All About Scent Work Podcast

In our latest Spotlight episode, we have the distinct privilege of speaking with Becky Thomas of The Ultimate K9 in Australia about how she has been helping to grow K9 Nose Work® in Australia.

Speakers: Dianna L. Santos, Michael McManus, Khara Schuetzner

In this roundtable discussion, we cover ways instructors can help their students better cope after a "failure" at trial, ways to set better expectations and so much more.

Speakers: Dianna L. Santos

In this podcase episode, we highlight how being an instructor and trainer is indeed an honor and privilege that we need to take very seriously to ensure we ae doing all we can to help our human and canine students learn, grow, progress and succeed.

Speakers: Dianna L. Santos, Natalie Duberow

In this spotlight episode, we speak with Natalie Duberow, an approved USCSS CSD and Judge and AKC Scent Work Judge, who is quite literally helping to spread the word about Scent Work worldwide! Natalie travels the globe providing workshops for dog handlers, competitors and those interested in becoming trial officials with United States Canine Scent Sports.

Speakers: Dianna L. Santos, Michele Ellertson

In this spotlight episode, we have the privilege to speak with Michele Ellertson, CNWI, a professional dog trainer, instructor, CO with NACSW and the owner of The Dog's PACE about her PACE Team Games program. This program is a fabulous way to encourage people to support one another while tackling challenging, and FUN, searches. It has been a big hit in the Northeastern US and the Los Angeles-area as well.

Speakers: Dianna L. Santos, Marcella Winslow

In this new series, we are highlighting individuals and businesses who are giving back to the Scent Work community. For this episode, we spoke with Marcella Winslow, a professional photographer who has been instrumental in creating memories for countless dog and handler teams throughout the Western United States.

Speakers: Dianna L. Santos

As dog trainers and handlers, we use rewards to communicate to our dogs when they have done a good job. But when it comes to Scent Work, this message can be easily muddled and confused depending on the reward placement and timing! In this episode, we discuss the importance of effective reward usage as well as exercises you can try to improve your own timing and mechanical skills.

Speakers: Dianna L. Santos, Michelle Doram, Michael McManus, Natalie McManus

A challenge many experienced Scent Work handlers will encounter is trying to adjust to a new canine teammate. You, as the handler, have more knowledge and experience, perhaps even reaching high levels of success, but your new dog does not. We discuss this, and more, in this roundtable discussion.

Speakers: Dianna L. Santos, Geryah Dingle

In this episode, we speak with Geryah Dingle of Dingle Days YouTube channel about her dog training journey, how she got started in Scent Work and the consulting services she offers to help dog training professionals bring their services into the virtual space.

Speakers: Dianna L. Santos, Jill Marie O'Brien, Steve DeTata

In this episode, we speak with the Co-Founder of NACSW™ and Founder of the K9 Nose Work® Shelter Program, Jill Marie O'Brien and Steven DeTata, CNWI who is spearheading the growth of the program and spreading the word on social media. This wonderful program pairs up of K9 Nose Work® certified instructors, or those who are going through the certified instructor program, with shelters and rescues to provide much-needed enrichment to shelter dogs.

Speakers: Dianna L. Santos

It common to hear some handlers proclaim that their dog "lies" when searching...but is this true? Are dogs purposefully deceiving their people? Or could it be that the dog is playing the game they way they thought it was supposed to be played? In other words, is there a fundamental misunderstanding about the sniffy game overall that is causing these mistakes?

Speakers: Dianna L. Santos

In this short episode, we continue to discuss Cyber Scent Work, Inc. and how it can help resident shelter dogs. This is a feature of Cyber Scent Work, Inc. that we are particularly excited about!

Speakers: Dianna L. Santos, Sean McMurray

In this podcast, we learn about brand new virtual organization meant to bridge the gap between training and trialing in Scent Work: Cyber Scent Work, Inc.

Speakers: Dianna L. Santos, Michelle Doram, Michael McManus, Natalie McManus, Khara Schuetzner

This roundtable discussion is tasked with answering this question: at an AKC Scent Work trial, a dog hits upon a blue "x" showing where a hide used to be - do you reward or not?!

Speaker: Dianna L. Santos

In this episode, we stress the importance of understanding all the various factors that may be affecting a search. We discuss how we as trainers and handlers should strive to parse out individual elements to focus on one at a time.

Speakers: Dianna L. Santos

Every single dog on the planet should be doing Scent Work. Full stop. This should NOT be some exclusive club that is only open to top tier of dog and handler teams. People should not be rushing out to get dogs with professional detection dog breeding or background to do this activity. Every. Single. Dog. Can. Do. Scent. Work.

Speakers: Dianna L. Santos

Sharing the experiences of a terrible student and how her mental baggage derailed her more often than not, this episode is designed to offer some creative ways people can avoid these same pitfalls and better partner with their trainer and instructor.

Speakers: Dianna L. Santos

In this podcast episode, we discuss the various factors we should keep in mind when training on our own so as to avoid unintentionally leading our dog astray.

Speakers: Dianna L. Santos

In this episode, we discuss the importance of being as clear and mindful as we can when using cues, knowing what the true meaning of those cues are (to the dog), and whether using a certain cue could undermine the very thing we are trying to build in our Scent Work training.

Speakers: Dianna L. Santos

The question is rather simple: should there be an observable difference between a team playing Scent Work simply for "fun" and a team solely interested in competing? My gut tells me the answer should be "No". Let's discuss.

Speakers: Dianna L. Santos, Bill Gaskins

In this episode, we speak with Bill Gaskins of Integrity Nose Worx to have a better understanding of his background and how he has taken on the role of someone on social media who shares his expertise, openly asks questions and prompts important discussions in an open and humble way.