Ep. 147: Spotlight - Scot Singpiel of the Alert! Scent Work Podcast

Scent Work Judges and trial officials offer a unique and informed perspective that can provide golden nuggets of brilliance and insights to competitors. Enter Scot Singpiel of the Alert! Scent Work Podcast, who interviews these experts from a competitor’s perspective.

In this spotlight episode, we highlight what inspired Scot to create the Alert! Scent Work Podcast, his desire to learn as much as possible, a rundown of his future goals and his epiphany that Scent Work promotes growth on both ends of the leash, pushing handlers to become even more resilient than they thought ever possible.

Give the Alert! Scent Work Podcast a listen today!

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Speakers:

• Scot Singpiel
• Dianna L. Santos

TRANSCRIPT

Dianna L. Santos (00:00):
Welcome to the All About Scent Word Podcast. In this podcast, we talk about all things Scent Work that can include training tips, a behind scenes look at what your instructor or trial official is going through and much more. In this episode, I have the distinct privilege of having a conversation with Scot Singpiel, who has created the Alert Scent Work Podcast. Ooh, exciting stuff. Before we start diving into that conversation, let me do a very quick introduction of myself. My name is Dianna Santos. I'm the Owner and Lead Instructor of Scent Work University. This is an online dog training platform. We provide online courses, webinars, seminars, virtual events, and ebooks, as well as our free live streams, video reviews, Zoom consultations, an instructor mentorship program and our newly launched Scent Work U Community, which offers a monthly theme where every month we offer a new theme for everyone to tackle and new challenges every single week.

(00:51):
Additionally, we have our Member Hub where we have member exclusive events with a variety of different speakers about all kinds of wonderful topics and they also get discounts on everything else that we offer throuh Scent Work University. We have a very large library of things through Scent Work University. Whether you're just getting started in Scent Work, you're looking to develop some more advanced skills, you're competing even at the upper levels, we likely have a training solution for you. So to know a little bit more about me, let's dive into the episode itself.

(01:22):
So in this episode, I have the distinct privilege of speaking with Scot Singpiel, who has created the Alert Scent Work Podcast, all about his journey in Scent Work and also creating this new podcast that is really benefiting competitors. Let's have a listen to that conversation. I wanted to thank you so very much for joining us for our podcast today because you are also in the podcast space. So before we even get started, can you do a really quick introduction for yourself so our listeners can know a little bit more about you?

Scot Singpiel (01:50):
Yeah, my name's Scot Singpiel. I am the creator and the host of the Alert Scent Work Podcast. The original vision is to interview Scent Work judges from the mindset of a competitor so we can learn from these wonderful people.

Dianna L. Santos (02:02):
Awesome.

Scot Singpiel (02:03):
Yeah, my background includes radio broadcasting. I was in radio for a long, long time, the wacky morning DJ, the night jock on the radio. And I currently, my day job is podcasting for University of Utah Health. I talk to medical experts and physicians about different health topics and then we have some other podcasts that I help produce.

Dianna L. Santos (02:21):
That's amazing. Well, of course people can tell like, "Ah, that is definitely the voice of someone who's been on radio."

Scot Singpiel (02:27):
Ah, yes it is, isn't it? Which is funny because I never used to like my voice and I still don't necessarily like it. I've come to accept it, but people seem to say it sounds good. So I'll go with that.

Dianna L. Santos (02:39):
It's an amazing voice and it's incredible that again, from someone who also does podcasts, it's like, oh, that is such a good interviewing voice. Oh, I'm so jealous.

Scot Singpiel (02:50):
Oh, thank you.

Dianna L. Santos (02:51):
So can we talk a little bit about, so you have this background with podcasts, you have this background in radio, but then we also have Scent Work. Where did Scent Work come into all of this?

Scot Singpiel (03:00):
Oh man, Scent Work came into my life. It's actually kind of a litle bit of a two-part story. I remember about 15, 20 years ago, I went to a sheep herding competition and they had a little side exhibition of a Scent Work dog and this was a detection dog and the person described, I'm going to hide this thing and my dog's going to find it with their nose and this is how odor works. It works like water and you're going to watch the dog probably come along here because it's going to channel down. And everything the person said the dog did. And I was like, wow, this is the coolest thing ever. We all are when we see dogs intentionally work with their nose for the first time and we get to kind of see behind the curtain and understand what's going on. So I didn't do anything with that for another 20 years until we got an Australian shepherd named Murphy.

