Nose Power - Page 1

I thought this was cool.  a couple of weeks ago I found that my bitch had managed to skin a wayward baseball that she had found.  I did not want her to swallow parts of the inner core that were breaking off so I took the ball and while she was not looking I hid it in the fork of a tree about six feet off the ground.  I distracted her and we went on our merry way.  yesterday we were back in that area again for the first time in about two weeks.  she did not see me hide the ball earlier and I did not even remember it was there.  she was standing about 12-15 feet away from the tree when the wind suddenly shifted directly toward her position from the tree.  she immediately turned her head and began sniffing the air.  she very methodically followed the air trail directly to the tree and located the ball.  maybe I am just easily impressed.

with a nose like that, get your dog into tracking! SAR dogs are always usefull. 

"SAR dogs are always usefull."

A 20 year veteran of SAR rescue said to me the other day, SAR dogs are usually useless.  If you're serious about training, and have a good relationship with your dog, I'd imagine he could be wrong, but that was his experience.  Don't do it as a "hobby" on the side.

     maybe we could SAR wayward baseballs.  I will just have to teach her to leave the skin on.

We play that game with our dogs all the time. My husband or I will distract and call them away and the other will hide the kong or ball; inside a tree stump, dug into a little hole in the ground, you name it. Then tell them to "such". They are all very good at using their noses. Find the ball, get to chase the ball!