More than meets the Eye

When people first hear of, or watch scent detection, it's easy to assume that it is a really easy sport.  However, once you get into it, there are actually a lot of skills for dogs and handlers to learn to get to the top levels of the sport.  Fortunately, you don't need them all to play at home or to start competing at Novice or Started, but let's take a look at some of the less obvious skills.

Motivation/Desire

A desire to find the scent you are looking for is fundamental.  If your dog has no interest in searching for the hidden scent, your search is dead in the water.  For that reason, I want to make finding the scent very rewarding for dogs right from the start, and stay alert for any decreases in desire/motivation so that we can address it and bring their motivation back up.  Easy, straight forward searches with a big reward at the end build motivation in most dogs.  It's also worth taking a look at the handler as well because sometimes we want our dogs to succeed so badly that we inadvertently do things that can put pressure on them or make their search more difficult such as crowding close to them, verbally nagging them, being unclear in our communications, etc.

Alert

In my opinion, the next big skill the needs is an alert, or a trained final response.  A behaviour that they will do when they locate the source of the odour to communicate to you that they've found it.  I know it is possible to compete with dogs in some organizations (SDDA requires a trained alert) that don't have an alert by having their handlers get really good at reading the dog's body language and teaching the dog to hang out near the source, however, in my experience a dog with a trained alert is much easier for handler's to read, makes handler's feel more confident calling alert, and prevents escalation into destructive behaviours that can be damaging to the hide or it's surroundings.  I strongly recommend a nose freeze because it is non-destructive, easy to see, and doesn't move the dog away from the source of the odour like sit/down would.  

When to work

I recommend introducing different equipment for searching in and a starting routine early, as I find that they can help dogs make the transition to searching outside without peeing in the search area, and searching in new places.  In competition, you get excused if your dog potties in the search area, which can be challenging for some dogs when searching outside.  Having a special harness that they only wear when searching and that comes off before they can recreationally sniff and potty, and a specific routine at the start line that helps them know it is time to work/search can be really helpful.

Environmental Comfort

For people looking to compete, their dog will need to be comfortable searching rows of containers, an inside room and an outside space or vehicles.  And, the dog will need to be comfortable doing this in a place that is new to them.  I find that it is very common for dogs to be more hesitant, distracted and have less confident alerts when starting to search in new places, so I highly recommend making the effort to get out to some different spaces away from home before competing to help your dog generalize their skills to new and unfamiliar places.  It's why I offer Travelling Scent Skills meetups.

With these foundational skills, most teams can start competing at beginner level and have success.  To move up to other levels, we need to add some skills.

Dog Searching Skills

Dogs will need to learn to find hides in a variety of locations:
* at the threshold
* in a corner
* up to the maximum height for their level (3', 4', 4' above a stable surface, 6' for nationals)
* on the floor, under a rug/furniture
* in a crack or in the grass
* buried in the ground
* underwater
​* inaccessible due to height (earlier for smaller dogs)
* inaccessible due to reach (ie. behind the sofa)
* inaccessible due to confinement (i.e. in a closed drawer/cupboard)
​* ability to check locations if asked with out assuming a hide and false alerting
Higher levels also include finding more than one hide
* recognizing multiple target odours (odours to search for)
* finding multiple hides in a search
* not taking you back to already found hides
* sorting out converging hides if the scent clouds from two or more mix together
* continuing to search after obvious hides are found with and without distractors present
* searching a room without a hide with and without distractors present
Higher levels include hidden distractions as well, and since the handler won't know where they are, it's very helpful if the dog will just ignore them to avoid the risk of telling a dog to leave a hide alone.
* ignoring toys in the search area
* ignoring dog food and treats in the search area
* ignoring people food in the search area
* ignoring people in the search area

Handler Skills

Generally the beginner levels test the dog, does the dog have the skills to find the hides.  Then, as the team continues, the levels start testing the handler more.  Some handler skills are very helpful to the dog regardless of the level, such as timing, reinforcement and leash handling, while some like calling a room clear, don't come into play until the higher levels.
* good marker timing
* willingness to reward well (don't be too stingy!)
* leash handling (don't tangle the dog)
* covering the search area 
* recognizing the dog's alert
* recognizing when the dog catches the scent cloud
* supportive following (not too close, not too far)
* ability to subtly hint with body movement in training (without giving away the location)
​* ability to direct a search if needed
* assessing a search area and making use of their walk through
* calling a room finished when the number of hides is unknown
* calling a room clear when the number of hides is unknown

If this seems overwhelming, don't worry!  We work through the skills gradually adding layers of difficulty as the teams are ready.  It's really fun to watch dogs solve the advanced challenges.  But if you don't want to compete, that's fine too!  The most enjoyable part of scent detection for many is watching the dogs work, which you can do at any level you prefer.  I just thought it would be interesting to look behind the scenes at the skills that people often don't realize are learned skills when an experienced team is working.