(03:42):
He was six months old when we bought him. The owners were like, "Oh, he's such a great dog and he is." He never barks. The very first morning my wife and I got him, we were sitting down for our coffee. He finished his breakfast and he came in the living room and he just started barking at us almost as if to say do something with me. And I don't know if that's what was going on, but that's how we interpreted it. So we started doing research, like what are some mentally draining activities for dogs because we knew that physical activity wasn't going to be enough. And I stumbled across this exercise where you take a towel and you hide a piece of food under it and you start real simple. You let them watch where you put it and if they touch their nose to it, you click them.

(04:19):
And then it advanced into I'd hide it and he'd show me where it was. I'd click it and then I'd throw his reward food so I could then hide it somewhere else. So he didn't know where it was so he had to use his nose to pinpoint it. And then my wife got me a Scent Work kit and I'm not exactly sure if I realized you can compete. I think I did, but I don't really remember, but she got me the Birch Anise Clove kit and I remember I took the Q-tip and put it in a straw. I put it under his nose and I say sniff it. And he sniffed it and I went and hit it and I told him to go find it and he did. So pretty amazing really. Fast forward another six, eight months I actually took a formal class in Scent Work and learned how to properly imprint him out owner and just played the game in the backyard as a mental exercise for two, two and a half years.

(05:11):
I think he was almost three before I did my first competition and I entered and it actually went really well. I mean, we did a couple sniff and goes before that and I remember him like he didn't quite know what we were doing outside the context of our backyard so we had to kind of work on that. But he did really well and I was just like, "Wow, this is fun and he's good at it and I'm enjoying it." And it just kind of spiraled ever since over the past three years and I've come to love not only watching dogs do it every dog, not just mine. I've come to love trying to understand odor theory and the relationship that we have with our dogs and the communication that goes on between the two of us and how to be a competitor, how to better move throughout the search area to help assist your teammate.

(05:53):
So all the things Scent Work now, that's my story.

Dianna L. Santos (05:56):
And that is an amazing story. I always love to hear how people first came into Scent Work, what drew them to it and then where it is that they got bit by the bug because everyone gets bit by the bug and then it's like, "Oh, well, now you live and breathe Scent Work. Welcome."

Scot Singpiel (06:11):
I know it's like at one point in my life, it's hard to believe there wasn't Scent Work and now I'm so deep. And I love that too. On my podcast, I always ask the judges, "What's your origin story?" And I notice a lot of kind of familiar themes. And then there are also some unique themes, but it's like I had a dog that was reactive and couldn't do agility or other things or my agility dog got hurt so we needed another activity. Those are a couple of the threads I hear a lot, but everybody's got such a unique entry into it and it just fascinates me to know and how we then become so obsessed with it like I have.

Dianna L. Santos (06:44):
Absolutely. And I love what you've been talking about as far as your journey is that the seed was planted all the many moons ago when you went and you saw the, "I'm going to put this and odor moves like water." You're like, "That's fascinating." But it's there in the back of your brain and then you're able to start this off with your dog Murphy and then you're seeing the different layers of the activity. It's almost like an onion and you had that really periphery little layer of, "Oh, here, here's a straw, sniff this. Okay, we're going to put this somewhere else." And then you start doing more and more and more and it's never ending.That's the part that I love about this activity is that you always have more to learn because we're not the dog. And just when you start thinking you have a grasp on this, the dogs and odor says, "You don't know anything."

Scot Singpiel (07:28):
Right. Yeah. Yep, yep. You get humbled. Odor will humble you. Your dogs will humble you just as soon as you start thinking you're, "I'm getting pretty good at this. " So that's good because you have that ever going challenge.

Dianna L. Santos (07:40):
Absolutely. So that leads us into this wonderful adventure that you are starting now with your Alert Scent Work Podcast. And what I love about this is that you are talking with trial officials. So can you talk a little bit about what your thought process was in starting this podcast, what made you interested in doing this and some of the things that you've learned along the way?

