K9 Nose Fun

08/04/2025

Intro to Odour course graduation day. These 4 dogs did so well on their hunt for odour. Their humans continued learning about supporting and reading their dogs when on the hunt. Well done everyone 🎉♥️🐾

06/04/2025

A Search & Rescue chat to listen to.

04/04/2025

Training level and personality affect border collies’ olfactory performance in the Natural Detection Task

04/04/2025

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-04-05/rat-earns-world-record-for-sniffing-landmines-in-cambodia/105140794?utm_campaign=abc_news_web&utm_content=link&utm_medium=content_shared&utm_source=abc_news_web

Landmine-hunting rat Ronin has set a new world record by sniffing out more than 100 mines.

31/03/2025

Arwen having a rest on the couch after class last night. Her human said "someone has been snoozing on the couch all evening..."
She did work very hard in class ♥️💤

27/03/2025

Oh! Check out K9 Connect’s Enrichment Playspace🧡

26/03/2025

More Sniffer/Taster dates with K9 Connect coming up

Have you always wanted to try something new with your dog?

Angela from K9 Nose Fun is back at K9 Connect!!

We have some extra dates coming up soon for some Noseworks Tasters!

Be sure to book in as there are only a handful of spots left.

https://k9-connect.dogbizpro.com/public/registration/index.aspx?cls=21

26/03/2025

DOG REFUSE TREATS AT TIMES?

😣 If you are trying to work with your dog there are a few things that can indicate your dog is what we call "over threshold" - in which your dog's stress levels are too high to properly learn, listen or think properly.
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‼️ Thresholds are important in training because they can make or break your success.
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There are several indicators that your dog is stressed. (Not an exhaustive list!)
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1️⃣ Refusing food

2️⃣ Spitting out food

3️⃣ Barking/lunging

4️⃣ Appearing to "not listen"

5️⃣ Heavy panting

6️⃣ Scratching (as if itchy)

7️⃣ Full shake off (like a wet dog does)

8️⃣ Freezes or won't move

⏱ If your dog frequently goes over threshold or is stressed and you aren't sure what to do, or if what you're doing isn't working, it's time to start a behavior modification program to get it under control!

🦸🏼 Get in touch with the proper professional for optimal results.

📸 The attached handout/image (click to enlarge) is from Grisha Stewart's BAT protocol (Behavior Adjustment Training) and shows stress on a very lovely illustrated, easy-to-understand scale. Illustrated by Doggie Drawings by Lili Chin
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Stacy Greer, CPDT-KA

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COPYRIGHT NOTICE
© 2025 Stacy Greer
All rights reserved. Feel free to share via the “Share” link to the original post. Downloading for redistribution online or in print form is strictly prohibited.

25/03/2025

Our Advanced students are often asked to bring interesting items to use in the search area during class. These items could be used as distractors, or to suit a theme, or just to brighten up the search areas. Or to at least make it more interesting for dogs and humans. The themes so far this year include Luna New Year,🐍Valentine's Day ♥️, Mardi Gras 📿, St Patrick's Day ☘️, and Formula 1 GP 🏁

24/03/2025

Congratulations to Kelly's young Phoenix. 4th Place in Novice Containers at a recent trial. Yay! 🥳♥️

20/03/2025

Nose work can be for therapy, or for sport, or just for FUN and enrichment.

It is the most FUN for nearly all dogs, but they certainly don’t play the game to win ribbons. Not all dogs are suited for the rigours and tensions of competing either.

Some humans, however, just can’t resist competing to win a bit of bling from time to time.

This Album celebrates the K9 Nose Fun students and graduates who enjoy a little competition, and whose dogs are happy to join them for some FUN.

Congratulations and thank you to those who have shared their photos, so far. Many more to come.

20/03/2025

Congratulations to Tammy Beattie and Micah. 2nd place in Adv Containers. Out of Advanced, and now into Excellent 🎉♥️

20/03/2025

A bit of history for you

19/03/2025

Trust your dog! Easy to say, but a lot of work may go into building that reliability. Trust your training....

