Nemo and I went to an all-day Noseworks seminar on Saturday. Noseworks is a new canine sport that incorporate's your dog's natural ability to use it's nose.
I took Nemo because he's got an really good sniffer. Not only is his sniffer good, but Nemo really likes to use his nose! Here's the basic premise behind Noseworks:
Dogs have an amazing sense of smell and a natural desire to hunt. The sport of K9 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. It’s a great way for your dog to have fun, build confidence, and burn lots of mental and physical energy (from the Noseworks website).
Noseworks is good for every type of dog: big ones, little ones; tall ones, short ones; fast ones, slow ones; mellow ones, hyped ones. It's really a sport for any dog that can walk and sniff.
There is (of course) a competition set up for dogs who excel at Noseworks. The National Association of Canine Scent Work (NACSW) sets the standards governing the sport of canine nose work. NACSW is the only official sanctioning and organizing body for nose work titles and certification in nose work.
I'll be posting some video in the next few days of Nemo and the others trying their hand – um, nose – at this cool new sport. If there's enough interest, I'd be happy to offer some Noseworks classes for my clients. Interested? Leave me a comment!
Pompei would love to do nose work, but unfortunately that’s discouraged in guide dogs! 🙂
Will have to check and see if there are groups around my area for my dachshunds.
I would love to learn more about this and maybe get something started locally — too cool!
I already commented “YES, please!” on FB, but will do so again here. I first read about Nosework in the Whole Dog Journal (8/2009), and I searched the web for something local. As far as I can tell, there is no trainer/group doing this anywhere nearby. If you decide to offer it, I suspect I could get some of Frodo’s friends interested as well.
This sounds like something Sam and Daisy would definitely enjoy. Their little noses never stop. I’m glad you commented that it is good even for small and hyped dogs!
I just played around with Nemo for about 30 minutes and we both had fun! I started making the finds a little more difficult for him: closing the flaps of the box, putting the box on a chair (instead of the floor, where they’ve been until now), or putting another box on top of the box with the food.
Nemo found each one as if I’d had a neon sign pointing to the box with the food! It really is a blast for him. I can’t wait to do more.
We’ll be getting a Noseworks class together in the next few months, I think. I’ll announce it in “Your Smart Dog” newsletter. If you’re not subscribed already, it’s free and you can subscribe here: http://smartdoguniversity.com/newsletter.htm.
Tula would love to do this! I saw that Pat Miller had a seminar on nose games for dogs and have thought about doing that sometime with her as I know she would enjoy it.