Scot Singpiel (08:00):
Yeah, absolutely. And let me tell you, you were a huge inspiration because I listened to your podcast early on in my Scent Work career and I'm like, "This is so cool." And I was just so hungry for information and you were talking to such incredible guests that had such great information that was meeting me where I was. So I have a history in this and I've always kind of wanted to do a podcast of my own, but I've never found anything that I was really that passionate about to dedicate the time to. And also podcasting to be successful in my opinion that I've learned, it has to be niche. You have to have a niche audience and you have to have a well-defined kind of objective. So you were out there, there's some other great Scent Work podcasts out there. You're all talking to trainers, you are trainers, I'm not, I'm just a competitor.

(08:43):
So I was trying to think, how can I differentiate myself? What's an angle we haven't explored? And this is not a linear process as I'm making it out to be, but I landed on judges because I just remember after a run, a judge might say something to me that gave me some insight that really helped me take that next step. Or maybe I'd seek out a judge and I'd say, "Hey, what did you see right there? Did you see anything?" And they were always so forthcoming and so helpful that I just thought, "Isn't it a shame we don't have time to get longer conversations with these awesome people?" And that's kind of really where it was born is who am I? I want to stay in my lane as a competitor. If I'm talking to judges, how am I talking to them? I'm talking to them from the perspective of a competitor and they see so many dogs run, many of them are great trainers and competitors themselves.

(09:31):
How can we get some insights from these people more than just their minute or two that they get at the morning briefing?

Dianna L. Santos (09:37):
And that's amazing. And I love the fact that you're highlighting that these people are incredibly generous with all of their, first of all, their time. Oh my God, their time, but also with all of the insights that they do share and that they are almost overflowing with information that they want to share and the fact that they want everyone to succeed. And when you are able to come up to an official such as you did and say, "I want to learn more," I would bet money that they were like, "Oh, that is just so wonderful. That fills up my cup. Thank you." Yes. I love the fact that you are interested. So giving these people an outlet where they can have these longer conversations is absolutely spectacular. And I really am very thankful that you've done this because again, it is able to highlight all of their amazing expertise, but they are able to get more into the minutia.

(10:29):
They're able to get deeper into some of these topics and it also puts a human face on it because I don't know what your experience was, but many experience when they first start trialing is they come up to the line, they're all kind of nervous, brand new baby competitors and there's the person with the clipboard going ready. You're like, "Oh my God." Whereas now you are actually putting a voice and a personality and humanity behind that person who's holding onto the clipboard that they are not sitting there hoping that you fail. It's actually just the opposite. They want so desperately for you to succeed and you're providing them with that outlet so that they can explain what their thought process are and what people could potentially do in training. So with that being said, who was the very first person that you interviewed and why?

Scot Singpiel (11:13):
I had three or four judges I approached right away and it was mainly because I knew them, I had shown under them a few times and it's kind of funny with judges, anybody that has ever gone into a round just to observe and I'm amazed more people don't, I really would encourage everybody to go in after you show and put your dog away, go watch a couple runs afterwards. If you sit next to a judge long enough and you're quiet, eventually they'll start talking to you almost universal because they have all this knowledge that they want to tell you. So I just started watching rounds and these judges would start to open up and it was those judges that I approached at first. It was Aleks Woodroffe, it was Halle McMullan and it was Lori Schlossnagel and it was because I liked them, I respected them, I had a relationship with them.

(12:02):
This was before there was even a podcast and I was just trying to do a proof of concept. So those were the first three that I talked to. But mainly the initial group of judges or judges I've shown under. Because of my media background, I've had conversations with them so I know what strings and threads to pull at to make them really open up on the podcast if I have a little bit of a history. So that's kind of how that's been going. I am trying to expand though. I want to expand to the east in the Midwest and the east and talk to some judges I don't know, but that's a little scary. And now that actually I have some credibility, I think I can start reaching out to them and they will say yes. Before I had any credibility, I was afraid they'd be like, "Who are you?

(12:42):
How many people listen?" That's how it started and those are my plans for the future.

Dianna L. Santos (12:46):
Perfect. So in those first couple of conversations, what were some of the things that really struck you or you're like, "Ugh, this is gold," or, "I had never thought of that. Oh, I can't wait for someone to hear this episode."

