Common Nosework Errors, Hunters Heart, Training bombproof detection dogs, service dogs, and eager partners for dog sports, since 1999.

Clever Hans was presented to an audience in 1904

Avoiding the Clever Hans Phenomenon in Scent Detection

This blog has been updated in the IAABC Journal, Spring 2020: https://spring2020.iaabcjournal.org/the-clever-hans-effect-scent-detection/?fbclid=IwAR28KpQBKKbCRY5GyAy73ssB2pWiEyyokkwxYJIZ0jHDeN556UsObQ3fHhg Clever Hans was a horse who became famous for answering math questions by counting with his hoof (1). For example, when asked what’s the square root of nine, he tapped his hoof three times. He was featured by the New York Times and …

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Sourcing, Residual Odor and Preventing False Alerts FAQ – Part 2

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In Part 1, I explained why your dog should be working to source in every search i.e. getting his nose as close as physically possible to the highest concentration of odor. Hopefully you took the sourcing tests and videoed yourself. In today’s blog, you’ll observe students working through sourcing exercises at class. RIZZI 0:2 The first …

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Sourcing, Residual Odor and Preventing False Alerts FAQ – Part 1

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Question: Carla, can you suggest training exercises to help work through dogs (false) alerting on trace or residual odour? I assume that for the most part it’s team inexperience but now that the sport of nosework is getting so popular facilities have multiple people placing hides and I’d like some pearls of your wisdom/experience to help …

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Blocking and Advanced Proofing with Barriers

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A student recently described how her dog found most of the hides in SDDA Excellent competition, but had a fringe alert. Did she call alert too soon or block her dog’s access to source? If she had asked her dog to check both sides of the vehicle, would he have sat and false alerted just …

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How to Train Your Dog to Sit At Scent – Part 1 “Up-Sit” for Scent Detection

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Question: My dog’s indication on hides over 3 feet is good, but not as intense as his indication on low hides. He finds them easily, but he sits looking at me instead of sitting with nose at source. I’ve never had anyone explain or teach me ways how you’d get a dog to stay focused and …

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You’ll Fall Many Times, But Who’s Counting

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Even Olympic medallists eventually take a fall. Some are more catastrophic than others, but how they recover from failure helps determine future results. There’s a lesson for dog handlers and trainers who require constant perfection and suffer as a result. Kaetlyn Osmond took a fall for all to see, and then inspired. She fractured her …

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Converging Odors and Single Odor Hides vs. Cocktail FAQ

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Lori’s question: Is there ever an advantage to using single odor hides? For example, one hide is wintergreen, another hide is birch with anise, etc.. (We started training using a cocktail of Birch + Anise + Clove + Wintergreen cocktail.) Answer: Cocktail allows us to train several odors at the same time so we rarely …

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Donkey Problem Solving: Are You Limiting What Your Detection Dog Can Do?

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In many cases, humans underestimate animals’ capabilities to solve problems. I knew a dog who could open a crate door on the right side, and on the left side, on cue. While those are not necessarily behaviors I want to teach, I do want my scent dogs to be confident and able to independently solve …

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Positive is Not Permissive – When to Say No

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While pondering what to write about for American Brittany Magazine this month, inspiration struck! Several times. In fact, imprinting scent with three 12-week-old pups inspires me daily. Sometimes they make me proud. Sometimes they make me laugh. And sometimes I think how positive is not permissive. When it’s important, I admit I tell my dogs …

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How to Train a Freeze Indication Using Leash Pressure

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Many people ask how we train a freeze indication with focused attention. Once a dog is confidently and proficiently finding source, we use gentle leash pressure to teach the freeze with forward focus. When you pull back, the dog learns to firm up and freeze like a statue to stay at source. This is the …

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Odor Hygiene at Nosework Competitions

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Odor hygiene refers to properly handling target odor, so you know with certainty where odor is located, and where it is not located. Good odor hygiene enables more teams to succeed. It’s a really important component of holding successful scent detection trials, where every participant has a role to play. This post will outline some …

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Top 5 Scent Work Tips on Training Your Down Indication

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Here’s our Top 5 Tips on proofing your down indication for K9 Nosework. Tip #1) Always mark or reward finding source. Then you can give extra rewards for the down indication. Watch what happens at 0:18 seconds in the video if you don’t reward the dog for finding source. He offers undesirable behaviors, including looking …

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Delayed Rewards Are Missed Opportunities in Scent Dog Training

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From the dog’s point of view, rewards are the most important component of dog training. Sadly, many handlers are lousy rewarders and dogs are left confused and rewardless. Is your dog in this miserable majority? Has he ever shut down, or had trouble understanding a seemingly easy behavior? Has he ever found source and left …

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Scent Work – How to Train Distractions with Fun Nosework Games

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Scent work is a game, with its roots in hunting and finding prey. In nosework, dogs must learn to ignore distractions to search and find the target odor. We use games to train scent work, and harness the dog’s natural drives. To train a rock-solid detection dog, introduce easy distractions and gradually work up to …

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Scent 101 SCENTSCAPES Presentation

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Get a glimpse into your dog’s fascinating world of scent – Fri. Jan. 5, 2018, in Calgary Scentscapes & Scent Theory 101, presentation (no dogs) – $50.00 There’s a whole world of scent, which allows dogs to detect everything from bombs to cancer. But because air is invisible, humans are generally unaware. Scentscapes videos show …

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Preventing Mouthing, Biting and Retrieving in Nosework

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Many dogs love to retrieve, but in canine nosework, mouthing, biting and retrieving are problematic. Nosework is inspired by bomb detection training, where biting and retrieving are unsafe ways for a dog to indicate the presence of explosives. Accordingly, in nosework, “aggressive” behaviors such as biting, chewing, and digging …

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Comparing SDDA and UKC Nosework

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In today’s blog, I’ll compare and contrast nosework competition under the Sporting Detection Dogs Association (SDDA) and United Kennel Club (UKC). Please note that I’m competing in UKC (in the USA and Canada) at the Masters level, while I’ve only titled in Started SDDA in Canada. This blog represents my opinion. There are many nosework organizations and they …

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Photo of a Dachshund with his nose in a wire fence

Nosework Safety

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Have you seen a dog get his head stuck in a nosework box? If you watch a few pre-trial or container searches, you’ll observe that many dogs do. While that’s not faulted and usually causes the audience to smile, it’s a frequent reminder that safety is important in canine nosework. CONTAINER SAFETY Consider what would happen if a dog …

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Photo of a Chihuahua puppy playing with a tennis ball

How Close is Close Enough?

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How close should your dog get to source? Will you know it when you see it? After your dog indicates and you call “alert”, the judge can ask “where is it”, so you should be prepared to answer (either with words or showing with gestures that don’t involve touching anything or contaminating source.) Current UKC Nosework …

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Vary Everything But The Odor

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Over time, you should vary all aspects of the hides besides the odor itself. For example, don’t just use metal tins. You should practice with hides made of many diverse materials: steel and burlap, wood, cotton, water, plastic, glass, etc.. You should also vary the ageing of the target odor. Sometimes you may place the hide and …

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Photo of nosework box with Birch hide (scented cotton swab in sticky envelope)

Making Single Odor Hides

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Here are the steps to make single odor hides…

Making Cocktailed Hides

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Once your dog is searching for odor, you’ll need some hides in order to practice nosework at home. (A “hide” is the package of target odor inside a ventilated container that is hidden in the search are for the dog to find e.g. pre-scented piece of blotting paper inside a metal tin or a cotton …

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