Starting Nosework - Page 1

Yesterday, I found out the trainer I'm working with has been teaching a nosework course. She asked me if I'd like to try Gracie with some nosework, as she has shown a lot of hunt drive. Put her in a strange place, and EVERYTHING has to be sniffed. If there is a crumb of food caught under the rubber matting in the training area, she'll find it, and won't give up until she's found a way of getting it out and scarfing it down.

We started her with a spearmint scent. Every time she sniffed the container containing a swab dipped in the scent, she'd get a treat. Then, she progressed to indicating the scent when it was inside a box. Once she had that down pat, we added 2 more boxes.

At the end of a 20 minute session, she was reliably picking out the correct box 99% of the time.

We decided to wrap things up at that point. My trainer took some spearmint gum out of her packsack, and stuck a piece in her mouth to chew. When she put the gum container back on the table, Gracie ALERTED TO THE SCENT OF THE GUM!

I was like, "Wait, did I just see what I thought I saw?"

I asked the trainer to put the gum into one of the 3 boxes. Sure enough, Gracie alerted to the scent!

Damn. Anyone know a narcotic squad that needs a new member?    This dog has TALENT!!

What I liked the most was the way Gracie was totally relaxed and wagging her tail throughout most of the training session. She has aggression issues, and get keyed up really fast when she's around other dogs.

Too bad someone didn't start her on this when she was young enough to be accepted into a formal training program. :(

How old is she now? This sounds awesome!

She's a rescue, so I really don't know. She has an ear tatt, but it is untraceable. Best guess is 5 or 6, as she has some gray on her muzzle. Very high energy dog, though!

I adopted her through the 'Rescue' forum on this site.

I'm interested in trying nose work also, keep us informed of how things are going. Sounds like fun.
Glad she found something fun to do.
Fry

Yeah, and something I can work on INDOORS during this horrible, brutal winter weather! 

Go Gracie; great job.

I also got hooked on Nosework last winter as something to do indoors.  We did a birch ORT and a NW1 (failed 1 of the 4 exercises, but I was not expecting to title since only 4 of more than 35 dogs that day titled, I had been sick with Shingles so not training, and my dog had only been doing Nosework for 6 months). It's fun and addicting! You have to put a lot of time into it if you want to seriously title, it takes some serious proofing!