Dogs possess such a keen sense of smell that it just makes sense to build some fun activities around this feature. Nose work for dogs can be a fun pastime for you and your canine companion and you even can take part in actual nose work competitions if you want. If you are interested in learning more about nose work and what it’s all about, read on and study the following seven facts.
1. Any Dog Can Participate
While certain dog breeds, such a Labrador retriever, German shepherd or beagle, have especially advanced senses of smell, all dogs can be successful with nose work for dogs. Typically during dog shows, you might have seen groups of hunting dogs, herding dogs, hounds and sporting dogs praised for their smelling talents, but a poodle or a mutt or any other breed can be a fantastic candidate for nose work. In fact, if you head to the main page of the National Association of Canine Scent Work’s webpage, you will see pictures of many different breeds. Just like agility, nose work is an all-inclusive activity.
2. Nose Work Is Awesome Exercise
While your dog’s daily walk is a great form of exercise, activities such as nose work and dog agility are even better because they exercise the entire body and utilize instinctive behaviors. Before domestication, a dog’s sense of smell could help them find food and identify predators and other dangers. Later, the sense of smell was used to help humans with hunting and farming as well as helping with search and rescue operations. Today, that sense of smell also can be used as a good source of fun and exercise, as your dog scampers about searching for a specific scent. Best of all, it is exercise that you can do easily indoors or outdoors, so it’s the perfect indoor activity for a rainy day or perhaps a very hot day when going outside isn’t a great option.
3. Specific Scents Are Used
A working dog that assists the police with search and rescue operations will sniff the scent off a piece of clothing or another item and search for that scent. These well-trained dogs are able to stay focused on a scent as soon as they are introduced to that scent. With nose work for dogs, you won’t be training with a ton of different scents. Typically, just three or four “target odors” will be used. These usually include clove, anise and birch, although other scents may be used.
4. Nose Work Canisters Are A Must
When you first get started with nose work for dogs, it is recommended that you use nose work canisters. The scents or target odors are purchased in vials and these are basically oil with the scent of clove or birch or another scent added to the oil. A drop or two of oil is placed on a cotton ball or swab and then placed in the canister. This ensures that your dog will not accidentally ingest the swab when they discover its hiding place. It also keeps any of the oil from getting on furniture or other items. After all, you might hide the canister anywhere, from under a basket to inside a box or under a pile of pillows and while you only use a dash of oil, the canister will keep the oil secure. But, again, you use just a tiny amount of scented oil, so mess is rarely an issue with nose work for dogs.
5. Start Slowly With Just One Scent
To get started, you might begin with a set of three canisters. Simply add a swab to one canister and keep the other two canisters someplace else. Your naturally curious pooch probably will head over to the first canister and investigate, taking in a sniff or two of the target odor. Provide a reward when your dog exhibits this behavior. You want your dog to associate finding this odor with something positive. Once your dog has spent some time with this scent, you might hide the canister in a small box that will be easy to open. You actually can “hide” the canister in plain view of your dog. You can have one family member or friend hold your dog or keep them on a leash while you hide the scent. Then release the dog and ask him to find the scent. When the dog opens the box and finds the canister, provide a reward. Alternatively, you can have several boxes out to see if you dog can distinguish between the boxes with and without the scent inside. Eventually, you will want to hide the canister when your dog cannot see where you have hidden the scent. You might place the dog in another room, and then lead him or her into the room once the canister is hidden. Then give the command to search and your dog will hunt around looking for the canister. You can make this easy at first and then add progressively more difficult hiding spots as your dog improves.
6. Start Your Training Indoors
During competitions, your dog will be finding scents in a variety of indoor and outdoor locations. However, when you first begin, it is best to hide scents inside. Outside, there are so many interesting smells that can distract a dog, and it’s simply easier to start indoors where scents are less varied and more familiar. If you decide to move into competitions, then you will need to train with several different scents and in several different scenarios. These four scenarios include interior searches, exterior searches, container searches and vehicle searches. By the time a dog is ready for competition, he or she should be able to identify several scents and be able to handle searching in these four areas. As stated before, start with interior searches and container searches (which can be handled indoors as first) before you move on to vehicle and exterior searches.
7. Nose Work & Obedience Do Not Go Hand In Hand
One of the perks of nose work for dogs is that a dog doesn’t need to be especially well-trained in order to be successful. If you dog isn’t always perfectly behaved or the world’s best obedience dog, that’s perfectly fine. Invest in a back-clipping harness and a sturdy leash for use during your nose work training. Dogs will tug and pull on the leash as they search for items, and while this isn’t proper behavior for your daily walks, it is proper for a search. During nose work, we are letting a dog’s natural instinctive behavior take over and obedience commands and proper walking don’t have to be a part of this process.
Nose work can be a ton of fun for dogs, and is an ideal form of exercise for dogs that might not otherwise be able to jump over hurdles or handle the physical skills needed for an agility course. If you want to get started with nose work for dogs, we offer an assortment of nose work containers on our website, and these containers also include a handy training guide to get you started. We have a set of three canisters, as well as a larger set that also includes a handy wooden storage platform where you can place each canister.
Brad Carlson enjoys dog agility training. To find agility equipment or to find more about training equipment for dog agility equipment, please check out the Carlson-Agility.com website, or if you have any questions, send us an email today.