Scot Singpiel (12:57):
Yeah, I can't think of specifics, but I can tell you just generally how it evolved. It started out, it was going to be very much like, "All right, when you're watching us, what's something you notice a lot of competitors do that if we didn't do that, maybe we'd be a little bit better, or what's something we're missing or that? " What I really started to enjoy though was the what was your Scent Work origin story? And like you said, getting to the humanity, finding out a litle bit more about this person as a person. The other thing that I really started enjoying pulling the thread at is them as competitors and each one of them would have very unique dogs or different breeds and finding out insights on particular breeds, like what's their experience if you've shown a couple breeds? How do they work differently?

(13:42):
How do they work the same? So it was those kind of things. The strange thing was it started out that I wanted it to be just packed with all these actionable tips and things you can do, but it ended up being kind of partially that, partially talking to the judge and learning more about them. And the other thing that is really developed that I love is just bigger philosophies on how to approach the sport versus an actionable tip.

Dianna L. Santos (14:09):
When you're having a conversation with someone that there's so many different threads that you can pull upon and your mind is racing when they're offering you something like, "I never thought of it that way." Right.

Scot Singpiel (14:23):
It's these bigger perspectives, like how can I change not only my perspective but other people? And I guess maybe a good example would be like failure. You walk out, you've had a bad round, how do you deal with that? What's your perspective on that? And just hearing those bigger perspectives or the bigger perspective that I've learned that this is a game about communication and had I not talked to as many judges as I have so far, I don't know that I would've come to that conclusion, but that theme kept coming up over and over again. And just understanding this is a game about communication changes the way you view the game, the lens that you look at it through. So it's those things that I really love.

Dianna L. Santos (15:02):
And that's amazing. I think it's another example of kind of the onion effect that we were just talking about that it is the experience that we all have in the activity. We're able to first start off, like you had mentioned, "Oh, you just put something out there and the dog goes and finds it and it's amazing." I was like, "Well, that's how it starts maybe." But the fact that with all these different conversations that you've been having, these different experiences with these very talented professionals who, again, as you've mentioned, are also trainers and are also competitors in their own right, they're wearing all these different hats and that means that they're having different experiences. It's not that they're just going to a trial and setting hides and then seeing how people do. They're also working with clients in order to ensure they can develop the skills for both them and their dogs, but they're also then trying to make sure that they can do that themselves with their own dog.

(15:49):
And that's extraordinarily difficult to do all three of those things and to do them well.

Scot Singpiel (15:54):
Absolutely.

Dianna L. Santos (15:54):
And that's one of the reasons why we should be so thankful for all these professionals who do spend so much of their time going into trials because that is time that is taking away from working with their clients or working with their own dogs, but it's also broadening their expertise. The thing I love about what you're doing with your podcast is, again, humanizing these people but highlighting all the expertise that they do have, what it is that they're realizing, and you may not even realize this isn't the time, but you're pulling upon those three different hats of this is what I'm experiencing as a trial official, this is what I experienced as a trainer, and this is what I'm experiencing as a competitor, and that's really difficult. It's not easy to do. It is.

Scot Singpiel (16:33):
Or even the conflict between the competitor and the judge. I love getting at these emotional ideas of, all right, when you go in to compete, everybody knows you're a judge. Does that add extra stress? I like learning about that. And the answer is yes for the most part, right? Because people think, "Well, you're a judge, so you must know everything so you must be an awesome competitor." But there are so many variables, sometimes it just doesn't work out that way.

Dianna L. Santos (16:54):
Right. And I think that it's incredible that you're offering that insight because again, I think it helps for people who are listening to your podcast to look at the judge in a little bit of a different light instead of, again, with that little baby competitor that we were talking about earlier of like, "Oh, they're so scary," to, "Oh, they have a halo around them. They are just perfection." Nope, they're just a person just like you. Yep, they are. They just have a lot of experience, but that doesn't mean that they're done. And that's the other part that I really appreciate about what you're doing is it's highlighting that we all have to continue to grow and we all will continue to grow and we're all continuing to grow from one another because we're learning from each other and offering this platform for people to hear these different perspectives is very, very, very important.

