Anybody done K9 Nose Work?

[Pat and Traveler]

Trav and I are taking a class in K9 Nose Work.  This is a for-fun class, not to be confused with drug sniffing, cadaver-finding, or other working-dog trainings.  (And would you really want your dog to alert on a car truck while you were on your daily walk?!)

In a large room, a number of boxes are scattered around, one of which contains a high-value treat.  The dog searches, finds the treat, gets rewarded and praised.  It’s fun for the dog, and fun to watch other dogs do their searches.  There are more advanced trainings, but this box training is the beginning.  It’s a good class for dogs that are dog-reactive or shy as they work one by one, staying in the car between turns.  The dogs in Trav’s group are at various stages in their training.  One little terrier is a no-nonsense worker and just trots in, finds the treat, and is finished.  There’s an old lab that wanders arthritically around, only mildly interested in treats. 

Trav loves playing ‘find the fox,’ at home, and will patiently search the living room til he finds the hidden toy.  This game didn’t translate at all to the nose work.  Trav was delighted to see a row of people sitting in the training room and wanted to say hello to everybody.  After some coaxing, he found the treat.  He loves going to this training, but I can’t say he’s a star searcher.  He did do a lot better at our last class and found the treats in practically record time. 

If you continue on in the Nose Work, the dogs learn to search the perimeter of the room, vehicles, etc., and to search for three specific scents–birch, anise and clove–and there are trials and competitions.

Has anybody else taken their dogs to this training?  

[Pat and Traveler]

It is Laurie--Trav's such a sociable guy, he'd love to just hang out with the owners.  :)

[LucyR]

Yes, we have been doing it for about a year now.  we hope to be able to compete.  Ozzie is searching for anise, birch, clover...both inside and out and under vehicles.  He is pretty good at it and obviously loves it!  We need to work on getting him more directed to searching as he takes a lot of time to find the odor.  Trials are time-limited so we need to get this worked out.  We also need to work on "alerting" when he finds the odor.  We have an excellent teacher who is a certified NW instructor and knows how to direct training for competition.  He loves this so much more than competition obedience and/or rally!  It's a great new sport and we are both happy to be doing it!

[Pat and Traveler]

I'd love to watch Ozzie at work!  That's most of the fun for me--just watching the dogs.  Trav loves it, but he's not focused on searching.  He likes to see the people and all the things in the room.  Funny, he's really focused at home, searching for the toy fox. 

[GBK]

Both of mine love this more that the obedience and rally competitions too!  They are so, so  into this, and I love watching them work and learning their signs of when they find the scent. 

Have you tested for all three scents yet?  We are hoping to test for birch in a few months.  Our instructor just passed her cerification.  She is a really good friend from years of training for rally together, and she is so loving every bit of learning, competing and teaching.

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

GBK has taken her dogs to these classes and said that they loved it.

[Pat and Traveler]

I think that's the real point of the classes--it's just plain fun for the dogs.

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

Guinness and I did this class.  He was really good at it....and he loved it!  We started with finding the treats in the box and then we moved to the other specific scents that were hidden all over the training facility.  One of the people in the class was training her dog to sniff out nuts because her child had a peanut allergy.  I'd love to go back to this with him.  I stopped because all of our time was taken up with Murphy's training.  I'm so glad you and Trav are doing this....I found it a really fun activity and it was Guinness's and my "special time" together.

[Pat and Traveler]

I'd love to have seen Guinness do this!  Everybody seems to have fun--the dogs, the owners, and the trainer.  Interesting about the dog being trained to search for nuts.  We're definitely still 'in the boxes,' as they say.  Trav might have started getting the point at the last class--before that, he was mostly just wandering around, checking out the environment and getting amazed by treats showing up, and then getting praise and even more treats. :)  One little dog is all business, and so cute to watch!  Got a job to do here, folks--keep out of my way.  LOL

[GBK]

We love love love K9 nosework.  We have started our third class called intro to odor and learning to sniff out birch, the first odor.  We really look forward to moving all the way through and competing one day.  Last Sunday we did our first car search :)  Here is a little video of Kona working  to give you an idea of what goes on.  I've been meaning to blog or post about our experiences and have just not gotten to it.  I have a great story about a very shy and scared rat terrier that has blossomed with confidence from participating in these classes.  Truly amazing :)

http://www.doodlekisses.com/video/k9-nosework-class-kona

[Pat and Traveler]

LOVE that video!  Kona is obviously loving the hunt, and is so focused!  I see a champion coming!

[Linda and Murphy]

My son and his dog do SAR training in Arkansas. After insisting that Murphy would be terrible at this, we were invited to go for an afternoon training session.  The first part was scent training and he found everything. (I was shocked)  Items were hidden in a field, some in trees at eye level (harder). 

Then we went on a tracking exercise. It was in a park with people and he was given the scent. He did great, even though I couldn't "read" my own dog. The person had walked down and then back on an elevated pedestrian bridge. Murphy looked straight up and scented at the point we were walking under them.  I totally missed it. But he eventually found them in spite of me.  It was great fun and I wish I were closer.

[GBK]

The hardest part really is reading your dog!  They don't have a problem finding the scent, it is getting to them fast enough to reward before they are searching for the next scent :)