Exteriors and Vehicles with Birch

This course will concentrate on how to introduce your dog to the concept of searching exterior and vehicle search areas for Birch.
We will discuss the various considerations which should go into hide placement to ensure your dog can be successful. These include how the environment and wind will affect the odor as well as safety concerns handlers should always be mindful of.

Additionally, we will cover how handlers can both help set their dog up to succeed while still pushing them to further improve and build upon their skills and capabilities.

As with the Introducing Birch course, we will be using pairing to allow the dog to self-reward at source, as source needs to be the most rewarding thing!

By following the K9 Nose Work® training methodology, not only are we giving your dog a strong foundation so they my be successful at a NACSW™ trial, but they will be successful competing with other Scent Work competition organizations as well!

• your dog

• flat or martingale collar

• back-clip harness (optional)

• 6'-8' leash

• 10'-15' long line

• LOTS of high-value and smelly treats

• crate or area you can stage your dog in while setting up your searches

• minimum of 10 boxes of various sizes (good excuse to shop at Amazon!)

• minimum of 5 novel containers (e.g. Tupperware, purse, bag, etc.)

• 1-3 vehicles (e.g. car, SUV, truck, tractor, riding lawnmower, etc)

• earthquake putty or GlueDots

• q-tips

• Birch (“Sweet Birch” aka Betula Lenta)

• minimum of 3 tins with holes

The Exteriors and Vehicles with Birch course is designed to provide the same exact learning experience we provided to our in-person group dog training classes in a virtual format. Same great quality with more flexibility and convenience!

Here is a quick breakdown of the types of topics that will be covered each week:

• Introduction to Exterior Searches with Birch

• Using Boxes to Expand Your Search

• Wind, Start Lines and Distractors

• Introduction to Vehicle Searches with Birch

• Multiple Hides on a Vehicle

• Putting it All Together

Have you taken the Introduction to Birch course or similar course? Now that your dog has an understanding that Birch is indeed a worthwhile and valuable scent to hunt for, you can now dive into having your dog work two of the trickier search elements: exteriors and vehicles!

Are you interested in competing in Scent Work? If this is the case, then you DEFINITELY want to have an understanding on how you can work an exterior and vehicle search area! Even for those competition organizations that may not offer a formal "vehicle search class", they will oftentimes allow vehicles to be in their exterior search areas!

Are you already competing and noticing some issues? We will be utilzing pairing in this course, focusing on helping the dogs understand how to work these two tricky search elements with proficiency, efficiency and lots of enthusiasm. So if you are struggling at all, shoring up your foundation skills with these courses can really help!

INSTRUCTOR NAME:

Dianna L. Santos

SHORT BIO:

The President of Online Dog Training, Inc. and Cyber Scent Work, Inc., Dianna is the Owner and Lead Instructor for Scent Work University. She is passionate about Scent Work and loves the benefits it awards dogs and handlers alike.