[dagwall]

Jubel's just about to finish up his first nosework class and really seems to enjoy it. What's not to love at this stage, sniff out food, get the food AND get a treat for getting the food haha.

The last exercise in class yesterday was to find the treat in a muffin tin with 6 tennis balls in the holes. Jubel did very good at that and even removed the tennis ball himself to get the treat. On our last go at the muffin tin the instructor put treats under two of the tennis balls. Jubel got the first one right away and when we didn't walk away being done as we had the first few times he started sniffing around the rest of the area, not the muffin tin though. Soon enough he had found his way over to the instructor who had sat down and he was sniffing and nosing her jacket pocket. Haha he'd used his nose and found another treat. No choice but to laugh and give him the treat from her pocket. Then he went back to the muffin tin and found the second treat pretty quick.

Only one more class left but I pretty sure we'll sign up for the level 2 class right away which will start with the scent of birch and phase out finding treats. She told us yesterday our class was already doing a lot of the same exercises her level 2 class is doing just with food instead of birch.

 

[GottaLuvMutts]

Awesome! Like you, I couldn't wait to get to birch!

We started level two about four weeks ago. We're now finding birch with no food paired with it, and the instructor gave us our first anise hide last week. I'm enjoying the "sport" and I definitely want to continue, but I'm still unsure about whether I'll ever trial, and also whether I want to continue in classes for much longer. It just seems like something I can orchestrate myself, unlike agility. We already take weekly agility classes and my budget isn't huge. I'll probably continue in nosework classes until the instructor breaks for summer, and then bow out and maybe reevaluate in the fall. But like I said, I definitely want to keep practicing it - just not necessarily in class/trial.

 

[dagwall]

Yeah we don't have much opportunity at all for trialing on the east coast, nosework is still very much a west coast thing. The class is actually called Find It because nosework is trademarked and getting certified isn't easy on the east coast. Talking to someone else in the area who started and dropped nosework did so because there really wasn't much opportunity to trail as they would like to. I think they mentioned MAYBE having a chance once a month.

 

[GreatDaneMom]

i teach a 3 level nosework class, and its by far my favorite class that i teach. i have had dogs do sooooo well in it, and to see some of the changes in the dogs behavior outside of class as well is awesome. its one of those things that once you get started in it, youre hooked!

i call mine nose work fun since its trademarked, then i have advanced nose work and intro to tracking. i have been using pheasant scent in my other classes (level 2 and 3) instead of the birch, anise, etc. because my clients arent interested in any competition nose work and just want their dogs to have a blast with it.

 

[skitty56]

Nosework is a lot of fun, I play at it at home with my dogs. I learned about it at the Humane Society where I volunteer. We take some of the longer shelter residents a few times a week and run them through some simple stuff, it's great for them, gets them out of the kennel and let's them work off some energy. It even helps some shy ones come out of their shell a bit.