(17:36):
So you're doing an awesome job.

Scot Singpiel (17:37):
Well, thank you. I appreciate that.

Dianna L. Santos (17:40):
One of the things I think that competitors really struggle with is when they're going into a trial, they want to ensure that they're doing well. And as we all know, sometimes this work and knows where gods and nature says, "No, not today." So it's very possible that you're going to be getting a no. So what are some of the things that you have heard from the different interviews that you've done as far as it goes to losing gracefully or being able to take the result and not have so much emotion attached to it?

Scot Singpiel (18:10):
Yeah. I mean, that's hard, right? You have all the lessons in the world. I think that when it comes to not getting the cue, one of the most helpful things for me was to realize that there are so many reasons you might not have got that cue. I think at first it's very simple to just go, "Oh, we failed. We're terrible. We didn't do it right." But it could have been the dog's never seen that kind of a hide before. That's an easily solvable problem. You go practice that kind of hide. It just wasn't in their odor library. It could be maybe the hide and judges try very hard to do this, I know, wasn't stable. So maybe there wasn't a good line when you went in there. Maybe a high hide that was dropping is all of a sudden rising and there's nothing you could have done about that.

(18:59):
So I think just understanding and realizing there are so many reasons why you might not get that cue. Maybe I didn't sleep well the night before. Maybe it was too hot and my dog just wasn't into it. I think that removes it a little bit from the ego and not only that, but sometimes helps you realize, all right, that was one we are not going to win today. Maybe in three or four weeks we would get that one, but not today. And I think that there's something to be said for just being able to accept the outcome. Now there are times where I'll give you an example of a recent trial. I went into a master buried and I found three hides, just boom, boom, boom, and I proudly called finish. So Diana, I'm going to ask you a litle question. Master buried and AKC, do you know how many max hides there can be?

Dianna L. Santos (19:45):
Not off the top of my head, I don't.

Scot Singpiel (19:46):
Well, the answer is four, not three. It's containers, there's a max hide of three and I just got disoriented, for whatever reason, had the containers in my brain. So I mean, I cost our team that and that hurt and that's kind of hard to get over, but I guess everybody makes mistakes.

Dianna L. Santos (20:02):
And I think that that's an important thing to keep in mind is that particularly for people who may be competing in multiple venues trying to keep all the rules in the forefront of your mind so that you can remember what is it that I have to do in this search and particularly for people who are competing in AKC where you may be at a cluster where not only are you doing Scent Work, but maybe you're also doing confirmation and agility and rally and all these things, give yourself and your dog a little bit of grace.

Scot Singpiel (20:30):
Yeah. And I think another aspect of that, and I went through this this weekend. So this weekend we had four detective runs and this was the weekend where I miscalled the buried and I had a terrible kind of ... I was just wandering around the search area in my master exterior. I don't know what I was doing. But we got three out of four detectives and I told myself going in, the detectives is what matters to me. I just entered master elements because I'm going to be here and I just as well do them. And if I get them, that's icing. But isn't it funny how once we have our cake, we want our icing too.

Dianna L. Santos (21:03):
Yes. Well, that is absolutely true that we can set ourselves up like, "Hey, I'm just going to do this just in case." But then it's like, I do actually really want that though.

Scot Singpiel (21:12):
Right. But I think the bigger lesson there for me is sometimes, and this is a fault of mine and I work really hard on this. It's easy for us to hone in on the negative and the successes we didn't have, the failures as opposed to we had some amazing runs. There might have only been 16 things that went wrong and 125 that went right. So I really try hard even in a loss, even in an NQ to recognize a small moment of brilliance or a small moment of just something exceptional. And if you look hard enough, and it's hard at first because this is a muscle you have to develop if you have a brain like mine, you'll find them and then celebrate those and that helps the sting too.

Dianna L. Santos (21:55):
I think that's a wonderful piece of advice and insight for people. And again, I think it's supported from the conversations that you're having with these judges that they can provide some of the insights of why things may have happened the way that they did. Or it could also be like, "Yeah, you know what? Yo weren't the only team that had problems with this. We had a low Q rate and it was because of whatever the reason was. " And the fact that, again, the judges are also sharing like, "Yeah, I don't get a perfect score either." Something that I hope that people would be able to take away from this activity is it's not guaranteed. It's not as though if you train, you show up to the test, you're guaranteed to pass.

