Scent Detection For Dog Sports
What you'll learn
- Learn how to teach a dog to recognise and locate a specific target odour
- Work in partnership with your dog and enhance your relationship
- Provide your dog with a mentally stimulating and low impact activity
- Use your dog's natural talents in a fun and exciting way
Requirements
- No previous experience is required - suitable for beginners
Description
In the Scent Work method that I teach in this Course, your dog will not be searching for food treats. Instead, your dog will be introduced to your chosen scent or odour right from the start, and rewarded with food and/or toys for locating the source of that odour.
After completing a few preparatory steps, and ensuring your dog is suitably motivated, we will use a back chaining process – meaning that we first teach the dog what to do when it smells the odour (sit, down, freeze or other trained behaviour of your choosing), before getting the dog to search for the odour. A reward signal (a clicker, or a verbal marker such as "Yes") is used to communicate to the dog the specific behaviours that are being rewarded. This method is similar to the way in which Police and Military Dogs are trained to find Narcotics or Explosives, or Conservation Detection Dogs locate Rare or Threatened animal or plant species. The Course will show you how you can easily achieve this with your own dog at home.
This training method is fast, leads to enthusiastic searching, and can prevent or resolve problems such as excessive scratching or biting at hides (places where odour is hidden), or having difficulty "reading" when your dog has located the source of the odour.
To help in the process of training your dog, we will explore the use of a variety of food delivery procedures and utilise everyday equipment such as kitchen colanders, pvc pipe, bricks, cardboard boxes and plastic storage containers to fully develop the chosen indication (alert behaviour).
My scent training method is geared towards owners aiming to enter Scent Work or Nose Work competitions (Trials), but you can use this training method for any other scent related activities such as finding truffles on your property, or locating items you habitually lose!
This Course will take you through the entire initial Scent Work training process, and introduce you to some Novice/Starter Level searches, including Container Searches (cardboard boxes), Interior Searches, Exterior Searches and Vehicle Searches.
Who this course is for:
- For dog owners wanting to train their pet dog in the canine sports of Scent Work or Nose Work
- For all pet owners wanting to learn a fun activity to do with their dog at home
Instructor
- 4.7 Instructor Rating
- 27 Reviews
- 69 Students
- 3 Courses
A bit about me! My name is Kate Lloyd and I live in South Australia. I own and operate a Dog Training business called DOGS ETC and offer private coaching in Scent Work, Assistance Dog Owner-Training, Trick Training and Companion Animal Behaviour Problem Solving. I have provided and trained animals for theatre, films and TV commercials. I've been training dogs and their owners for over 10 years, working with dogs of all ages from puppy to elderly, and all sizes from Chihuahuas to St Bernards.
My interest in dog training has developed from my experiences with training my own dogs and the dogs I have fostered. I believe that, when undertaken with understanding, dog training improves a dog’s quality of life and strengthens the pet-owner bond. I strive to continue to learn all I can about animal training techniques, to use this knowledge in teaching dogs and to pass these skills on to my clients.
I am a qualified Dog Trainer, having completed the Nationally recognised and government accredited Certificate in Dog Behaviour and Training through the National Dog Trainers Federation, with additional studies in training dogs for Assistance Roles (i.e. Disability Support) and for Substance Detection.
I am an Australian National Kennel Club (ANKC) Scent Work Judge and a member of the South Australian Canine Association, as well as a Certified Cooperative Paws Service Dog Coach, CAP Clicker Trainer, Do More With Your Dog Trick Dog Instructor and Canine Hoopers World Instructor.
I train my dogs and participate in a number of dog sport activities including Scent Work, Tracking, Dances With Dogs and Rally.