Scentwork and Trailing

This is a 6 week foundation course for dogs that haven’t done any Scentwork.before. 

One this course you will learn:

How to correctly handle the scent without contamination 

How to teach your dogs the indication

How to teach your dogs to actively recognise the scent and choose it

How to pair the scent with the indication 

How to start small searches, leading to linear searches, wall searches, luggage searches, and car searches.

How to get a freeze on indication 

We use reward based training to make positive associations.  

This course is suitable for dogs and handlers of any age. Although people often think of working breeds such as Spaniels being sniffer dogs it can be enjoyed by all types and breeds. 

All the learning and searches are carried out on a long lead  (a double ended lead is perfect) so no need to worry about recall. 

Dogs learn about the environment by using their noses and this is a fantastic way to tap into that natural skill and tire your dogs out. 

Once you have completed the foundation course you will then have the opportunity to continue to the next level as there is far more to learn.  

You will receive a small scent kit so you can practice at home. 

This is a 6 week foundation course for dogs who haven't done any Mantrailing before. 

On the first lesson  I will go over how your dogs nose works, how incredible it is and how we start to pair using their nose to searching for a specific scent. 

 Using reward based training, we will start by teaching  the dogs how to search , gradually building it up  by layering the trails. By doing this we create confidence in both the dog and the handler. Once you have mastered linear( straight line )  searches we start to add in turns. 

Once we have linear searches with turns being done with accuracy and confidence,  we build in  longer and more complex searches, using different terrain and eventually I will go into a deep hides this makes it harder for your dog to find me so they will use their nose more to search me out . I also teach crowd searches, utilising crowds (with their permission)  and walking searches. Walking searches could involve someone who has dementia or a head injury and is just wandering.  For these we teach an indication. All of the searching is done at walking pace.although the dogs will often speed up as they get near to finding me, which is a natural thing to do. 

If possible I do like to go to more than one area so the dogs can practice in different scenarios once they have learned the basics.  This also allows us to work on different terrain. 

I limit these classes to just 4 spaces. to allow for plenty of searches. 

PLEASE LOOK AT THE WORKSHOPS PAGE AS THESE ARE NOW RUN AS WORKSHOPS ONLY DUE TO CARER COMMITMENTS