Nosework & Scent Games

If you’d like to provide enrichment for your dog, this is the program for you! We offer three levels (or your own combination): Scent Games I, Scent Games II, and Scent Field Trailing.

In the first level, Scent Games I, you’ll have lots of fun challenging your dog’s sense of smell – and in the meantime, they’ll build on their ability to focus and control their impulses. Your dog will learn how to do advanced treat searching (staying in a room while you leave and hide treats – then returning to release your dog to find them). Your dog will also learn how to pick out an object of yours such as a glove, hat, or even keys. And finally, we’ll start the basics of scent discrimination – where your dog can “alert” to a particular scent.

For Scent Games II, we continue the work with objects such as going back to get them (as if you dropped them on a walk) and even possibly teaching your dog to retrieve out of a pile of similar looking objects. We’ll continue the scent discrimination work so your dog will be able to pick out a particular scent and “alert” among a selection of multiple different scents.

If you’re enjoying this class and would like to move on, we recommend taking the the scent field trailing class.

Class prerequisites: Your dog will need some basic training in order to have the most fun in this class. If you aren’t sure if your dog has enough training, please contact: info@mtnhoovespaws.com

For the first class, please bring a plastic bag to put an article of your clothing into (something that has touched your skin such as a hat or glove). And, of course bring plenty of high quality treats! If you haven’t done any marker signal training, that’s okay – but if you have, definitely bring your clickers as your dog will pick up the behaviors much faster with this method.