Nosework Articles, Hunter's Heart, Canada, Scent Detection, Training Sniffer Dogs Since 1999

Don’t Miss Out! World Detector Dog Organization – Setting the Standard, April 8-9, 2021

April 1, 2021

Join us to learn about the latest advances in canine scent detection, and take your scent detection to the next level at the WDDO 15th Annual Conference. There’s only [...]

Scent Theory: How Scent Cones Move

December 26, 2019

Scent is a moving target, carried and distorted by the wind. As a handler, one of the most challenging parts of your job is figuring out how to help your sniffer dog get to [...]

Give the Gift of Sniff

December 22, 2019

Have a dog that loves to sniff or needs a job to do? Curious about how dogs can detect everything from bed bugs to cancer? Learn the basics of scent in our new Scent [...]

Radio Interview on Katz on Dogs

September 15, 2019

Thanks to Katz on Dogs for inviting me for an interview on your radio program. Lori Katz, it’s always a pleasure discussing scent detection training with you and hear [...]

Avoiding the Clever Hans Phenomenon in Scent Detection

September 8, 2019

Clever Hans was presented to an audience in 1904

This blog has been updated in the IAABC Journal, Spring 2020: [...]

How to Build Drive Chasing a Ball on a Rope

September 13, 2018

One great way to build toy drive is chasing a ball on a rope. Softer toys with squeakers grab attention from most of our students. Even if they haven’t been interested [...]

Judges’ Applications Open for CKC Scent Detection

August 24, 2018

The Canadian Kennel Club (CKC) has announced its requirements for CKC Scent Detection Judges, to officiate at events starting in January 2019. Full details are [...]

NEW Scent Dog Foundation Online Course Starts Aug. 1, 2018

July 24, 2018

NEW Scent Dog Foundation Course – Class begins Aug. 1, 2018. From bed bugs to birds, from narcotics to nosework, Hunter’s Heart motivational scent training [...]

Canadian Kennel Club Introduces Scent Detection in Jan. 2019

July 15, 2018

After years of discussions, we’re excited about the opportunity to compete in Canadian Kennel Club (CKC) Scent Detection, starting Jan. 2019. Small dog owners may be [...]

Building the Brains of Scent Detection Puppies with Early Scent Introduction

June 16, 2018

Starting at 3 days of age, we introduce scents of our litters of puppies, and follow the Biosensor (Early Neurological Stimulation) program (1) daily and introduce a new [...]

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

May 13, 2018

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. [...]

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

May 7, 2018

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 [...]

Blocking and Advanced Proofing with Barriers

April 25, 2018

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 [...]

Scent Detection Training Devices and DIY Setups

April 20, 2018

Stuck in a rut with your scent detection training? Hiding Food Many trainers hide food inside Kongs and stuffable food balls, in snuffle mats (like a deep shaggy rug), and [...]

How to Train Your Dog to Sit at Scent – Part 2 Scent Puppy Foundation

April 14, 2018

This video captures Jager’s first session training a sit indication for high hides at a hot indication box. Jager’s 6-month-old Brittany Spaniel and bed bug [...]

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

April 12, 2018

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 [...]

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

April 6, 2018

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 [...]

Playing Catch to Become the Cookie – How to Be More Rewarding

April 5, 2018

Sometimes it’s harder to be more interesting than the dirt, with its tantalizing tapestry of scents. Playing catch is one type of food play that can come in handy when you [...]

Triple Bunk Break Down | Components of Elite Searches + Double Blind Tests

March 10, 2018

Be a splitter not a lumper! To succeed in double-blind scent detection tests (e.g. narcotics certification) or elite searches with clearing in scent work competition, [...]

What Should You Do About False Alerts? Mass Spectometry Would Help

March 7, 2018

Do you ever wish you had a machine to tell you what scents your dog false alerted on? It would be nice to get a definitive answer, especially when you don’t understand [...]

Listen Up! When Your Dog Stops Sniffing

March 2, 2018

Photo of Boo's cheeks moving in and out while sourcing, prior to stopping breathing when he reaches source.

Did you notice that many scent detection dogs stop breathing when they reach source? One of the best ways to read your sniffer dog is by listening to changes in his [...]

Table Distraction Game for Sniffer Dogs

February 26, 2018

Reliable scent dogs must ignore food, toy, and environmental distractions to find target odor. This video shows the Table Distraction Game we play with our scent dogs away [...]

Scent Dog Training Classes Start Wed.

December 12, 2017

While it’s cold outside, come join us for some fun nosework! Classes start this Wednesday evening Dec. 13, 2017. at Kayenna Kennels (near Southland and Macleod, Calgary). [...]

Top Scent Dog Training Books and Websites 2017

December 1, 2017

Shopping for the holiday season? You can never have too many scent dog training books, right? Here’s a list of our favorite canine books and websites you might enjoy: [...]

