NOSEWORK
COURSES
Dogs have an amazing sense of smell and a natural desire to hunt. The activity and sport of nose work is designed to develop your dog’s natural scenting abilities by using their desire to hunt and their love of toys, food and exercise.
For The Love of Dogs offers Official K9 Nose Work(TM) Foundation and Continuing Nose Work classes, Skill Building classes and AKC Scent Work classes.
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Foundation Level I
This class focuses on teaching you how to encourage and develop your dog’s natural scenting abilities by using their desire to hunt and their love of toys, food, and exercise. It’s a great class for your dog to have fun, build confidence, and burn lots of mental and physical energy and to find out just how good is your dog’s nose. This class introduces the concept of the game, builds handler observation skills and timing using boxes and a ‘hidden’ treat in an inside environment. You and your dog work in the ring one team at a time, allowing your dog to focus and learn with minimal distractions.
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Length: 6 weeks, 1 hour per week
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Class Size: Up to 4 dogs
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Cost:
$175.00
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Prerequisite:
Your dog must be able to be crated between turns. Dogs must be at least 9 month old.
Foundation Level 2
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This class will focus on two of the elements of K9 Nose Work©, Container searches, and Interior searches. You will continue to develop your skills as a handler and in sharing with your dog the excitement of more challenging hunts with more complex searches. The odor of birch will be introduced during this session.
Length: 6 weeks, 1 hour per week
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Class Size: Up to 4 dogs
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Cost:
$175.00
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Prerequisite:
Foundation Level 1
Foundation Level 3
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This class will focus on the last two of the elements of K9 Nose Work©, Vehicle searches, and Exterior Searches. A higher level of environmental distractions is introduced with vehicle and exterior searches, keeping the challenge of the hunt always exciting for you and your dog. These classes will continue to develop your handler skills in leash management, understanding your dog’s ‘hunting’ language and the effects of ever-changing environments on a search.
Length: 6 weeks, 1 hour per week
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Class Size: Up to 4 dogs
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Cost:
$175.00
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Prerequisite:
Foundation Level 2
Foundation Level 4
This 6-week course focuses on adding two additional target odors - Anise and Clove with exercises on building odor obedience in all four elements - interiors, exteriors, vehicles, and containers. The second half of the course will focus on the basics of competitions and beginning preparation for an Odor Recognition Test (ORT).
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Length: 6 weeks, 1 hour per week
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Class Size: Up to 4 dogs
Cost:
$175.00
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Prerequisite:
Foundation Level 3
Intro to AKC Scent Work
AKC(R) is now offering titling classes in scent work and there are some new elements in their competition classes. This six week class focuses on introducing your dog to handler discrimination, distractions of mimic, auditory and visual, and buried hides in preparation for the novice and advanced levels of competition. It will also introduce your dog to the scent of cypress if your dog isn't on cypress.
Prerequisite: Foundation nose work training, including an introduction to odor.
Length: 6 weeks, 1 hour per week
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Class Size: Up to 6 dogs
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Cost:
$150.00
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Prerequisite:
Dog must be on all three odors of Birch, Anise and Clove and working in all elements of interiors, containers, exteriors and vehicles
Nose Work Run Throughs
Looking for some quick and fun scent work practice searches? Scent Work Run Throughs are a perfect way to get some additional scenting pilot hours and have a great time with your nose work dog. Searches are pre-set up and you can run blind or ask where the hide(s) are located. We will have a Run Through Manager there to set up the searches, call you in for your turn and answer questions. There will not be any formal instruction given, this is time to get practice runs in with your dog. Location may differ from the training school address depending on building availability, weather and element selected for the month. You will be informed of the location in your reminder email 2-3 days before the run through.
There will be three levels of Run Throughs set up: Novice/NW1, Advanced/NW2, Master/NW3 and they will be run in time blocks for each level.
5 minutes typical run time, you can run the search multiple times during your time slot
7 dogs per level
Multiple dogs entries allowed, multiple levels per dog allowed
Cost: $10.00 per run plus PayPal processing fee
Prerequisite:
Dog(s) must be working in the odors of Birch, Anise and Clove.
Continuing Nosework
This class will continue to develop handler skills and focuses on all of the elements of K9 Nose Work®, container, interior, exterior and vehicle searches. Higher level of environmental distractions are introduced with container, vehicle and exterior searches, keeping the challenge of the hunt always exciting for you and your dog. Focus on teamwork and supporting your dog during the search are emphasized. These classes will continue to develop your handler skills in leash management, understanding your dog’s ‘hunting’ language and the effects of ever changing environments on a search. You are encouraged to video tape your sessions for review, especially if you are considering competition. Field trips may be included as part of this course.
This is an ongoing nosework class for those people who want to build off the nose work skills started foundation classes, for fun and for competition. Search puzzles will be set up by the class coordinator and coaching will be available if needed. Field trips in the local area to give you exposure to new searching environments may be included. The focus will be on enhancing foundation skills for you and your dog, and will use all 4 elements of nosework for searches.
Length: 6 weeks, 1 hour per week
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Class Size: Up to 6 dogs
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Cost:
$150.00
Prerequisite:
Nosework Foundation Level 4 class or instructor's permission.
Nosework Field Trips
Practice your skills in all the elements of K9 Nose Work© - containers, interiors, exteriors, and vehicles. The teams will hide for each other and there will be no formal training, just hunting. A steward will be at each class to direct you as to search spaces and traffic flow, this person should also be contacted if you cannot make it, you get lost, or you are running late.
Locations and steward's contact information will be sent in your confirmation email before each session.
You will need to plan to kennel your dog in your car.
Length: 1 week, 1 hour per week
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Class Size: Up to 5 dogs
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Cost:
$25.00
Prerequisite:
Dog must be searching for Odor.