"Trust Your Dog"... probably one of the most often used phrases by handlers and trainers... but WHAT does it mean?

Words matter, just like the criteria that we set for our dogs. Clarity in criteria means that our dogs are more likely to exhibit high performance in whatever we ask them to do. The need to have clear criteria is something that most of us can agree on. The trouble with words though is when we communicate to each other, what we say might not be all that clear or specific AND words can evoke emotion.

"Trust Your Dog" is one of those phrases that is both non-specific AND evokes emotion. Let's talk about the emotion part of it first. It is a phrase at the outset that makes you think "well of COURSE I need to trust my dog." It is a phrase that you can't help not getting behind. There is judgement there because if you don't agree with it, then you clearly have some conflict with your dog or massive training issue, right? Or... what I I am not sure??? That seems kind of an emotionally coercive doesn't it? Then there is the clarity part... what do we MEAN by "Trust Your Dog". And when we DO "Trust our Dog" and we fail, without knowing WHY, how does that set us up for success later? And who gets blamed? (HINT: Usually the dog.)

When taken at face value "Trust Your Dog" is actually a phrase that can run the gamut between trusting your dog blindly no matter how poorly you have prepared and trained them to trusting your dog to leverage all of the high quality training you've given them on top of an enormous amount of generalization and positive exposure. Both ends of the spectrum are BOTH "trusting the dog", right?

This is actually why this phrase triggers a knee jerk reaction in me... please be more specific! And... This phrase is usually given in the course of one handler or trainer giving another advice. Unfortunately it's usually because the receiver actually NEEDS help. And equally unfortunately, this phrase is altogether unhelpful.

If we are to be more specific, we first have to answer the following questions:

1. Does my dog understand their job?

2. Have I been clear with my criteria and delivered reinforcement in a way that will help my dog to do their job correctly?

3. Have I taken the time or can I understand the scenting conditions and air movement that my dog is working in?

4. Can I tell what my dog is communicating through their response (or lack of) to odor?

5. Is my dog capable of doing the job at this moment, in this location, and under these circumstances?

6. Do I have confidence in myself and in my own training and understanding of the situation?

7. And FINALLY.... do I BELIEVE what my dog is telling me?

You see.... in order to Trust Your Dog.... you must FIRST Trust Your Training. And if the answer to any of these questions is "No", then "Trust Your Dog" is a completely unfair statement because if you are wrong, the dog takes the blame.

That said... most of the time when Trust Your Dog is given as advice, it's usually being done in a well meaning way. But before you start feeling icky and all emotionally coerced or before you start to get even more confused because you don't really know WHY that statement isn't helping you... ask yourself about your training. And then ask the person giving the advice to be more specific. Take a moment to explore and dig a little deeper to understand WHY you are struggling. It is only when we dig deeper that we can improve.

This post is dedicated to the dog who has pushed me HARD in my most recent (and current) journey... where the answers to all six of these questions have made me dig deep and grow more as a trainer than I have in the past. And as we grow together as a team... K9 Prize and me... I continue to explore these questions and learn.

17/03/2025

Congratulations to Team Douglas who recently graduated from the Intro course 🎉🤩🐾
Dougie's human said "Thank you for such a fantastic course. It is a great introduction to nosework and a wonderful way to get to know your dog better - all wrapped up in a fun game! ....."
Thank you! It was FUN!

15/03/2025

First of the graduation photos for this little group. Congratulations to Team Dory who graduated from the Introduction to K9 Nose Work course on Thursday 🎉🤩🐾
Dory's human said "Thanks a lot for the course. We truly enjoyed it : D"
Thank you! It was a pleasure watching the dogs and humans learning and developing over the course

14/03/2025

Just putting this here so that I can find it later :-)
Canine Olfaction: Physiology, Behavior, and Possibilities for Practical Applications

Dogs have an extraordinary olfactory capability, which far exceeds that of humans. Dogs’ sense of smell seems to be the main sense, allowing them to not only gather both current and historical information about their surrounding environment, but ...

13/03/2025

Sniffing for Fun: Evaluating the effect of olfactory enrichment on cats’ toy preference and interaction