Private Nose Work Lesson: Introduction to Birch

On Tuesday afternoon, we had our first private nose work lesson. While class was fun, it was really nice to have 30 minutes of undivided attention from the instructor all devoted to finds for Pongo.   Nose work uses Q-tips cut in half and dipped in essential oil, in our case, birch.  Our instructor put a Q-tip  in a flat tin container with holes in the top so that the scent comes through and placed it in a box.  Since Pongo has been working to find food treats so far, she placed one of his treats on the tin container so he would have an immediate reward.  Pongo worked the line of boxes, sniffing each one.  When he discovered the tin with the treat, I immediately rewarded him with additional treats on the tin.  The idea is to reward him, but also to teach him to "stick" the find so that he stays with it. This will become important later when we attempt begin competition. 

Pongo is a quick learner!  It is amazing to watch him use his natural abilities.  Once, when he walked past the box with the hidden scent, his nose went up in the air - sniff, sniff, sniff - he turned around and followed his nose.  Found it!  What a good boy!  After several hides in the boxes, our instructor took the tin and had Pongo find it in an office, varying the height of the container.  Hides above his nose are the hardest for him.  Pongo has done years of obedience training and was taught not to jump up or put his paws on furniture, with one exception.  In 2002, I taught him "paws up" on the armrest of a wheelchair when I used to provide respite care for a child with cerebral palsy.  Now, we will have to work on reteaching him that he when he's searching, he can put his paws up on anything.

Pongo's instructor sent us home with a jar of birch-scented Q-tips to practice with.  Our assignment is to alternate pairing the scent with food and without, and to practice elevated hides. 

Here are our nose work tools at home.  Since I don't have an official nose work kit, I made my own container by cutting out a hole in the lid of a small plastic container.  The tweezers are to handle the Q-tips so that you don't contaminate them with your own scent. 

We bought a harness this week for his scent work.  Now everytime we practice, he wears the harness so he will associate it with nose work.  Here's Pongo in sporty orange!

So far this week, we've only been practicing in the house.  Here are some of the boxes we use for nose work.  We have only worked in two rooms so far - the living room and the dining room.  We have also worked outside on the back deck. 

So far we are improvising and being resourceful trying to use items we already have at home for our nose work.  However, products can be purchased online at the link below.

                                                    http://www.allgooddogs.biz/products

Happy searching!