Scent Work Classes

Classes will focus on teaching and encouraging the development of your dog’s natural scenting abilities. Scent work activities help your dog build confidence, burn both mental and physical energy, and help handlers learn about their dogs’ scenting abilities. As your dog advances through the Scent Work classes they will be introduced to new scenarios in indoor and outdoor environments to challenge and refine both the dog and handler's abilities to locate numerous articles that are hidden or buried.

WHAT IS REQUIRED TO ATTEND?

Dogs must be at least 6 months old to participate.

2 sets of the DHLPP vaccine ("puppy vaccine") prior to starting class. Rabies vaccination is required. A titer is sufficient for vaccination status.

NOTE:  Dogs must be attentive to their handler, have an excellent recall, work well around others and tolerate being crated for certain portions of the class. (Handlers should expect to crate their dogs when not working in the ring). 

EQUIPMENT NEEDED: 

• A nonrestrictive collar or harness (prong collars, head collars, or e-collars will not be permitted).

• A 6 foot leash (no retractable leashes). 

• Dogs may not wear their tags while in the search ring. 

• All attachments to leashes (poop bags, flashlights etc.) must be removed before class.

• Bring high value treats.

• Clickers are encouraged but not necessary.

• Your instructor will forward additional information before the night of the first class.

Introduction to Scent Work

This class is for those dogs who are new to scent work, and will cover the basic principles of Scent Detection necessary for the dog and handler team to be successful. The class will introduce skills such as odor preparation, search drive, odor obedience, and indication. The primary focus of this class is to establish odor recognition, clear indication, and search behavior. The skills learned in this class will help create a strong foundation to build upon. Bring lots of treats or a favorite toy. Dogs not working are required to be crated.

Scent Novice (Competition)

This class is for students who have completed Introduction To Scent Work or by Instructor approval, and are ready to apply those skills to learning the basic exercises of element searching. Dogs must understand odor recognition and indication, and have established basic fluency in searching. They will be introduced to the search elements in Scent Work - interiors, exteriors, buried, containers, and vehicles and handler discrimination.

Scent Intermediate (Competition)

This class is for those students who have completed the Novice Scent Class or with Instructor approval. Dogs will continue to work on the elements in scent work, increasing the search area, the number of hides, and adding elevation. Searches may include containers, interior, exterior, buried, and vehicle. Instruction will also include converging odors, distance work, distractions and scent theory. 

Scent Advanced (Competition)

This class is for those students who have completed the Intermediate Class or with Instructor approval. There will be continued work the elements with searches of longer duration and difficulty. Dogs will learn to deal with multiple hides, increased elevation, inaccessible hides, and blank searches. This class may be off site to expose the dogs to a variety of search areas.

These classes may be combined depending on participation.