Sport Scent Detection Classes

It's about having fun doing something that already comes natural to your dog without the pressure of "performing". This Scent Detection Class level focuses on developing your dog's natural scenting ability through "the hunt" and developing the dog owner's ability to read the signals of their dog. This is important because at some point the instructor will hide the scent without your knowledge your job is to announce when your dog has found the hide. We almost always start off with the scent Wintergreen teaching you how to encourage and develop your dog's natural scenting abilities by using their desire to hunt and their love of food and toys for their reward. In the Introduction to Scenting classes we'll lay our foundation by teaching your dog to use its nose to find the Wintergreen scent by pairing it together with food, and we will teach them an indication so they can let you know that they have found the scent. We are going to vary the difficulty as well. Of course the searches will be easy at first but they will soon change to more challenging flop locations, hidden under a chair or a carpet, the elevation may even be hiding in a crack or crevice. You never know where it will turn up.

Prerequisite: Beginner Scent Detection. In this level we introduce a second scent (Pine) along with the scent Wintergreen that your dog has already been searching for. Once found we shower the dog with whatever most catches its fancy, treats or a tug of war or some hugs. We're also going to start moving towards a passive alert which means the dog won't make physical contact with the scent but will notify its owner by sitting staring with its nose. By the end of this level the dog owners are going to be challenged a little themselves as they will often be unaware of where the scent is hidden and become responsible for saying, "Alert!" to notify me the search has concluded.

Always moving to the next level with far more challenges and difficulties of the hides and the distractions provided by different environments. We will also begin adding a third unique scent to your dog's repertoire.