Sniffing Out the Secret to Success
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By Sandy Weaver
As I volunteered at a scent work trial recently, I watched some really great teams compete, and saw some really poor teams compete. While watching, I realized that the difference between the great teams and the poor teams in scent work was the same as the difference between a good professional handler team and an average (or worse) owner-handler team in conformation.
The good news is that everyone can look great in the show ring. And the bad news is that most mediocre pros and average (or worse) owner-handlers won’t do what’s necessary in order to enhance their performance and likelihood of winning.
Have you been to a scent work trial? Owners and their dogs team up, with the dog being the one charged with finding the target odor and their owner being the one charged with telling the judge that their dog has found the odor. Sounds pretty simple, right? It’s a little tougher than it sounds – the dog has to be trained to be excited to find an odor, to somehow signal the find in order to alert the owner, and to want to play this silly game with their human. Full disclosure – I haven’t competed in this arena yet, though my dogs do have barn hunt titles and are headed to scent work next. I love dog sports and love having other venues to play in when a dog retires from conformation.
Here are just a few of the bobbles I witnessed as the trial unfolded:
1. Novice Interior – a setup of two folding chairs, a ground cloth, a picnic hamper and a wine bottle in a cooler set on the ground. The wine cooler was where the scent was hidden, and it was centered under the peak of the 10 x 10, 3-sided tent. Every dog went straight to the wine cooler and most gave their owner their version of a signal indicating a find. Almost every owner made their dog search the entire area. Several pulled their dog off the scent two or three times before trusting that it really was in the wine cooler.
2. Novice Buried – in this class, identical sand-filled containers were set up in rows. Buried in one of the containers was a Q-tip with the odor on it. Most of the dogs went to the target scent fairly quickly and, again, most of the handlers pulled their dog off the scent and made them search more before trusting the find.
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Short URL: http://caninechronicle.com/?p=177798
Posted by AnthonyA
on Mar 7 2021. Filed under Current Articles, Featured.
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