Exterior nose work searches can be real tricky. Remember, there are four search elements in nose work – interior, exterior, vehicle, and container. Each element has their own challenges, but especially in a climate like Minnesota, exterior searches can be real difficult because many folks simply don’t practice outside in the winter months.
What are some of the challenges with Exterior searches?
- Your dog can’t use a search area as a bathroom, this can be tough for some dogs to comprehend
- Wind can really change the flow of the odor
- Temperature changes the way odor travels
- Distractions such as birds, rabbits, wild animal droppings, trash, all of which must be ignored
- Environmental distractions such as trains, airplanes, cars, people
- We practice outdoors all year, but many people in cold climates don’t get out in the winter which means there are several months without practicing exterior searches
How can you best overcome the challenges of exterior nose work searches?
- Set up a potty routine, your dog should know to potty, then go to the search area and “work”
- Practice in all weather conditions, you never know what the weather will be on the day of a trial
- Try different hide positions – in snow, in water, in a sun puddle, in a shady spot, in a windy spot, if your dog is having difficulties, try pairing some hides for motivation (it really does help)
- Take your dog to do nose work in as many different environments as you can so they learn to work wherever they need to work – this week at school, I had a wabbit cross my search area right before I started my search. I tried so hard to search, but my wabbit instinct kept winning me over, it was a great learning experience even though I couldn’t overcome my urges this time
- Get out in the cold and snow of the winter as odor behaves differently in cold and snow, get out in the spring thaw as the defrosting natural smells can wreak havoc on a dog’s concentration, get out in the heat as it presents a whole different set of challenges
- The hide placement doesn’t have to be real difficult, make it easy so your dog will adjust to searching in the exterior environment, increase the difficulty as your dog feels comfortable
I met with some of my search buddies the other day and did some fun exterior searches. It was cold and windy with some snow still around – all factors creating challenges for searching. Mom finds my first search so funny. Why did I choose the most difficult path to the odor? Who knows! The second search was a simple bench hide. As always, I recommend you take some nose work classes. Most classes will take field trips to different locations to practice. If you have a nose work dog, make sure you get out and practice your exterior searches in as many places as you can. It will pay off when you enter a trial!
Speaking of trials, Bailie and I are headed to Iowa the beginning of April for two days of nose work trials. Bailie will attempt to earn her NW1 (Nose Work Level 1) Title the first day, and the second day she will try for her L1V (Level 1 Vehicle Element) Title and I will try for my L2V (Level 2 Vehicle) Title. The trial is being held on a farm which is one reason why we are working on exteriors a lot right now!
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Although you make it look so easy Emma, nose work seems like it takes both mental and physical stamina to keep up. I am fascinated with it all. We will be waiting to hear all about your trip in April. Have a great weekend.
It does look easy a lot of the time but it is a serious mental workout and when you go to trials, it is a lot of stamina as it is all day, and you have to wait in your car, wait at checkpoints, finally you search which may only be seconds or a couple minutes and then back to waiting. We love it, though.
It’s good that you are able to practice all year round! Great job!
We are that “odd family” who walks in all weather 365 days a year, does our sports outdoors all year, but we are all happy with life this way. We feel bad for those that don’t get out because it is cold or it is raining. They miss out.
I agree it’s impawtant to train in any weather, we never know how the wetaher will be on the day of a test… and the weather guys mostly lie in their forecast. What happens when a track gets frozen, is that possible for you to follow it when it is covered with ice?
I track in anything and do nose work in any weather. Odor doesn’t travel when it is cold, so it is harder to detect. It stays where it is at and sinks. It warm sun, odor spreads like crazy. These are all things we have to practice working with.
Oh, those wabbits…they sure can throw you off, huh?! Funny indeed that you took the longer way to the first hide – I’ve noticed that whenever my boy Buzz comes back to me with the ball he’s retrieved, he won’t come back in a straight line. It’s always in a half circle.
Bailie is one who likes to take a direct line to hides, I prefer to sniff around and come in the back way a lot of the time. No matter as long as we find the odor in the allotted amount of time. I do create leash management challenges for Mom sometimes with my technique.
it would be hard not to get distracted from all the other external smells – especially a squirrel π π
I am pretty good about staying on track in my searches. I even ignore food distractions in containers, but the wabbit running through my search area pushed me a bit too far.
We always enjoy reading about all the challenges of your nose work Emma. We think it is great that you get out all year long to practice and keep your sniffer in good shape!
Smileys!
Dory, Jakey, Arty & Bilbo
I love to get out any time. We’re meeting with friends to sniff at a park and ride later today, can’t wait!
Good job Emma – I can see you are just being careful and methodical about the whole thing.
One reason Mom and I are a good team is we both work the same way, very methodical and thorough. Bailie is more of a crash in and race wildly and then stop and say I found it without a real plan. It’s hard to follow her.
Silly Emma going around those stairs where you mom can’t go, but you did great! They tell me I am a scent hound too. XOXO Sparkle
You would love nose work too. It would be a great sport for you as it doesn’t require lots of physical things from your Mom, so with her back she could do it. It is a sport dogs and their people can do at any age or stage of life which is really a wonderful thing.
As always, my favorite part is watching Emma’s “working tail.” It’s like peeking inside of her brain.
