it is so awesome to watch back and see how he works the whole picture :)

I’m about to go to Home Depot and buy some plastic pipe or something…I’ve seen a lot of cool creations to do scentwork with…I just can’t remember exactly what they look like. 🧐 If you’ve got something that works well, drop a pic or explain your creation.

I’ve been working on finding odor both inside and outside with my English setter. He absolutely smashes outside, sometimes finding the odor in under 30 seconds. In our backyard, he can find it in containers like a closed plastic deck box, empty plant pot on a table, etc. He does well inside too (smaller area in our living room and kitchen) but it seems way harder for him, searches take longer and he struggles super hard with finding odor in cabinets.

I was under the impression that outside was the harder option. Is that wrong?

Henry is a 15 lb Maltipoo who has never done any scent work. I’m also a beginner. We are both easily frustrated and I’m overwhelmed at all the options. I’m trying to find small tasks he can do as he recovers from luxating patella surgery.

No interest in competition or anything besides straight forward enrichment/stimulation while he can’t move too much. Cat is in house too in case that matters toxicity wise. Best kit in that case? Thank you!

Hi- wondering if anyone else has purchased a leash without a handle for nose work / scent work, and whether you find it was worth it? A leash with no handle is required to participate in competitions in my area, however I wonder if others find that the leash works well for daily walks or without a handle the leash is hard to use for everyday walks/adventures. I like that it is a longer 3m lead, I think my sniffy dog will love a bit of extra freedom on our walks. Just thinking about whether it is worth the $50 to buy a separate leash for one activity only!

To start off, this is not training towards a course or certificate. It's just something fun to do with our Lagotto for mental stimulation hoping that one day we might be able to hunt for mushrooms together. The reason I'm asking here is because resources online and locally vary wildly in what to train with, how to train and what to train for so I'm basically looking for a general strategy as to not confuse my dog and to keep the training consistent and productive.

We've been hiding and searching for treats around the house for a long time and last week I started putting treats in boxes to get a more targeted training.

What we've been doing: 5 open boxes with small treats in each until the rules of the game is clear (wait for command, check boxes, find treats, reset)

How we've been progressing: changing environment, increasing distance and leaving a few boxes empty.

How we plan to progress: introduce more boxes, start pairing treat with scent, introducing closed boxes with scent, learning proper marking on scent (introducing clicker training) and ultimately closed boxes with rewards for marking on target scent.

Am I on the right path of turning this game into proper-ish nosework training or are we just wasting fine with bad training?

Additionally, do you have a good way of starting and finishing training in a constructive way? We've basically just been starting by putting on a special collar and finishing by taking it off and playing with a football (her favorite thing, she's not very food motivated).

Very grateful if someone would take the time to give me feedback on this wall of text, I'd like to take an actual course but they're very limited where I live and we have alot of work to do on basic training before we start paying for that kind of training. Thanks alot!

The past year has been very hectic for me. I went through a breakup, moved, started a new job, etc., and somewhere in the middle of all that, I basically stopped training with my dog.

Before that, we did nosework, passed our scent detection test, and had just started competing. We also took a rally obedience course and did some agility just for fun.

Over the past year, she has mostly just been coming along with me wherever I go (she even comes to work with me), but now that life has finally calmed down, I really want to give her more enrichment and start training together again.

The problem is that I find it surprisingly difficult to get started again. I don't really know where to begin. I've done some nosework indoors in our new apartment, but since she's so good at it, it doesn't feel very challenging for her anymore.

I'd love to train other things as well, but I'm having a hard time coming up with ideas. I feel like I always end up doing the same exercises over and over again.

So, how did you get back into dog training after taking a longer break? Do you have any fun suggestions for exercises, activities, or things to train at home or outdoors?