# Nosework



## Laurelin (Nov 2, 2006)

Talk to me about it. 

I really can't decide if I want to try it but they're offering it at my agility place starting soon. (just an intro class) Mia loves to sniff and search out things. I thought she might like it.

On the other hand, not sure I want to pay for 5 dog training classes a week (x2 rally, x2 agility, and nosework). I know it's easy to teach at home but in all likelihood I wouldn't. I have enough dog homework as is. 

Maybe I could just try the intro and not necessarily commit to every week? 

I wish I had all the money so I could do every class.


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## Pawzk9 (Jan 3, 2011)

Khara (who teaches it at my school) is also going to maybe teach at Twister She may be assisted by another person who is working towards being a certified instructor. I have to say she's very good at it, and I've been doing it with Rikki (much improvement in confidence, though she still checks out occasionally) and just started it with Ray. So far it's not caused any sniffing or disengaging behaviors in Freestyle, that I was a little worried about. Honestly, I know you don't want MORE suggestions for dog sports, but having watched Mia's tricks on this list I think you should REALLY be doing freestyle. She is brilliant.


Laurelin said:


> Talk to me about it.
> 
> I really can't decide if I want to try it but they're offering it at my agility place starting soon. (just an intro class) Mia loves to sniff and search out things. I thought she might like it.
> 
> ...


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## Laurelin (Nov 2, 2006)

Haha, thanks! I think she's something else myself. 

I was a little bit worried if Mia would start sniffing in agility more or anything like that. It is Khara that is teaching at Twister too. I don't think I've ever met her. What day/time is the class at your place on? The Twister class happened to fall on a really good night for me that I'm never busy on.

I have an art class that conflicts with y'alls freestyle class or else I'd have come by already. Maybe when it's over and if I give up on rally (lol) I can try that out. Trick training is much more my speed than obedience. I'm not sure which one would be better at it- Mia or Summer. They're both trick fiends. 

I am not sure I could do freestyle. I'm so awkward and clumsy and no rhythm. lol I have seen some of y'alls' dogs putting on shows a few years ago at the OKC show. It's was very entertaining. (I can't remember the name of the lady with the black and tan aussie) She was there and a girl with a BC and papillon and a little pap looking mix. And a little sheltie and collie.

Like I said.. I want a raise so I can do treibball, freestyle, agility, rally, AND nosework. With both. Oh pipe dreams.


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## Poly (Sep 19, 2007)

One of the things about training small dogs in nosework is the location of the hides. There's no provision for breed or size differences, and some of the hides, especially the room searches and the vehicle searches, can be located in places that are difficult for small dogs to reach. It's generally pretty obvious when a medium-to-large dog finds a hide, and the find itself is very self-rewarding because the dog often puts his nose right on the thing. On the other hand, with small dogs you have to be reading your dog much more closely for the signs when the hide location is somewhere they can't reach.

I've seen only a few small dogs in nose work - like miniature poodles and small terriers - and have no experience at all with toy-sized dogs as such, so I can't give you specifics on how to work with a toy dog. 

BTW, UKC Nosework is almost ready to launch, and AKC Nosework is waiting in the wings, so if I were starting out I would try to get some info on what those rules are going to be.


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## juliemule (Dec 10, 2011)

Poly said:


> One of the things about training small dogs in nosework is the location of the hides. There's no provision for breed or size differences, and some of the hides, especially the room searches and the vehicle searches, can be located in places that are difficult for small dogs to reach. It's generally pretty obvious when a medium-to-large dog finds a hide, and the find itself is very self-rewarding because the dog often puts his nose right on the thing. On the other hand, with small dogs you have to be reading your dog much more closely for the signs when the hide location is somewhere they can't reach.
> 
> I've seen only a few small dogs in nose work - like miniature poodles and small terriers - and have no experience at all with toy-sized dogs as such, so I can't give you specifics on how to work with a toy dog.
> 
> BTW, UKC Nosework is almost ready to launch, and AKC Nosework is waiting in the wings, so if I were starting out I would try to get some info on what those rules are going to be.


Do they teach an alert to source? If so, small dogs would be fine.


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## Pawzk9 (Jan 3, 2011)

Laurelin said:


> Haha, thanks! I think she's something else myself.
> 
> I was a little bit worried if Mia would start sniffing in agility more or anything like that. It is Khara that is teaching at Twister too. I don't think I've ever met her. What day/time is the class at your place on? The Twister class happened to fall on a really good night for me that I'm never busy on.
> 
> ...


