The Newest Canine Sport – AKC Scent Work

BY WILLIAM GIVEN

For millenia, man has watched the dog and marveled at his ability to identify and fol- low a scent. Before we even had a spoken language, Neolithic hunters followed wild dogs in search of game, and today the dog’s nose is proving to be even more accurate than MRI and CT scans. For decades, veterinary research biologists have studied the dogs’ ability to locate and identify specific scents. Additionally, there is mounting scientific evidence that supports the premise that the dog’s sense of smell tells him as much about his environment and what is going on in it, as our eyes tell us.

Working scent detection dogs are intensely trained to search for a variety of things including illegal substances and explosive devices. Instead of searching for bombs or drugs, the AKC Scent Work program allows dogs to use their incredible sense of smell to find the scent of four es- sential oils.

Dogs possess more than 220 million olfactory receptors, humans have about five million. That makes a dog’s sense of smell nearly one thousand times more sensitive than ours. When a dog does not immediately recognize a scent, he will begin a series of rapid inhalations. And, as the ex- halations exit through the slits on the side of the dog’s nose, the scent is not breathed out. Instead, the scent mol- ecules are forced into a pocket in the dog’s nose where the unrecognized scent modicum accumulates and can be dis- tinguished. This allows the dog to identify a particular scent. Some breeds have proven they possess noticeably stronger scent discrimination abilities than others, but even breeds like the Pug and the Pekingese can prove to be highly successful at AKC Scent work.

I would like to take this opportunity to share with you the American Kennel Club’s hottest new canine sport, AKC Scent Work. If you are looking for a canine sport that uses the dog’s most powerful sense and is easy to train for, then the new sport of scent work may be for you. The official launch date for AKC Scent Work trials is October 1, 2017, mark it on your calendar.

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Posted by Alex on Aug 24 2017. Filed under Current Articles, Featured. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.