Nosework – sport for all the sniffer dogs

Nosework works with the most natural and best developed dog ability – their smell. They use it for guidance immediately after they’re born, when the puppies are still blind and deaf. And they have been using it to help us for many years now. Using their smell, they search for drugs and explosives, they tag suspicious persons or localize the missing ones.

So, it was only a matter of time, when the service would also become a sport. It is based on work of professional K9 police, army and rescue teams. Similar as in service, even in nosework, the dog handler’s team and the dog look for specific smells (but naturally for common and not any illegal smells) under similar conditions as their professional colleagues.

The dog is supposed to detect the target smell and alert the handler, while distracting objects may be laid out about the place, such as food or toys, that the dog must ignore. After the dog finds the right smell, it is rewarded.

This sport is developing quite fast, mainly since it doesn’t exclude dogs with health disabilities. Both blind or deaf dogs can take part, as well as partially paralysed dogs, for example.

This sport was established by K9 professionals and in mid-2000 the first National Canine Association of Scent Work was founded. Afterwards, the Nosework Club was founded under the UKC organisation – a national kennel club. The first seminars in the Czech Republic were organised only in 2014, so here it is an entirely new thing among the dog sports.

During nosework, you can see four types of searched spaces:

Interiors – this can be searching for smells only in one room or around the whole building. In this case, it is further determined, whether the search is carried out with a dog on a leash or without it.

Exteriors – this is a more difficult discipline, since the search takes place on grass, cement or gravel in a free space, the dogs are exposed to more smells – of waste, food, animals, etc. and the search goes on under all weather conditions.

Vehicles – usually, three or more vehicles are being searched. The scent trail is always hidden outside the car.

Containers – the types of containers vary depending on the level. For beginners, usually regular cardboard boxes are used, dogs on a higher level search in luggage, plastic boxes etc. Containers may be arranged on the same level, at random on the ground, or, for instance, laid on chairs.

Scents used for detection may differ. But in contrast to professionals, these are always legal substances. It is mostly essential oils of birch, pine tree, anise or cloves dropped on a cotton swab, which is afterwards hidden within the searched area.

Since it is a relatively new sport, the effect of nosework on troubled dogs is not proven yet. However, some unofficial studies have shown, that nosework can have a positive effect on their behaviour. Dogs that are afraid of people can work and be rewarded in an environment with people, without them being forced to interact with them. Since the dogs work one by one, aggressive individuals are able to have fun without other dogs being immediately next to them.

This sport has got me quite interested. One of my fluffies belongs to typical sniffers, it often takes us ages to walk a few metres. So instead of unlearning, we might try nosework. What about you, has nosework caught your attention? Have you tried it yet?