Yes, Khara teaches for me on Tuesday nights and is starting a class at Twister. I don't know if she's planning on starting another intro class soon at my place. She's stretched pretty thin - also driving to Tulsa to teach, and opening her own school soon in Shawnee. As to freestyle and rally, they are a good compliment to each other - since freestyle's also some precision work and moves as well as tricks - and many of the moves are covered in Rally. I originally stated that I'd NEVER dress up and dance with my dogs in public. I'm not a dancer and hardly have a sense of rhythm. HATED dance recitals as a kid. But I caught the freestyle bug! With the treatments I'm on, my balance is badly affected and I have to "dance" with a cane to stay upright. Still, a few of weeks ago we managed it with me staying upright for SIX routines, and Qualifying 4. AND even with Ray's gimpy leg he earned two new titles. If the person with the black tri Aussie was Michele Pouliot, she SHOULD be impressive, as she has multiple perfect scores and International championships with Listo. More people look like . . . me, but not quite as wobbly


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## DJEtzel (Dec 28, 2009)

Frag and I have been taking nosework classes for the last year or so?

We love it... he loves it, we search at home frequently, it doesn't effect HIS agility style at all. We can do an ORT anytime from the training in these classes, however they are few and far between in our area.


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## Laurelin (Nov 2, 2006)

Pawzk9 said:


> Yes, Khara teaches for me on Tuesday nights and is starting a class at Twister. I don't know if she's planning on starting another intro class soon at my place. She's stretched pretty thin - also driving to Tulsa to teach, and opening her own school soon in Shawnee. As to freestyle and rally, they are a good compliment to each other - since freestyle's also some precision work and moves as well as tricks - and many of the moves are covered in Rally. I originally stated that I'd NEVER dress up and dance with my dogs in public. I'm not a dancer and hardly have a sense of rhythm. HATED dance recitals as a kid. But I caught the freestyle bug! With the treatments I'm on, my balance is badly affected and I have to "dance" with a cane to stay upright. Still, a few of weeks ago we managed it with me staying upright for SIX routines, and Qualifying 4. AND even with Ray's gimpy leg he earned two new titles. If the person with the black tri Aussie was Michele Pouliot, she SHOULD be impressive, as she has multiple perfect scores and International championships with Listo. More people look like . . . me, but not quite as wobbly


I have a picture of her dog (and some others) from a year or two ago. I meant to show you a while back because I think you might know some of them. Here we go (this is from the OKC cluster in 2011)

This dog was darling:

The pap:


DSC_0101 by Summer_Papillon, on Flickr

BC:

DSC_0065 by Summer_Papillon, on Flickr


DSC_0120 by Summer_Papillon, on Flickr

Was curious about this dog's breed (looks like my kind of dog)


DSC_0067 by Summer_Papillon, on Flickr


DSC_0170 by Summer_Papillon, on Flickr


DSC_0165 by Summer_Papillon, on Flickr


DSC_0241 by Summer_Papillon, on Flickr

The Aussie:


DSC_0032 by Summer_Papillon, on Flickr

They were very entertaining!

You'll have to let me know if there's any freestyle competitions around here. Would love to cheer you on. 

anyways, we signed up and did our first nosework class tonight. Mia had a blast and was really quite good at it although the boxes were bigger than she was. Her creativity in getting into the boxes (and fearlessness) had the other students cracking up every time. We had a lot of fun and I'm really glad I tried it.


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## GottaLuvMutts (Jun 1, 2009)

Nosework is a lot of fun. Kit thinks it's on the same level as agility, with disc being better than both. She gets excited when she sees me pull out the nosework stuff, and when I tell her to sit-stay while I go place the next hide, she's antsy. 

We took two 6-week sessions of nosework. I felt that this was quite enough for us, as the whole thing felt like a racket to me. I can do it at home, and it doesn't require any special skills on my part, so why pay someone to make up a commentary to go along with it? Most of the time the instructor was just saying "good job" and managing the class so that dogs never met (lots of reactive dogs in this sport - it's sort of the go-to sport for that). Because I think it's a racket, I doubt I'll trial in it (maybe one day, though). That said, I really do enjoy doing it with Kit, and we practice frequently with birch, anise, clove, and truffle scent. Since leaving the class, I decided that I wanted a much clearer alert, so now I have a sit.

As far as interfering with agility and other sports...
Have you ever heard someone complain about some bad behavior their dog exhibits (barking is the classic example) and someone says to put it on cue and then just don't cue it? I feel like sniffing is a bit like that. By showing Kit that there's a time and a place for it, and she can even be rewarded for it, I'm less likely to get the behavior when I don't want it. It could be coincidence, but I started to see less (not more) distracted sniffing in the agility ring after starting nosework.


