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 where they need to be to find odor, rather than hindering them by blocking or pulling them away from scent. Therefore, […]
Scent Theory: How Scent Cones Move Read More »
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 Detection – Imprinting Target Odor for Beginners online course, starting Jan. 6, 2020: https://www.cleanrun.com/category/learning_center/agility_instructors/carla_simon_online_classes/index. This course is provides a broad introduction
Give the Gift of Sniff Read More »
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
Sourcing, Residual Odor and Preventing False Alerts FAQ – Part 2 Read More »
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
Sourcing, Residual Odor and Preventing False Alerts FAQ – Part 1 Read More »
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 what happened after a seemingly easy search went haywire. While expensive, technology exists that can analyze the molecular composition of scents, and has been
What Should You Do About False Alerts? Mass Spectometry Would Help Read More »
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
Odor Hygiene at Nosework Competitions Read More »
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 searches that abide by Sniffing Dog Sports rules: SDS Summary by Level (PDF) The same information is pasted below. SDS JUDGE’S SUMMARY: REQUIREMENTS BY LEVEL General
SDS Judge’s Summary by Level | Sniffing Dog Sports Nosework Read More »
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 returns to show the location of target odor repeatedly, making it very obvious where target odor is located, until the rewards appear at source. Even newbies in the audience can
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 it look like when you saw your dog that excited? Was he chasing a bird? Or would he rather chase
Work for the Whites of His Eyes Read More »
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 pre-trials work, whether to enter A or B, and going through all the boxes on the entry form. We complete the entry form for 2 example dogs: a
How to Enter a UKC Nosework Trial Read More »
Wonder how scent works? Learn about the science behind olfaction and how dogs learn scent detection. Topics include: What is Scent detection? Nosework demonstration How scent works Canine olfaction and muscle memory How dogs learn and how best to teach them Breaking down components of a dog’s search Why we don’t use a verbal command
Nosework Theory 101 – Feb. 24, 2017 (Calgary) Read More »
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
Comparing SDDA and UKC Nosework Read More »
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 wind: https://youtu.be/nLg5FQ473oA It’s a cool, moderately windy day for a Sniff Alberta fun match judged by Joe Richardson (thanks Joe). There are 3 hides on one
Windy Vehicle Search Virtual Alert Challenge Read More »
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) to avoid calling a false alert. When you’re beginning to learn nosework with container searches indoors, you could just follow your dog and pass without ever
Why Wind Matters in Nosework Read More »
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 dispersion, and what it has to do with the Smarties in the picture. SCENT DISPERSION AND ENTROPY Scent disperses because of the Second
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. Let’s be conservative: say the canine sense of smell is 10,000 better. According to James Walker, former researcher at the Sensory Research Institute at Florida State University, if you make an analogy
Comparing Dog and Human Olfaction Read More »
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 is experiencing more odor at any given time. So when his left nostril smells more odor than the right, he will turn left.
Differences Between Nostrils Read More »
WHAT IS SCENT DETECTION? From the first domesticated dog, humans and dogs evolved together for a long time. Originally, dogs helped humans in tracking and hunting game. Depending on wind, dog can pickup scent plume 100 feet away and find the source (highest concentration of target odor). Group hunting was a selective advantage. Scent detection
How Scent Works: Scent Cones, Wind and Aging Read More »
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 obedient to his nose. He’s irresistibly drawn to the target odor and is highly motivated to get to source (the highest concentration of target odor). Dondi
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..
Scent Detection Terms in Scent Detection Read More »
