# Kit started nosework tonight



## GottaLuvMutts (Jun 1, 2009)

Nosework classes are finally being offered in my area by a trainer certified by the National Association of Canine Scent Work. Tonight was our first class. The trainer sent around a questionnaire ahead of time, and I warned her of Kit's enthusiasm, especially where food is involved.

Right now we're just working on food, but eventually we'll switch over and start training scents (birch, anise, clove).

So when it was Kit's turn, I brought her in on leash, and as soon as she got close, she started screaming and then barking, insisting to be let off leash. As soon as I did that, she got right on task and began frantically searching the boxes scatted all over the floor for the one containing food. She found it quickly and ate the food, then demanded more. Then we repeated the process. She looked at the trainer a few times hoping for a clue as to where the food was, but upon realizing that the trainer wasn't going to show her, she continued searching. I was happy that she didn't go visit any onlookers, or get distracted, even though a few of her favorite people were in the room. I think the rest of the class was a little taken-aback by her enthusiasm - that's a pretty common reaction, as she's so intense. 

For homework, I have to go to the post office and get priority mail boxes, label one where the food goes, and then play the same game in my living room (I'll have to crate Kit while I shuffle the boxes). The hard part is staying completely quiet while Kit works. There is no obedience involved in nosework, so I'm not allowed to correct anything, ask for any commands, indicate anything, etc. 

I also need to think up a good search command, but it has to be different than anything else I've used in the past (so much for "find it") or anything that sounds similar to another command. Kit knows so many words from trick training and agility that it's hard to come up with something. I think I might use the German word for "search", which is "such" (pronounced zooch with a soft C-H sound).

Anyway, I just thought I'd write a few notes here. I'll try to update as we have more classes.


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## Shaina (Oct 28, 2007)

Sounds fun  Not at all surprised that Kit is already doing well!

We've never had nosework classes locally so I'm interested to hear what you guys do next. Would be something my dogs would enjoy, I think...especially Da Web.


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## Abbylynn (Jul 7, 2011)

This sounds like fun.  It also sounds like Kit is well suited for this kind of work. I like the command word you might use. It seems far from ordinary sounds and would be good IMO. Have fun!

Are you furthering this to a real time job of search and rescue? Just being curious.


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## luv2byte (Oct 21, 2009)

Is the class with Joyce B.? I'm curious as to how you like it, we are thinking of doing the classes as well, we think it would be fun.


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## GottaLuvMutts (Jun 1, 2009)

Abbylynn said:


> Are you furthering this to a real time job of search and rescue? Just being curious.


No, I have a real time job, LOL. The time commitment for SAR is huge, and from what I understand, there's no pay, so hard to make that into a real job. But I'd like to expand upon what we learn in the class. In particular, I think it would be fun to train Kit to hunt for mushrooms, which are plentiful in my area.

I know that SAR folks often pull dogs from shelters for training. With Kit's drive, food motivation, intelligence, superior nose, and friendly nature (which borders on OCD when it comes to greeting people), they surely would have taken Kit if they'd found her. But I got there first. If I'm correct on her breed guess (border collie x pointer), she was pretty much made to do this. The only thing that makes her not fit is sort of ironic: because the dog isn't required to interact with other dogs or people, the sport attracts lots of dogs with issues (dogs that couldn't participate in flyball, agility, disc, etc.). Kit doesn't have issues, unless you count over enthusiastic.

Luv2byte, the class is taught by Jean Richardson. I've heard from several people that she's amazing. She moved up from SoCal a few years ago, after having helped found the organization there. To her credit, she took Kit's enthusiasm in stride, which is more than I can say for some trainers (we would get thrown out of a formal obedience class).


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## juliemule (Dec 10, 2011)

Thats awesome, I love working detection dogs! I use 'such' for tracking, and 'check' for cadaver. The more crazy her drive the better she will excel! I so wish we had more interest in this near here.


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## melaka (Mar 31, 2010)

Sounds like fun. We did a nosework one-day workshop (for fun) about 2 months ago and it seemed much the same. Buff was on the medium side - not crazy into it but she caught on after a couple tries and eventually did OK. The trainer is seeing what interest there is in an actual nosework class, but I'm sticking to agility for now since I can't afford both.


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## Poly (Sep 19, 2007)

Just so folks understand: You don't have to work silently in nosework. Unlimited communication between dog and handler.

However, many of the teams come from an obedience and/or agility background and we don't want the dog to go into "obedience mode" or "agility mode", since that would stop or adversely impact the scent working. So it's better to train as silently as possible once you give the 'search' cue. 

Also, although a search cue is not really necessary for some dogs - they just start searching - at a trial you must at least say the cue word (that has been told to the judge beforehand). So you are encouraged to pick one and to use it even if your dog will start without it. 

Most dogs seem to be having a lot of fun during the training sessions. So even if you don't intend to enter a formal trial with your dog, you might want to try a training class.


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## Pawzk9 (Jan 3, 2011)

Have been doing K9 Nosework with Rikki for a while and she's really enjoying it. Her confidence has just blossomed. The trainer we have is in the process of becoming certified, and we are just starting odor work (as opposed to just food)


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## juliemule (Dec 10, 2011)

So how do they start training? On food, then move to something else? What do they usually train the dogs to find?


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## Poly (Sep 19, 2007)

juliemule said:


> So how do they start training? On food, then move to something else? What do they usually train the dogs to find?


Yes you generally start with food as the target, and you use food treats as rewards all through training. The recommendation is that it be a special food treat that is only used for nosework, and one that gets the dog really worked up. 