Scot Singpiel (22:33):
No.

Dianna L. Santos (22:34):
It's not the case at all.

Scot Singpiel (22:35):
There's time pressures, there's so many other pressures, there are environmental things going on and I'm not a sports guy. I don't watch sports at all, but from what I understand in baseball, if you have what's called like a 300 batting average, which means you hit three out of 10 balls, you get on base three out of 10 times, I mean, you're an amazing player. You're a multimillion dollar player. So imagine that three out of 10 successes and you're a multimillion dollar player. So nobody's perfect in any sport.

Dianna L. Santos (23:02):
Absolutely. And I think that's an important thing for people to keep in mind that this is when we're talking about competition, it is a sport and having realistic expectations is important and that setwork is so different from most other dog sports because there's so many different variables that we have to contend with that you may not have to contend with with other sports. So if you do have experience in competitional obedience or agility or herding as an example, that this is drastically different. There's so many things that are completely outside of your control as a competitor that you also probably can't even prepare for. And the fact that you and your dog step up to the line and you tackle this and you also do well a good portion of the time is amazing. You should be very killed with yourselves.

Scot Singpiel (23:44):
Yeah. I agree with that. That's a great way to look at it. The fact that we do well most of the time is amazing.

Dianna L. Santos (23:51):
Yes. I mean, the fact that you just tackled all these detective runs and you did well, that's awesome.

Scot Singpiel (23:56):
Yeah. It was an extraordinary weekend for detectives for us. Normally we're about 50%, so I should be ecstatic about that. But of course I wasn't because I was dwelling on that one master run.

Dianna L. Santos (24:07):
But I think that that's an important process for everyone to go through as well and just be kind to yourself that I am like you. I like, oh, is there something bad for me to focus on? Well, let me draw up a chair and let me sit here for a second. So I absolutely love obsessing about things that go wrong, but that's a natural process and it will take time for people to end their journey to be able to recognize this went well. I'm going to focus on this thing, this thing, not so much, that's okay. Or also, which again is a wonderful thing about your podcast of being able to look at it a little bit differently, that it's not just about the outcome per se, whether or not you qualified or you titled, but it's more so what was the process along the way?

(24:51):
What was my leash handling like? What was my communication like? How did we cover this space? Was my dog looking confident? Was my dog working independently? Was I present? Could I actually remember what happened or did I go in with a fog and left with a fog? All of that is the stuff that becomes more meaningful to you as your journey is going along. And if someone particularly is just starting out and they're like, "But I'm not there yet." It's okay, you'll get there. It's a natural part of the process.

Scot Singpiel (25:17):
And what you just said, you listed so many skills that have to go right to get that cue. I think that's another perspective that really helped me. There's a lot of things you have to do right to get that cue in the upper levels of any organization AKC, UKC, NACSW. So sometimes we mess up on one and we don't get it as a result, but there's a lot of things we did do right.

Dianna L. Santos (25:39):
Absolutely. So what are some of the organizations that you're playing with right now?

Scot Singpiel (25:43):
I'm primarily AKC. I've done some dabbling in UKC because we have a local UKC club. I will tell you it's a little frustrating because my dog's at the master level and I'm in novice at UKC and it's not as fun because the searches are done in eight seconds because they're supposed to be able to recognize order and source it. That's what they have to do. I want to get in NACSW, but it seems like the trials that are around here always conflict with other things going on. So primarily AKC right now, but I think NACSW is my next one that I want to compete in.

Dianna L. Santos (26:15):
Okay, perfect. And then just the thing for you to think about is that if UKC is more readily available for you is that there are ways that you can strategically trial. So let's say that you knew that you were going to be doing something with Detective and Masters again for AKC. You could potentially also do a UKC trial as like, okay, I know it's going to be like an eight second run pretty much. We're going to go in, we're going to be able to recognize our little hide, we're going to be able to get that. That's a nice, easy win for you and Murphy. So then you can go into your AKC trial and be like, "We are rock stars because we just killed that novice search." So those are the types of strategic things that when the sport very first started and there was only NSCSW trials, which again was amazing that they started this whole thing for us, but that wasn't a possibility and the fact that there are so many options now is something that people really should be leaning into as much as they can so that they can get those wins for their dogs.