Brittany Puppies Find the Milk | Hunter’s Heart BB x Boo litter Week 1

October 25, 2017

This Brittany puppy uses scent to find his dam’s milk at 1 week of age. At birth, healthy puppies are blind and cannot hear, for at least 10 days. A dam simply cannot [...]

What Do Sperm and Puppies Have in Common?

October 20, 2017

They both rely on scent to navigate through their environment. Sperm use chemotaxis to navigate to eggs, and newborn puppies use olfaction to navigate to the milk in their [...]

How to Train a Freeze Indication Using Leash Pressure

October 17, 2017

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 [...]

Odor Hygiene at Nosework Competitions

October 5, 2017

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 [...]

Fear, Fender Benders and Following Your Fearless Dog

September 22, 2017

My Brittany Spaniel, Boo, and I spent our summer competing in nosework on a cross country road trip: from Calgary to California, Seattle to Wisconsin. The experience was [...]

Hunter’s Heart Black Betty’s Debut

September 21, 2017

BB sped directly to odor at her debut in Excellent B Nosework (for professionals and experienced handlers) at Sniffing Dog Sports competition in Gig Harbour, Washington. She [...]

Please vote for Nosework!

August 4, 2017

Your support counts! Please take 30 seconds to answer the Canadian Kennel Club’s 1 question nosework poll at http://www.ckc.ca/en. Virtually every dog can enjoy scent [...]

SDS Judge’s Summary by Level | Sniffing Dog Sports Nosework

August 2, 2017

Brain overload? Sometimes keeping track of multiple hides is enough to keep your brain busy. Print this summary of SDS rules and you’ll be sure to set up practice [...]

SDS Distance Game Demonstrations

July 29, 2017

Can your scent dog search independently at a distance? Watch demonstrations with coaching as our students test their skills with the fun SDS Distance Handling Game Version 1, [...]

Canada’s First Sniffing Dog Sports Nosework Competition, Oct. 7-8, Calgary

July 29, 2017

Join Sniff Alberta for Canada’s first Sniffing Dog Sports Nosework Competition, Calgary, Oct. 7&8, 2017 You’ll love SDS: Save $. Only 1 pass required to title at [...]

Back by Popular Demand: Nosework Crash Course Weekend, July 15/16, Hunter’s Heart (Calgary)

June 29, 2017

Take your nosework to the next level Juno’s video demonstrates strong commitment to odor in scent work. Sometimes blind searches are confusing for the handler. Juno [...]

Top 5 Scent Work Tips on Training Your Down Indication

June 16, 2017

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 [...]

Delayed Rewards Are Missed Opportunities in Scent Dog Training

April 30, 2017

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. [...]

Patterning for Systematic Searches and Faster Times

April 7, 2017

Do you have trouble remembering where your scent dog has searched and where he hasn’t? When you’re searching large areas for scent work, it’s a common [...]

Scent Maze Video: Can Your Dog Find His Way to Source?

March 26, 2017

This fun scent maze challenged our advanced nosework students to navigate around gates impeding access to the box containing odor to get to source. Teams were allowed perform [...]

Break Down Scent Work for Success from Day One

March 24, 2017

Hunter’s Heart trains nosework by breaking it down into small achievable steps, setting teams up for success from day 1. Rewarding is crucial to motivating the dog to [...]

Work for the Whites of His Eyes

March 20, 2017

Scent work is a game, and some rewards are better than others. You know you’re on the right track when your dog is so excited you can see the whites of his eyes. What did [...]

Scent Work – How to Train Distractions with Fun Nosework Games

March 9, 2017

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 [...]

How to Enter a UKC Nosework Trial

March 1, 2017

This 33 minute tutorial explains how to enter a UKC Nosework Trial, using Sniff Alberta’s Premium list and entry forms as examples. It answers FAQ’s including how [...]

Shopping for Nosework Supplies

February 27, 2017

Question: Where do you buy your shipping labels, cardboard boxes and blotting papers for cocktailing hides? I think I’d like to set up some kind of scent lab in my [...]

Scent 101 SCENTSCAPES Presentation

February 21, 2017

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 [...]

Nosework Lesson #1 is Motivation! Register now for Feb. 22 Classes

February 5, 2017

Watch our students enjoying their motivational introduction to scent at their first nosework class. Our approach is to make target odor so rewarding it would be crazy to [...]

Nosework Train Your Puppy to Search for Scent

January 18, 2017

Watch a puppy’s first training session in “Nosework – How to Train your puppy for scent work”. This 8 week old Brittany Spaniel puppy from [...]

How to have the most fun with your dog? Nosework/Scent Dog Training Compilation 2016

December 31, 2016

Nosework can be the most fun you ever had with your dog! We’ve received many requests to help nosework students explain why they love nosework to people who [...]

Abominable Loser vs. Well-Mannered Winner

December 19, 2016

Some people have a knack for winning graciously and looking worthy even when they lose. I’ve had the pleasure of competing against people who are classy in how they [...]

