Welcome!

I'm so happy to have you joining me for this fun, unique class. Once you're registered, I'll reach out to schedule the live virtual weekly sessions with you.

Scentwork is a broad term that can encompass any activity that involves your dog using his/her nose to hunt for a scent. We can use scentwork for fun and enrichment, to help build our dog's resilience and confidence, and for helping to redirect behaviors we are trying to change.

It's a wonderful activity for dogs of all ages and abilities. Dogs that may be restricted while recovering from an illness or injury, puppies, adolescents, senior dogs and everything in between.

There are some organizations that offer scentwork (often called K9 Nosework in the USA) competitions where you can earn titles and awards with your dog by searching for specific odors.

This 4-week virtual course is just an introduction to scentwork. It's meant to give you the experience of what it's like and how to begin to teach your dog the necessary skills. We will teach your dog to recognize and search for a particular odor. Instruction will be tailored to working with dogs with visual impairments so we can help them be successful from the start.

This class is not extensive enough to go into the specifics of competition but it can get you started on the right path to introduce an odor and short searches if you are interested in competing. I will have resources later in the course if you'd like to explore moving forward to competitions.

If you know you are interested in moving forward toward competition, please read the guidelines for the organization you will be showing through. This will tell you which odors are required. You may choose to purchase these odors prior to this class, or you will learn skills in the class that you can use to get started on those odors later on.

The supplies list will give you more information about what you'll need to have on hand prior to class starting.