ScentWork
Our dogs sense of smell is far superior to ours, and is their strongest sense. Scentwork is an activity that takes that amazing sense of smell and uses it to find and indicate on specific scents.
If our dogs naturally sniff things, why would we need to train them, you might wonder. Scentwork as an activity is so helpful for many things -
- To give an outlet to a sniffy dog, so they are less likely to sniff when it's not appropriate
- To calm an over excited dog down
- To give confidence to an anxious dog
- To help with reactivity to dogs or people in a low pressure way
- To give an old or injured dog an activity to do
- To use as a rainy day activity
- To bond with your dog over something they love to do
- For an owner and dog to compete together in trials
- For operational use - medical alerts, search and rescue, conservation, police work
Your dog will learn to search an area and identify a specific scent, before indicating on it to tell you where it is. They'll learn to ignore distractions while working and to work with you while still thinking for themselves. You'll learn to trust your dog, work as a team and to set searches ranging from quick in the house scent games to large scale operational style searches.
While I trial with Florrie and Finn, the joy of Scentwork is that it's something that can be done by any dog in any location. I'll never pressure you to compete, but if you do want to I'll give you a solid foundation and support you to be successful.
What's on?
Classes are currently running on a Wednesday, if you're interested in joining a class please get in touch as spaces are occasionally available.
121's are available throughout the week, and some evenings and weekends, at various locations in the TA area. These can be booked to teach you the skills to get your dog started, to provide your dog with a new activity, or to help with reactivity towards dogs or people.