Training a Rock Solid Indication – “Show Me” Week 1

September 11, 2016

This video shows the first step in training a rock solid indication: https://youtu.be/EeDguH0ZJ8o Goals The goal of this session is for the puppy to form a positive [...]

Would You Like a Rock-Solid Indication?

September 10, 2016

Many dogs have subtle indications. Their handlers frequently say they “need to learn to read their dog better”. Reading your dog is a good thing. But if you’d like a [...]

Preventing Mouthing, Biting and Retrieving in Nosework

August 17, 2016

Many dogs love to retrieve, but in canine nosework, mouthing, biting and retrieving are problematic. Nosework is inspired by [...]

Comparing SDDA and UKC Nosework

May 19, 2016

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 [...]

K9 ABC Games – Adventures in Nosework

May 18, 2016

Photo of a hide under a vacuum, by Furever Reflections

(Adopted from an article featured in American Brittany Magazine, 2016) I recently had the pleasure to attend the K9 ABC Games nosework event hosted by Kinetic Dog Training, [...]

Nosework Safety

May 15, 2016

Photo of a Dachshund with his nose in a wire fence

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 [...]

Windy Vehicle Search Virtual Alert Challenge

May 2, 2016

How well do you understand the impact of wind on vehicle searches? Here’s a link to a 2 minute video of an advanced vehicle search so you can test your knowledge of [...]

Why Wind Matters in Nosework

April 16, 2016

figure showing how to navigate vehicle search using wind

Wind is complicated, but it’s important to succeeding in scent detection. Depending on wind direction, you may need to check all sides of a vehicle (or any object) [...]

Why Scent Travels

April 6, 2016

Photo of Smarties candies sorted by color

Why does scent disperse, instead of just staying inside the hide? It’s a law of nature. Scent spreads out. Read on if you want to learn more about the science behind scent [...]

How Close is Close Enough?

April 6, 2016

Photo of a Chihuahua puppy playing with a tennis ball

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 [...]

Comparing Dog and Human Olfaction

March 24, 2016

Photo of a map showing the distance from Calgary to Greenland and Mexico City

A dog’s sense of smell (aka olfaction) is 10,000 – 100,000 times stronger than a human’s. What does that mind-numbing number mean? Picture it on a map. [...]

Differences Between Nostrils

March 22, 2016

When a dog enters the scent cone and detects odor, how does he follow it back to its source? A dog’s sense of smell is so fine-tuned that he can distinguish which nostril [...]

Types of Nosework Events

March 18, 2016

Types of Nosework Events (Printable PDF File) The main types of searches in Nosework include: Container searches, Interior, Vehicle and Exterior and Handler Discrimination. [...]

UKC Nosework Requirements by Level

March 8, 2016

I confess: I can never remember the requirements for nosework searches at different levels of UKC competition. This table helps me and my students when we’re planning [...]

United Kennel Club Nosework Links

March 7, 2016

United Kennel Club (UKC) Helpful Links (As of Feb. 26, 2016) Register Your Dog with UKC [...]

Vary Everything But The Odor

February 4, 2016

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 [...]

Making Single Odor Hides

February 4, 2016

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

Here are the steps to make single odor hides... [...]

Making Cocktailed Hides

February 4, 2016

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 [...]

Storing Scent

February 4, 2016

Photo of hide in nosework box, nosework kit and essential oils stored in tackle box

Storing your scent properly is important to your success in nosework. You always want to know where odor is, and where it isn’t. Here are some key tips. One of the [...]

Scent Detection Kit Instructions and Supplies for Nosework

February 3, 2016

Once your dog is trained to search for odor, you’ll need to acquire some hides in order to practice nosework at home. (A “hide” is the package of target odor [...]

Recipe: Noncrumbling Tuna Fudge

February 3, 2016

Photo of a 1/4 inch cube of tuna fudge, the best noncrumbling nosework training reward

Every canine scent detection class I teach begins with a taste test of the available food rewards, because building drive depends on making it rewarding for each individual [...]

Preparing for Nosework Lessons

February 2, 2016

Photo of a lovely Shepherd waiting for his turn to do a search

Whenever you’ve scheduled a nosework lesson, it is critically important to bring a hungry dog with his highest value treats, (not the usual dry dog food dinner or [...]

Obedience to Odor

February 2, 2016

Our scent detection training is based on obedience to odor. That might sound pretty scary, but it’s all based on rewarding your dog. A dog that’s obedient to odor is [...]

Scent Detection Terms in Scent Detection

February 1, 2016

A "hide" is the package of target odor inside a ventilated container that is hidden in the search are for the dog to find. The photo shows a very common type of hide, made from blotting paper scented with target odor inside a metal tin with magnets, which easily secure the hide to a metal surface. Other favorite hide containers include metal tins with holes, shipping labels, plastic tubes, etc.. [...]