Mom watches video of me a lot because of the tail. In searches she needs to focus on my head and nose and usually doesn’t catch the tail, so the videos help her see what my tail is actually “saying”. If Mom called alert and the judge said where, she needs to know where I was looking. I think I need to wag my tail over my head somehow.
What a challenge having exterior distractions and smells must be. Good job Emma, you make it look so easy!
I do pretty well, but I couldn’t get over seeing the wabbit.
I can only imagine how tough the different smells are out they, y’all are real pros!
Lots of practice to learn to focus on work.
Our Friday walks are challenging because it is trash pick-up day in the neighborhood. Bentley feels that he learns a lot about our neighbors by smelling their garbage cans. LOL! I love the way Emma looked up at you after finding the “hide” on the bench. β₯ β₯
Interesting. We rarely have any interest in smelling the garbage cans around here. Maybe because the garbage is frozen most of the year!
Keep in trucking….UH..I mean tracking!
I’m tracking and doing nose work. Hound life!
We’re looking forward to doing some exterior scent searches in our new backyard starting next week! We haven’t been able to do too much exterior work at our apartment since a new dog moved into the other side of our duplex and Barley doesn’t do well with being outside when he comes out (and I have on too many layers this time of year to be able to zip up my jacket pocket if I try to put our odor kit in my hoodie pocket to go down to the park with it!). Sometimes we do quick searches outside for snacks, though, so she still gets to use her sniffer outside π
It’s always fun to play with hides to see how the odor travels depending on the wind, temps and placement. Have fun in your new backyard!
It is important to train in all weather. I bet you will be well prepared for your trials in April.
I sure hope so. Bailie is always a toss up but we really hope she can succeed on her first try.
You are really using that nose of yours
Snorts
Lily & Edward
I think we would be considered sniffaholics.
I think of how easily our crew is distracted by smells just on walks, especially after rain, so I can just imagine how challenging those exterior searches must be.
And oh, a rabbit, that was unfortunate…you probably could ignore anything but that, Emma!
I tried so hard to focus on working but I just kept getting hit with my instincts. Learning to ignore while working is part of a successful nose work career.
There are a LOT of RULES there.
There is an entire rule book, but I just mentioned some of the big ones.
Mr. N has difficult doing exteriors. So many interesting competing smells!
You need to work on his drive. Use super high value treats like pieces of meat and pair the hides. I bet if you do that for a while, he will get the message. It works for us with nose work and tracking. Pair high value and reward a lot for each hide with high value for a while.
Good luck come April, how exciting.
Lots of exciting trials coming up!
That’s an incredible nose you got there Emma! Our dog gets confused with scents sometimes. There were times when she thought we were strangers and barked at us like crazy before she saw us get inside the house and calmed down. We often tricked her to thinking somebody else was knocking on the front door (even thought there certainly wasn’t) and she started barking at it with all her might. I don’t know what’s exactly wrong with her nose. But even though she doesn’t have an excellent one like yours, she’s still the best dog for us π
I would think the wind would make it very difficult outside… not to mention the snow and all those other good outdoor smells. Good job Emma!
The wind does make it tricky, but there are a lot of air currents indoors as well that we have to take into account. It’s all about learning and practice.
I’m in awe of the work you do, Emma! Sam would fail miserably at the outdoor segment-he is a terrible marker who is constantly reading pee-mails. Sigh.
Peeing in a search area is an automatic disqualification, but a lot of dogs have a hard time not peeing. If a dog does pee in the search area, then following dogs have a tougher time not doing it too. Everyone pees in a search area at one time or another, but hopefully it is during practice and the handler can work from that to teach the dog not to do it again.
Sam would NVER qualify; he’d ALWAYS pee in the wrong spot. But that’s ok, he’s great with patients. Everyone has their speciality, right? α¦
That is very true. Not every sport or activity is for every dog or person.
Mowzers, that is so fascinating! About the only nose work over here occurs when the momma tries to QUIETLY open a bag of treats. BOOM, we’re there.
No human can sneak open a bag of cat or dog treats! That is a fact!
Interesting post, thanks for explaining exteriors. The nose knows right?
We sure hope so, but it isn’t always easy.
This was fun to read and watch! We just started nose work training with Teach, my older Smooth Collie on Friday. A group of us dog people got together and wanted to learn. Thankfully we have a very accomplished lady willing to teach us that recently moved to our area. Good luck at your upcoming trial!
That is awesome. It’s important to start out the right way and learn the basics, then move on to searching on your own and with friends. We have been taking classes for two years now. There’s always something new to learn, or bad habits we form that need to be corrected. Hope you enjoy it as much as we do.
I’m still very interested in nose work and I appreciate these posts. I’ve found a couple trainers in WA, but they’re not near our home, so I’m working with friends who have experience and searching for YouTube videos.
I’m waiting for the spring and summer months to practice with our dogs. Mostly Zoey. I was saving small boxes, because someone told me that this is a great place to start, but I collected too many and J requested that I get rid of my stash.
That’s okay. I’m a blogger. More boxes to come π
I know a lot of people who take online Fenzi nose work courses. Some do because they want more instruction than what they get in class, some because they live too far to attend a class. I hear great things about them. http://www.fenzidogsportsacademy.com/ You will need boxes and you will also need boxes that are the same. Hope you can get started. Actually, when you start you need to do the learning indoors first and then move outside. Outside presents so many new challenges it is very difficult at first for many dogs to focus.