Foundations: Behavior and the Scenting Brain Webinar

This webinar is part one of this webinar series. Build a practical foundation for reading your dog, setting up successful searches, and developing calm, confident, focused performance in Scent Work. This session explains how sniffing directly influences the brain and emotional state, helping dogs regulate arousal, reduce stress, and stay engaged—so your setups and training choices support both learning and emotional balance.

WEBINAR DETAILS

Kick off the series with practical, easy-to-use tools you can apply in your very next session. You’ll learn how to tell the difference between a dog who’s “amped” versus truly stressed, recognize fatigue versus behavioral hiccups, and set up search areas that help your dog win early and often.

Nancy will discuss simple warm-up routines, confidence-building strategies, and quick environmental adjustments that support calm, focused, and successful searching. You’ll also learn key learning concepts—reinforcement, stimulus control, and generalization—and how they apply to scent detection and routine searches, along with straightforward assessment strategies to determine whether performance challenges stem from sensory, motivational, cognitive, or environmental factors. You’ll leave with clear checklists, setup ideas, and a realistic plan for building steady progress without overwhelm.

RELATED WEBINARS

These three webinars are part of the Why Behavior Matters in Canine Nose Work series. Each session stands alone, and together they create a clear path: start with foundations, strengthen handler skills for real-life challenges, and finish with advanced applications and inspiring success stories.

• Part 1 - Foundations: Behavior and the Scenting Brain Webinar
• Part 2 - The Handler's Role: Managing Behavioral Challenges Webinar
• Part 3 - Advanced Behavioral Applications and Success Stories Webinar

CEUS

We have applied for NACSW CEUs - stay tuned!

LIVE WEBINAR

Join us for the live webinar on February 9th at 4:30PM PT/5:30PM MT/6:30PM CT/7:30PM ET where you may ask Nancy questions in real-time and receive free, continual access to the fully edited webinar replay.

WEBINAR REPLAY

Cannot make the live webinar? No worries! Order the webinar replay and go through the presentation whenever it works best for you. There are no deadlines, cut-off dates or expiration dates to worry about. We fully edit all of our live webinars, so the replay will be posted by the end of the day on February 10th.