Monday, May 2, 2011

The Nose Knows

Started taking Nose Work classes with Bella a few months back. So fun! I am fascinated by their scenting abilities. Have thought about tracking in the past, but that sport is such a time suck. I love what they are doing, but the act of doing it doesn’t appeal to me much. Finding a place, track laying, track aging…ugh. Just a simple practice blows 3 hours. Not to mention the copious amounts of ticks and snakes and cow patties.


Enter Nose work. Ta-da! You can practice in the comfort of your own home. Even taking it on the road is a piece of cake.


A small tin or two, like so
DSC_0933
Or so
DSC_0894
…and a couple of q-tip’s. Heck, not even a full q-tip, just the little fuzzy bit.

You can’t fit agility in your pocket!


The dogs just love it. Probably because the amount of cheese involved.

Got it!
DSC_0893

Cheese, please!
DSC_0898

Right here!
DSC_0936

Bella is an enthusiastic nose toucher
DSC_0890

Maybe more of a nose crammer
DSC_0891

Maybe just because nose work is delicious!
DSC_0967

Maybe because she has the weirdest bendy aardvark nose. Do your dogs do this? Kate does not. It’s like Bella doesn’t want to be rude and turn away when she smells something so she just bends her nose over there.
DSC_0885
Weirdo.


13 comments:

  1. We do nose work when the weather is bad and I'm reaching the point of strangling the dogs and getting pet fish.
    My JRT/Beagle mix has the bendy-aardvark nose. So weird.

    ReplyDelete
  2. HAHAHA! Bendy nose looks so funny cute!
    I can't smell something at my FEET! Pugs were not made for tracking.
    Love Noodles

    ReplyDelete
  3. Well done, you enjoyed that, we can tell! Our human used to do scentwork with her old dog for Working Trials and said he just loved it, it's made her think of trying it with us so thanks for the idea! Dex & Lou x

    ReplyDelete
  4. Do you just have the nose touch as the signal they found something, or do they sit, or bark, or something also?

    ReplyDelete
  5. "Do you just have the nose touch as the signal they found something, or do they sit, or bark, or something also?"

    No, a nose touch is not required. I don't think there is a specific alert behavior that is required. It just happens to be a default thing for both of dogs because of prior target training. It's actually suggested that you don't train an alert behavior for quite some time because as the hides get more difficult, it can just become an "I'm frustrated" response in inexperianced dogs instead of an actual alert.

    My two are just making up their own thing!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Great job. Our faces are flat so we don't have good sniffers
    but we try.
    Benny & Lily

    ReplyDelete
  7. Awesome photos. Very intelligent dogs.

    ReplyDelete
  8. This is neat, and a new concept to me. I think my dogs would love it. How did you get into it? Is this all home-based work you do with them? It would be amazing if you did a more in depth post on this...as always thanks for the laughs-Kate gets me every time

    ReplyDelete
  9. hahaha... its cute to see a bendy nose... I hope i also have one. LOL.. I enjoyed looking at that pictures.. nice job...


    --------------------------------
    Dog Crates
    --------------------------------

    ReplyDelete
  10. If the any one want to change the nose shape of theme dog that is a possible through the nose job treatment. Nose job is a so much successful treatment on the human also and it is more reliable.

    nose job

    ReplyDelete