Mustard & Pepper Summer 2024

The Nose Knows! by Michael G. Vreeland DogDad of Loki AKC: Day O Joy’s Global Citizen RN FDC FCAT SWN CGCA CGCU TKI VSWB FITG UKC: NN AN Global Citizen N ose work, scent work, canine scent sports – all names to what Loki and I affectionately call the “smelly games.” When I say that phrase, he gets as excited to work, as he is when he’s waiting on line for his turn at FastCAT. Canine nose work is based on the principles well known to working detection dogs. Brief History of Scent Work For all the noise that this new sport is getting, Nose Work is a newer addition in the canine sports world. For example, Agility started in 1994 for AKC. Yet AKC only added FastCAT in 2016 and Scent work titles in 2017. In the early 2000s, people wanted to take the concepts of scent detection and makes it accessible to dogs that may not qualify as working detection dogs. Ideas began to be formulated and tested by a group of individuals in 2005 and then the first mock trial competition was held in 2008. The National Association of Canine Scent Work [NACSW] held their first trail in 2009 [as NCSWA] [12]. And the sport was born! United Kennel Club was next to step up. UKC issued titles under “United Nosework” during a two-year trial before officially adopting the program in 2014 [5]. United States Canine Scent Sports was founded in March 2016 and they even added “game classes” to their trials. You can title in classes such as Pairs Challenge, Go the Distances, and Heap O Hides. AKC was actually the late-comer. The first-ever AKC Scent Work trials, were held on September 14-17, 2017 [2; 3], after announcing the

sport in 2017. That was not even seven years ago! The AKC Scent Work® Detective title, considered the pinnacle of success in AKC Scent Work, went unclaimed until July 14, 2019. [4] How Did Team Loki Get Started? By the time this is published, Loki – our Dandie Dinmont Terrier – will be four years old . . . and a year and a half into our nosework journey. So how did we make the decision to start playing around with Loki’s nose? During Rally trials, many of which were in rodeo arenas or the like, Loki always seemed to be more interested in what was in the dirt than anything else. It just so happens that spring of 2022, we had also started to run FastCAT to work on Loki’s recall. We spoke with a lady at one of the FastCAT trials and she suggested that maybe we should get Loki into nosework. Plus, she mentioned a local trainer. So, I began seriously exploring this sport that fall. What intrigued me was how many dogs of any age were having fun with this activity. Unlike FastCAT, it was something Team Loki could enjoy for a long time. In fact, some recent researchers are equating this to bridge or chess for senior humans – as it keeps their mind engaged. For senior dogs, scent work is a low-impact sport that helps them use an innate skill to stimulate their mind. Instead of just blindly exploring, it’s guiding their sniffing to solve a puzzle. Unlike other sports, there are fewer limitations; which I will go into later. During my research, I stumbled on the AKC Virtual Scent Work Test [11]. Originally created during COVID, for an at- home activity, as of August 1, 2022, the AKC Virtual Scent Work Test [VSWT] became a permanent program [1]. It is separate program from the more formal AKC Scent Work. For VSWT, you have your dog “in a blind,” while you hide a treat or toy in the next room. On command, you direct them to “search” or “find it”. They have 90 seconds at the novice level to find the one item. You submit two separate videos of two different searches for an AKC VSWT judge to review. So, we submitted some “video trials,” in December 2022, for the AKC Virtual Scent Work title. Loki earned the VSWB title. The AKC virtual scent work program might be a good option for some dogs to start with because you only have to be four months old and it’s designed for home testing. We used it to see where Loki’s interest was before we decided to start on formal scent work / nosework classes. Loki liked “playing the game” so much that we began formal Scent Work training in February 2023. During his first eight weeks of introduction classes, a lot of the emphasis is understanding odor and teaching the dog how to detect it. We used simple items like a tin can with holes in the lid [into which we placed a Q-tip with scent odor on it]; or a glove with our scent on it [the latter being called Handler Discrimination]. The items would be held in our hand initially and the dog would get rewarded for putting their nose to it. Slowly we would try to increase the duration of the nose hold before paying the reward. Patience is key. Eventually we would place the tin on the ground and then mix it in with blank tins. The glove would go in a carboard box and we would ask him to “find dad” or “find mom.” Before long we were hiding odor in boxes or other containers, as well as placing the odor in rooms filled with toys or other things. We would ask Loki to “search” and the “smelly games” were on!

Mustard & Pepper

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Summer 2024