NEW: January 2021
Building Confidence and Joy...
Beckett was not sure he really liked nose work. Herding, hikes with running perhaps seemed to a young dog to be way more fun. Then COVID came and we stopped herding and started incorporating other things into our daily training fun. Beckett adores my good friend, Stacy, that I train scent work with -- she always has something special from him after her search. Our Sunday's of nose work starting with a free and independent search on the tennis courts seems to have built not only his confidence but joy with the sport.
While at a herding trial a friend told me about how she and her Border Collie were enjoying nose work and how popular this has become in many parts of the country. I knew that Fenzi Dog Sports Academy had offered courses in nose work and decided to look into a course. I thought this would perhaps be perfect for my older dog Kaffee who is 11 1/2 to have an opportunity to keep learning and to keep his mind sharp as well as having something to train inside during our very warm afternoons, especially in the summer. Plus I am always looking for new opportunities to train something new and learn how to be a better dog trainer.
Fenzi Dog Sports Academy offers many excellent online courses for competitive dog sports. Visit their web site to learn more and see an example of an online course: http://fenzidogsportsacademy.com/index.php/about-us
Courses are offered every 6 weeks and begin every 2 months. Students can participate in different levels for different pricing. Gold students submit videos and receive excellent feedback on their work and progress within 24 hours. Silver level students see not only the work and feedback of the gold students but can also ask questions in the interactive forums. Bronze students can view the lectures, forums and all the students' videos with feedback.
I started the Introduction to Nose Work class as a silver student where I could ask questions this spring with one of the best instructors I have had online - Stacy Barnett. Stacy uses operant conditioning methods for training the dogs. I like to consider myself an operant conditioning trainer but always look for opportunities to practice positive training methods. I learned so much from Stacy with her excellent course materials with easy to follow step-by-step instructions, her short videos to show what she was teaching and her POSITIVE, ENCOURAGING and HELPFUL feedback on my videos. All of Stacy's lessons are so well designed and integrate her training philosophy of positive reinforcement and operant conditioning.
Perhaps the best part was watching how HAPPY AND EXCITED both of my Border Collies, Kaffee and Myst, were when we did the exercises and games. Kaffee would often jump in the air and bark he was so excited and so happy with his searches and the big praise and rewards he received for finding his hides.
Just finished my second class with Stacy (NW 120) which I did as a gold student and submitted videos for feedback. This was perfect timing for doing a gold with videos. And, once again, Stacy's feedback was invaluable.
The next classes at Fenzi where there will be starting/introductory class in nose work will be August 1, October 1, December 1, 2016. Enrollment is usually a few weeks before the classes begin. SCHEDULE of classes: http://www.fenzidogsportsacademy.com/index.php/schedule-and-syllabus.
Below are a few of our videos.
Video 1: Nose Work Baseline Assessment shows where we were at at the conclusion of the Introduction to Nose Work class
Video 2: Nose Work Search in a Cluttered Room - Assignment from NW 120
Video 3: Small Familiar Exterior Search - Assignment NW 120
Video 4 & 5: Vehicle Search - NW 120
Video 6: Very cool hide for distractions in NW130. Sheep are Myst's favorite obsession. Decided to do hides at the ranch. Four days of rain so very wet; many dogs here; people walking around; sheep and geese near by. Dogs barking. Not sure how she would handle the wet grass where there had been a rally seminar and lots of treats dropped.
Video 7: This work is taken from Stacy Barnett's online "Introduction to Nosework" class. The dog is now introduced to finding the hide in more containers, understanding the job and committing to the source. Beckett is 6 months old and has been doing nosework for a few months building reinforcement to the source and enjoyment of the game of "search" or "find it."
Video 8: Challenging hides - elevations. Myst shows her nosework skills in Stacy Barnett's Nosework Challenges Series 1 class Sept. 2018
Watching this awesome animated video from a TED ED talk, "How Dogs See With Their Nose"
http://ed.ted.com/lessons/how-do-dogs-see-with-their-noses-alexandra-horowitz
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Myst has had 12 weeks or 2 classes in nose work from Stacy Barnett at Fenzi Online. Going into our 3rd class this is our self assessment. We chose exterior searches in novel (unfamiliar) places that became for complicated due to number of objects to be searched. Hides aged 5-15 minutes. Used all three of the scents individually in tin containers and a tube: birch, anise and clove.
