What is K9 Scent Work?
Not sure what all the fuss is about? Discover Nose Work, and enter into your dog’s undercover world.
What is K9 Scent Work?
Not sure what all the fuss is about? Discover Nose Work, and enter into your dog’s undercover world.
Discover Scent Work
Nose Work was created by a group of former professional K9 handlers who began scent work training shelter dogs as a way of providing mental enrichment. When the shelter volunteers saw how much fun the dogs were having, the sport of Nose Work was born. This sport has been steadily growing, and now that AKC has added Scent Work to their list of events, it has been booming.
When dogs search, they tell a story about how the odor moves and what the scent plume is doing. Through studying your dog’s body language, you will be able to see the beautiful scent picture that they paint. It’s incredible what they can do with just their nose. Allow your dog to show off her super-hero powers with Scent Work!
Some benefits of Nose Work include:
- Low Impact Exercise: Safe exercise for senior and physically challenged dogs.
- Less Troublemaking: Powerful mental stimulation and enrichment = one truly exhausted dog.
- Time Saver: Cuts back on the amount of time needed to tire your dog. A 15-minute session of scenting can equate to a 4-mile hike!
- Minimal Cost: No expensive equipment necessary.
- Confidence Builder: Using your dog’s natural abilities to build confidence helps them work through fears, dog reactivity, and anxiety when combined with behavior modification programs.
What dogs can do Scent Work?
Because it is low physical impact, older dogs do just as well as younger dogs! Better in fact. With age comes scent-wisdom. But don’t let the fact that it is low impact fool you. Focusing on tracking down a target odor requires a lot of brain power, leaving your dog exhausted!
Your dog doesn’t like to be around other dogs? No problem! When doing Nose Work, dogs work one at a time. Shy dog? Dog’s don’t need to interact with the people, allowing the dog to become desensitized to having people around in a safe environment.
Dog’s also don’t need any specific obedience skills prior to beginning Nose Work. Even puppies as young as 8 weeks old can participate. In fact, we encourage you to start your dog on scent work ASAP! Because the dog’s search one at a time, to participate in class they will need to be comfortable waiting in a crate away from their owner.
What dogs can do Scent Work?
Because it is low physical impact, older dogs do just as well as younger dogs! Better in fact. With age comes scent-wisdom. But don’t let the fact that it is low impact fool you. Focusing on tracking down a target odor requires a lot of brain power, leaving your dog exhausted!
Your dog doesn’t like to be around other dogs? No problem! When doing Nose Work, dogs work one at a time. Shy dog? Dog’s don’t need to interact with the people, allowing the dog to become desensitized to having people around in a safe environment.
Dog’s also don’t need any specific obedience skills prior to beginning Nose Work. Even puppies as young as 8 weeks old can participate. In fact, we encourage you to start your dog on scent work ASAP! Because the dog’s search one at a time, to participate in class they will need to be comfortable waiting in a crate away from their owner.
Can’t wait to get started?
How does a Scent Work competition look?
Timing starts when the dog crosses the start line. Handlers indicate that their dog has found the hide by calling “Alert.” Time stops when all the hides are found.
As you progress through the levels, they raise the challenge by adding more hides, increasing hide height and expanding search area size.
One very different aspect of Scent Work is that the dog ALWAYS gets paid when they find the hide. Even in competition, your dog gets their reward!