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## Canyx (Jul 1, 2011)

Question about nosework and distinguishing smells.
If you theoretically want your dog to locate truffles in the field, do you already have a cue specific to each scent ("Find Truffle!") or do you present the dog with the scent you want it to find, and then use a general cue (provide scent, "Find it!")?


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## Laurelin (Nov 2, 2006)

Yeah it is only the first class but it seems very simple so far. I enjoyed it mostly because I like meeting dog people and hanging out with my dog. Agility is much more my speed. I think disc would be too but alas, I have no disc capable dog.  I'm really hoping to get into disc with Nextdog. But for now will be playing with Mia and Summer as much as possible.

I doubt I'll trial in nosework or take many classes. But it was fun.


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## GottaLuvMutts (Jun 1, 2009)

Canyx said:


> Question about nosework and distinguishing smells.
> If you theoretically want your dog to locate truffles in the field, do you already have a cue specific to each scent ("Find Truffle!") or do you present the dog with the scent you want it to find, and then use a general cue (provide scent, "Find it!")?


Actually, for the most part, we expect the dog to search out ANY scent they are familiar with, and we do not tell them which we want, either verbally or by presenting that scent.


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## GottaLuvMutts (Jun 1, 2009)

Laurelin said:


> I think disc would be too but alas, I have no disc capable dog.


Don't be too sure: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9100RwBqBQ&list=UUB4i2wccwLKtBREHZYa6iHw&index=1&feature=plcp


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## Canyx (Jul 1, 2011)

GottaLuvMutts said:


> Actually, for the most part, we expect the dog to search out ANY scent they are familiar with, and we do not tell them which we want, either verbally or by presenting that scent.


Wouldn't that make things difficult? Like if during a walk it suddenly Sat or whatever, because it smelled mint growing by the sidewalk and it has done nosework with mint before.
Or if you're truffle hunting but your dog smells all the other things it was taught to find?


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## GottaLuvMutts (Jun 1, 2009)

Canyx said:


> Wouldn't that make things difficult? Like if during a walk it suddenly Sat or whatever, because it smelled mint growing by the sidewalk and it has done nosework with mint before.
> Or if you're truffle hunting but your dog smells all the other things it was taught to find?


That's why we don't use scents that are commonly found in products or when out-and-about. Besides, the cue (find it, or whatever you use) is what tells the dog to start searching. Kit starts taking very short breaths, snorting and snuffling as soon as the cue is given - she sounds like a real hound. But without the cue, I don't hear that sort of noise from her, even when we're out hiking.


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## Laurelin (Nov 2, 2006)

Disc papillon is so cute! I really wish they made 30 lb papillons. That would solve all my 'what should nextdog be!' questions.

Mia's already scenting at 'find it'. Lots of sniff sniff sniff in a way she didn't do before. She picked it up really really fast.

We did have one lapse first run of agility. I took her out to stay and her nose whipped up and she started sniffing the air. Within a few seconds she had found a treat on the ground half the field away. Kind of impressive but also kind of obnoxious lol.


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## juliemule (Dec 10, 2011)

Canyx said:


> Question about nosework and distinguishing smells.
> If you theoretically want your dog to locate truffles in the field, do you already have a cue specific to each scent ("Find Truffle!") or do you present the dog with the scent you want it to find, and then use a general cue (provide scent, "Find it!")?


 Though different than nosework classes, in sar, we have separate commands for separate odors. For instance a live track is suuch, and cadaver is check, then we also do scent specific by giving the dog a contaminated article with only that persons scent.


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## Canyx (Jul 1, 2011)

juliemule said:


> Though different than nosework classes, in sar, we have separate commands for separate odors. For instance a live track is suuch, and cadaver is check, then we also do scent specific by giving the dog a contaminated article with only that persons scent.


Okay, thanks for clarifying! I know I keep asking the same question about nose/scent/track work over and over again. But it's because I can't get this one memory out of my head; when I was a kid I saw a show about a bloodhound that was rescued and turned into a working dog. Now that you mention it I think it ended up becoming a SAR dog, and what I distinctly remember is it was always presented a scent in a plastic bag. It culminated in the bloodhound being presented with someone's baseball ticket, and the bloodhound found the correct seat in an empty stadium.
So because of that, the idea of any scent work with dogs in my mind has to do with presenting a scent first. I've learned a lot about the differences between nosework, tracking, and SAR now (but not nearly enough!) so hopefully I'll clear this from my mind.


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## GottaLuvMutts (Jun 1, 2009)

Well, it's not truffle season yet, but I'm too excited to wait, so we're going to look for chanterelles tomorrow! Wish us luck!


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