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Using Nosework Skills to Teach Utility Scent Articles
After the basic nosework skills had been taught and Beckett learned how to find scent in containers, I used these nosework skills to teach the utility scent articles.. Below are a few of the videos. For more detailed information on teaching Utility Nose Work Skills go to our Obedience > Nosework page
Video: 1: Teaching Beckett to transfer his scent from the Birch to a SCENTED Utility Scent Article
Video 2: Moving the scented article to a container: 1 article and multiple containers
Video 3: Adding unscented articles to the containers and the 1 scented article. NOTE: all metal are done together; then all leather. They are not combined until the dog is very correct in finding the article scented.
Video 4: No containers; finding the scented article
Video: 1: Teaching Beckett to transfer his scent from the Birch to a SCENTED Utility Scent Article
Video 2: Moving the scented article to a container: 1 article and multiple containers
Video 3: Adding unscented articles to the containers and the 1 scented article. NOTE: all metal are done together; then all leather. They are not combined until the dog is very correct in finding the article scented.
Video 4: No containers; finding the scented article
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Myst and I had so much fun at our first AKC Scent Work trial on Saturday 12/15/18. We entered 4 Novice A events and Myst WON her buried hides class with 32 dogs finding the hide in the sand in am amazing 5 seconds. She also got a 5th place out of 41 dogs in interiors and 8th place in containers out of 38 dogs.
Puppy Nosework Fun
Some fun games I played with Beckett when he was a puppy.
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The LEARNING Journey Continues
Realizing that Beckett had not had a lot of time with scent work, other than his Utility articles, I decided to have him be my partner for a Fenzi online course called, "SCENT PUZZLES" ..... Myst is very experience and high drive, overly enthusiastic with everything she does. Beckett is a very different dog and is calmer and more focused in his work. He always enjoys teaming up with me but he does need to be MOTIVATED... I learned this watching his early videos in the the class.
What I was doing is putting on his nosework harness in the car and taking him out to a search only to find he was greatly distracted outside. See the comparison videos below. I am learning so much about how we have to always modify our training for the type of dog we have and never assume that what worked with one dog will work with another. This is an excellent example.
BUILDING MOTIVATION AND ENTHUSIASM AND BEGINNING INACCESSIBLE HIDES
My goal this week was to try to motivate Beckett to be more enthusiastic about his searches. I thought a lot about this and how I might better prepare him for the search. I realized that I was treating him like super enthusiastic Myst and trying to take him out of the car and quietly begin the search. I also thought giving him a couple of really easy searches before we began would help. His behavior in previous searches was quite uncharacteristic for him since he has always enjoyed interacting with, training and doing things with me..... tail always wagging
I did the first 2 searches before the inaccessible hides in the house and used the collar grab which he learned for increasing drive as a puppy. We did the first with the door shut into his fun doggie gym, collar grab, verbal "are you READY?" and then open the door and release. He was a different dog in both this search and his second easy indoors one.
I think the video shows a much more interested, less distracted and enthusiastic dog.
Video 1 is about temperature differentials and how they effect the hides. You will see a moderately interested dog but without much enthusiasm.
Video 2 is where the motivational intervention was used and you will see a very different dog.
THIS IS ALL ABOUT DOG TRAINING.. whether you are doing obedience, rally, or agility each dog is different and needs a preparation for their HAPPY WORK.
Beckett has been hard for me to read for his changes in behavior. I enrolled him in Stacy Barnett's excellent new FOUNDATION, FOUNDATION, FOUNDATION class in December 2019. I learned so much about how to handle a sensitive dog and to help build his confidence and motivation. These videos are a few from the class that show Beckett's excellent progression to becoming confident and having fun with his scent work.
Video 1: This was an excellent exercise to help identify CHANGES IN BEHAVIOR (COB) when approaching odor. Choose an indoor place where he had not done a search but is comfortable with the building. Set up a slight maze. When I put the part of the search where he encountered a scent cone, I put the video in slightly slow motion and it was interesting to see what his COB was.
Video 2: Using the electrical boxes and the cookie toss game to help Beckett with new exteriors. The first hide was with the electrical box but not directly in sight. The second was in a crack. This was a new area where Beckett had never been. Distractions of children and small dog walking by.
Video 3: We used a blank room that had no odor for the first search. The second search was done in the same room with the addition of odor and 2 distractors. Odor aged 20 minutes.
Video 4: One goal I had for this course was to help Beckett be more focused with exterior searches. He always seemed more interested in sniffing new areas. The Sourcing Fun video with the metal boxes helped with improving exterior searches. This is an example of how focused he was and also the identification of the change in behavior as he approached the odor.
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