(27:08):
They can choose where it is they're going to be competing and when and why and also how much. All those decision points are really super important. This is the other reason why I think your podcast is so incredibly helpful is that you're talking to officials who probably also officiate for multiple organizations. They're able to share their expertise across organizations and the fact that you're seeing this expertise spread out is a wonderful thing that they're able to determine, okay, for this organization, this is the rule book that I have to follow, this other organization, they have a completely set of rules that I have to follow, but I still have to make sure that it's fair and it's achievable for that level. That's a wonderful thing for people to be able to experience. So if someone's listening to your podcast like, "Oh, I really liked that official." My advice would be great.

(27:55):
Learn more about them, please. Most of them are trainers. Go see if you can learn from them directly, but then also see what other organizations are they officials for. And maybe it's an organization you haven't heard of before, maybe you haven't seen it in your area yet, or you just haven't given it a try. Go volunteer at that trial that they may be officiating for. Get a sense for what it's like and then see how could I maybe put this in, plug this into my own competing program to see whether or not it's going to work out for me and my dog. So this is another fantastic thing that your podcast is offering is the opportunity for people to do just that is to learn more about these people and then say, how else can I learn from them? Maybe they aren't officiating my particular venue of choice right now, but maybe they're officiating another trial.

(28:35):
I can now learn more about that organization. You're doing amazing things with your podcast, sir.

Scot Singpiel (28:40):
Oh, thank you.

Dianna L. Santos (28:42):
So what are some of the things as far as you talked a litle bit about what your forward plans are for the podcast, but if we had to say within the next year, five years, what are you hoping to achieve with your podcast over that period of time?

Scot Singpiel (28:54):
I want to continue to interview judges. I want to expand into other organizations. I've been kind of AKC based just because that's where my comfort is, I think. I'd like to include voices from other places. Strangely enough, I want to have some people on that do sent work in Canada or Australia because Australia accounts for about 15% of my listenership really surprised me how vibrant of a community of Scent Work enthusiasts there are in Australia. I think expand also to judges that I don't personally know, judges that are in other locations outside of my area in the Intermountain West here. Those are the big goals. Eventually I have got my Facebook page, which started out promoting the podcast, but has turned into more of this community. And again, I think what I've enjoyed about that is it's leaning into this competitor mindset. There's not a lot of competitor-based content out there where competitors talk about their experiences.

(29:51):
So the Facebook page has kind of become that, like little tips and tricks they've learned or wins or losses or philosophies that help them and And I also just love the ridiculousness sometimes of our sport, the jokes that we tell, the silliness, kind of the lifestyle stuff. I hope to kind of expand into that direction as well. Now, I don't know if it's going to be on the podcast that I do that. Right now it's judge focused around Master Nationals last year. I did have the first place and I had a top 10 finisher for Master Nationals. So they weren't judges, but I just thought I want it to be the home of the Scentwork community, if that makes any sense. And that's probably a big hairy goal, but that's kind of what I'd like is this is a central location where competitors go to learn stuff and hear other people's stories, more of a community.

Dianna L. Santos (30:43):
Perfect. And then for people who are maybe just starting out, maybe they just, I mean quite literally they just started taking a class yesterday and they just stumble upon your podcast. What are some of the things that you want them to know as far as, well, is this a thing for me, Scot? Or I'm not competing yet so maybe I should wait until I start? Is this a community for them or is it only off? I need to make sure I have titles first.

Scot Singpiel (31:06):
Yeah, no, I would say it's for everybody. Now I will say that my target listener is somebody who is in Scent Work, has probably done it for about a year and is either in the rabbit hole or starting to fall down the rabbit hole and on. It's not like super beginner friendly, but where I think it could benefit a beginner and I remember this from my own experience is you start to hear some of the terms that are used in the sport like odor plumes or lines to source or reward clocks or any of these types of terms, things I didn't know existed because all I knew was find it, dog sits, gives me their trained final response, I call alert done. Change in behavior, odor movement. So you start to get exposed to those ideas and by listening to the podcast, you might not understand them because sometimes we don't go in depth, but you start hearing these concepts and you can start thinking, "All right, well, how might that apply to a problem that I'm engaged in?