You start with box drills (container searches) and then move on to other things. You start your dog on box targets with food only and then move on to mixed food and scent in the box. Then you do box drills with only scent in the target box(es). Some dogs need a lot of box drill work - so you may work at that for a while. Some dogs don't need so much box drill work, so you can move pretty quickly to finding scent hides with a piece of food on them, and go on from there. You've got to work according to the capabilities of the dog, and you want to keep it challenging, interesting and fun for the dog. 

You always reward the dog with his special food when he finds the hide or scented container, even at a trial. And you ALWAYS reward as close to the hide/container as you can get - right on it if possible.

The goal is to find containers that contain scent(s), and to find scent hides under different conditions. A "hide" is a small object (such as the end of a q-tip) that holds the scent materials. There are three scents in NACSW trials (birch, anise, clove), but at the beginnng (level 1) you only work with birch scent. 

As the name implies, a "hide" is placed (by the trainer or by the trial officials) so that it is hidden from the dog and the handler. At a test or a trial, you have no idea where the hide is. In training, you may be given a general location but not the actual place where it is hidden.


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## GottaLuvMutts (Jun 1, 2009)

We had our second nosework class last week (after a 3 wk break due to weather and other such things). In class we expanded the search area, included more boxes, and closed them so that the odor could only escape from small holes in the top. Kit was flying pretty high in class (overstimulated), so she ended up running around searching at warp speed without really using her nose much. She found all the hides and destroyed one or two food boxes (*sigh*), but I thought the focus was a little lacking. She does quite well when we practice alone, though.

Yesterday we did box work in an empty parking lot, our first hides outside. She did well with that, almost no distraction at all for her. She moves very quickly and will sometimes miss the odor on the first pass, but she's not one to ever give up. She will keep searching until she's found the hide. All of the boxes are closed now.

Today we checked out a deserted courtyard on the University's campus. I didn't want to load all the boxes in the car again, and we are moving away from that in class now anyway, so I just hid the bait bag with food on top. She stayed very focused despite the distractions of being outside and in the dirt and vegetation. A couple of times I had to remind her to wait for my search cue before starting - she's really getting into the game. I am a bit worried that she's following my scent from place to place (tracking) instead of searching for the hide. 

Near the end of today's practice, a couple of friends showed up and hid the bait bag for me, without telling me the location. It took Kit a bit longer (it was under a bunch of leaves), but she found it without help. She also found her first useful item today (by mistake): we stumbled across someone's USB drive that they had dropped. I'll return it to the owner if I can figure out who it belongs to based on the files that are on it. That should be a fun conversation!


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## Poly (Sep 19, 2007)

GottaLuvMutts said:


> Today we checked out a deserted courtyard on the University's campus..... outside and in the dirt and vegetation......Near the end of today's practice, a couple of friends showed up and hid the bait bag for me, without telling me the location. It took Kit a bit longer (it was under a bunch of leaves), but she found it without help. She also found her first useful item today (by mistake): we stumbled across someone's USB drive that they had dropped. I'll return it to the owner if I can figure out who it belongs to based on the files that are on it. That should be a fun conversation!


I didn't realize you had restarted the thread, so excuse the lateness. I'd just like to caution you about something.

If you intend to do tracking as well as nose work, you should be cautious about outside scent searches - especially searches that include significant unpaved areas. It may not be as much of a problem as people think, but a lot of trainers are worried about the possibility of cross-training issues. 

Commonly, outdoor searches in NACSW nosework are in parking lots and other similar locations. However, they may utilize grassy fields and courtyards for the search area. AKC tracking, as well as Schutzhund tracking, use tracks in vegetated areas which could include that same type of terrain.. So if you are doing tracking, I would be very cautious at this point in time with incorporating such vegetated areas in my nosework training. 

Tracking also utilizes articles - one of which could be that USB drive that was lying around - so that's another possible issue to be aware of.


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## agility collie mom (Jan 26, 2008)

Really cool sport. Our trainer at our club is certified and belongs to FEMA. http://www.brigadoonbordercollies.com/about-us/meet-the-humans/doree-donovan/ Here she is with Faith.
http://pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsbu...6654.html?TB_iframe=true&height=460&width=720


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## dagwall (Mar 17, 2011)

Jubel has his first nosework class on Sunday, I'm looking forward to it and really think he'll enjoy it.


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## GottaLuvMutts (Jun 1, 2009)

We had our first blind hide tonight. That means that the handler (me) doesn't know where the hide is, and depends on the dog to tell them. Once they think the dog has found it, they call "alert" and then the judge (or instructor in this case) tells them whether they're right. The whole thing is timed, and the faster the time, the better you did. 

Since this was our first blind hide, it was pretty easy: 12 boxes spread out in two rows with food in one box. All boxes were closed with no holes in the lids, so the food was inaccessible to the dog. Kit's time was 4 seconds - pretty dam* good for the first one. Her alert was SO obvious (she was starting to destroy the box to get at the food), which is why I was confident enough to call it after only 4 seconds. Nosework class is like her Christmas morning.

Next week we start with real odor (instead of food). I'm looking forward to that - with such a food-motivated dog, searching for food got old really quickly.


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## begemot (Feb 1, 2011)

Do you have any video? I'd love to see Kit in action. She sounds craaazy. In a good way.


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## GottaLuvMutts (Jun 1, 2009)

If you search youtube for buckette84, you'll find a bunch of videos: disc, agility, nosework, lure coursing, and some other random ones. I haven't recorded anything in nosework class, because we're not really allowed.


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## DJEtzel (Dec 28, 2009)

Sounds like you guys are having a good time! I'd love to see personal videos sometime- you can always record at home. Frag and I are getting pretty into the sport, he's been through 2 classes and a seminar now and we're really enjoying it too.  It's becoming very popular.


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