Overview

At the beginning levels of training, dogs are encouraged to “find” treats in a box. Lavish praise, eating the treats in the box, and more treats from you reward the dog for his efforts. Later, the treat is hidden in a box among other empty boxes, and your dog is rewarded for finding the box that conceals his goodie. You can use a toy instead of treats; however, treats are much more commonly used due to the speed at which each reward can be delivered so that you can move on to the next search. However, with practice, you can use a toy if your dog has been trained to release the toy and quickly get back to work.

Once the dog gets hooked on the game of “find it” for treats in the box, an essential oil such as birch, anise, clove, cypress, and others is used. A minuscule amount of one of these essential oils is placed on a very small cotton swab and placed in the box with the treats. This is the stage called “pairing” food with odor. The dog learns that the treats comes in packages with this new, distinct scent. Gradually, dogs learn to find the scent all by itself in a container and are rewarded by the handler for finding the scent. This essential oil is then placed in more and more challenging locations for your dog to find.

As dogs learn to play the game, handlers learn how to closely observe their dogs so they know when their dog has found the scent. This “indication” or “alert” behavior is an important part of the communication process between dog and handler since handlers will use their individual dog’s unique behavior to know when to start rewarding their dog for “indicating” their find.

The difficulty of the game increases as the odors are hidden out in the real world where the air moves in different ways and, in vehicle searches, in the wheel wells, bumpers, and doors of parked cars and trucks.

Stages of Training

Your Dog’s Introduction to Nose Work

DogPACT’s NACSW-Certified Nose Work Instructor tailors your dog’s learning progression based on building solid foundation skills before introducing more challenging scenarios. At this foundation stage, focus is on building enthusiasm in dogs for finding their toy or treats, hidden in an obvious place such as a cardboard box. A lot of praise and generous rewards are used to encourage your dog to continue to use his nose to find the treasure. At first, there are just a few containers used, and your dog uses her nose to discriminate between boxes without treats and the one with the prized treat/toy. As learning progresses, the number of the containers increases, as well as their location. It is during the introductory foundation stage that dogs develop the keen desire to hunt.

Introducing Your Dog to Odor

The essential oil of birch is introduced by “pairing” this odor with the treat/toy hidden in a container. Pairing is continued until treats are reduced or eliminated, and the dog is eagerly hunting for the odor alone. The difficulty of the “hides” is increased by changing the location of the containers as well as placing the odor in indoor (“interior”) and outdoor (“exterior”) locations without using containers. The challenges increase, but so does the fun!

Adding More Odors to the Searches

Continuing classes leverage the dog’s understanding of using his nose to find additional odors of anise and clove. At the beginning, the target scents are in easy-to-find locations and as skills develop, they are hidden in more difficult locations with progression in subsequent sessions to strategies and skills needed to find target odors in four different “elements” (interiors, containers, exteriors, and vehicles).

Instruction is tailored to the needs of students. The desire to hunt always trumps the human desire to make things more difficult too soon!

Advancing Your Dog’s Skills

Advanced skills include hides of two or three target odors, and the difficulty of the hides increases. The odor may not be directly accessible, and handlers are taught how to “read” their dogs, watching for their dog’s “alert” or “indication” to where the source of the odor is even if they can’t reach it! Handlers learn how variable environmental factors (such as the weather, converging odors, and distractions) contribute to the dog’s ability to indicate the actual “source” of the odor, and to eliminate “false alerts” when the dog thinks they might have found it, but aren’t quite sure. This skill level prepares those who want to compete in the sport for the challenges of competition.