Nose Work

[bradl]

Here's a sport that any dog can participate in: scent work.

 

I scarcely know anything about it, but several Cairn folk in the area have been taking their dogs to training and events so Peggy decided to give Echo (12) a try. In order to enter a actual trial later you have to first qualify at an Odor Recognition Test ("ORT") to demonstrate that dog and handler can identify the odor (in this case, birch).

 

Here's the simplest qualifying test. The dog and handler have three minutes to work out which box is hiding a q-tip fragment scented with birch. I think you will spot it long before Peggy calls it 

 

 

I also watched the prior dog -- an 8 month old Cairn --  and they identified the box in 8 seconds! Both Billy and Echo towed their owners to the box, but Billy's owner (an experienced handler)  felt confident to call it.  This was Peggy's very first test  and she was nervous about calling it too soon, so even though  Echo alerted very noticeably right way Peggy had her check all the boxes to see if any of the others interested  Echo more than the first box she alerted on. (In practice, Echo will occasionally fixate on an empty box before she ever even gets to the target box.)

 

Now that the basic qualification is met, Echo and Peggy can continue training and begin entering trials that require them to find multiple "hides" in very much more difficult locations - in various containers, various parts of a room, in, on, or around vehicles, etc. The complexity goes up and up and there are three different odor levels: birch, anise, and clove.

 

It's fun for the dog and lets their natural instincts pay off in treats. All dogs need a job, so get out there and find your dog a nose work class today!

[hheldorfer]

Very interesting!  Buffy would excel at this if one of the odors was chicken.

[Hillscreek]

Looks like a lot of fun. I hide things for Angus to find. 

[kjwarnold]

If we lived closer to an area that offered this, I'd have Packy do it. We play games like that in the house when the weather is bad and he's great at it and loves it. I'd have Kirby doing agility and obedience, and we'd be like those families that over-schedule their kids with all kind of activities. Only i would over-schedule my dogs! ;-)

[Sam I Am]

That looks like so much fun. I have a dog game where you hide the treat in certain cups. Rosie loves this and each time always goes to the cups first off that have a treat. She is a master at this. Jock not so much. His thoughts were I am sure why work for it when you get a treat given to you anyway !

[Autumn & Lola]

Sniffy sniffy looks like fun tim for a doggi! Sniiffff

[cairnsby3]

Someday I want to try this, and it's getting more and more popular. Right now the closest place to learn and train is St. Louis, a couple of hours for me, so haven't tried it yet, but the dogs sure like it.

[CarPer]

This is great! Sometimes I cut small pieces of ham and put them in the house or around. My cairn loves the "search" play... His tail explains everything .

[MaryellenK]

We just started this training for Jax and she loves it.  Only week 2 and she goes crazy when the boxes are out.  So much fun for the dogs and Cairn's are great at this.