Nosework

In light of Summit's retirement from his very short agility career I thought we'd try something new and fun. Someone told me about "Nosework" and suggested we take a class. Well, no one around here is offering nosework classes, so I did a little bit of googling and found some basic DIY tips. I don't intend to try to title Summit, but he certainly is having fun!

What I'm doing is starting out by just throwing the treat on the floor in front of him and telling him to "find it". After he's got the idea I start putting the treat somewhere easy to find. I tell him to wait and then choose a location behind me. He often watches me and sees the general area that I place the treat. I then tell him to go and find it. After that I hide it a little bit better. By this point you can see that he really understands that he's supposed to look for the treat and is sniffing around for it. He doesn't have the greatest nose so I did switch from kibble to sausage. The idea is to eventually leave him in one room and hide the treat in another room or up on a table, under something, etc. You want to teach the dog that the item might not always be right in front of him. After he can do this you choose a non-edible item (but you may want to still scent it with food) and start all over from the beginning.