(32:05):
Or do I want to learn more about how odor moves?" And then you can start to explore some of those topics because I think one of the biggest challenges when we start out is we don't know what we don't know. And when you start hearing some of these ideas, then at least you've got a starting point and you know what to look for. So I think that's how a beginner could really benefit from listening to my podcast.

Dianna L. Santos (32:25):
Perfect. We'll definitely make certain that we have links for how you'd be able to find all about Scott's podcast where we're posting our episode also on our website and social media. Also ensure we'll have a link for his Facebook. Is it a page or a group?

Scot Singpiel (32:37):
It's a Facebook page, Alert Scent Work.

Dianna L. Santos (32:39):
Perfect. So make sure that we have a link for that as well. Sir, I really do appreciate everything that you've been doing. Again, the more resources that we can have out into the community, the better. I love the fact that you're highlighting these very experienced professionals who are sharing their perspectives and humanizing them I think is very, very important. Yeah, I agree. But also providing a community for the competitors where they're able to learn from each other. And I also have to say, I am a member of your Facebook page and I love the little memes that you guys are sharing. They're very, very adorable. It's very fun place. It's very supportive. So I highly recommend that everyone check it out because it's good stuff.

Scot Singpiel (33:16):
As you said, the memes, I think you're probably talking about the litle cartoons. Those have been a lot of fun because that's what I'm talking about when I talk about lifestyle. It's the jokes. The basis of it is we all have conversations as handlers about our dogs. "Well, our dog did a really weird thing in that search or I don't know what they were thinking. What if you flipped it and it was the dogs talking about us because we do weird things too. We just don't admit it or realize it. And you hear some of the kind of the same jokes when you go to ScentWork trial. So I was just kind of playing off of that and sometimes I try to make them a little educational as well. So I'm glad that you like those. They're a lot of fun.

Dianna L. Santos (33:49):
Yes. No, I absolutely love the thing that you're building. It's very positive. It's very welcoming. It's a lot of really good humor and it's what we need against this is a game. Yes, it is a test, but it's still a game.

Scot Singpiel (33:59):
Right, exactly. It's supposed to be fun, right? Why aren't we having more fun? We should have more fun.

Dianna L. Santos (34:04):
Absolutely. Well, sir, I really do appreciate everything that you're doing. Absolutely spectacular. You and your amazing voice, you keep doing what you're doing because you're doing good stuff.

Scot Singpiel (34:12):
Thank you, Dianna.

Dianna L. Santos (34:14):
I want to give a very huge thank you to Scott for sitting down with me for this conversation. I really love the passion that he's bringing into this space and highlighting the various judges who are putting in so much effort when they are designing these searches for us to tackle at trial. I love the fact that he's humanizing these people so that those of us who walk up to the line all nervous like, "Oh God, the judge is over there. "That instead we're able to see these as people who are also very passionate about Scent Work. They have so much expertise behind them and being able to hear their perspectives of what it is that they are thinking about and considering when they're designing these searches is so incredibly helpful. And then also the fact that many of them are also wearing those competitor hats.

(34:59):
So hearing some of their background as far as how it is that they're tackling their own training and their own trialing experiences is wonderful. So I love the fact that Scot is offering this through his podcast. We'll make certain that there are links where you'd be able to find more information for that where we post this episode. And as always, I love speaking to everyone who is involved in this different community. So if you know of someone who is giving back, who maybe is starting something up, who is involved and you're like, "Oh, I really wish that Santos would talk to them. By all means, please let me know. I want to make certain that I'm highlighting anyone who's giving back to the significant community. I just want to thank everyone for giving the podcast a listen. I know that we've been on a little bit of a pause.

(35:39):
Things are very busy right now, but I'm hoping to start posting again on a very regular basis. So if there are particular topics or anything you guys are interested in, always feel free to let me know. We definitely want to make certain that we are giving you what it is that you are interested in. But as always, thank you so very much for all of your support. We really do appreciate it. Please give a cookie to your puppies for us. Happy training. We look forward to seeing you soon.