In this six week class, Iona and I will teach you a powerful new way to practice scent work when you are stuck inside. It is an easy way to exercise your dog’s body and mind and you do not need essential oils!
You will be working with a large variety of household items that you already have. You will first teach your dog to hold them and then pick them up and give them to you. Then you will teach your dog a retrieve to hand and this will turn into our searching game! This class is appropriate for dogs of all levels, elite to completely novice and the skills that they will learn will translate directly to oil and HD searches. Searching with household objects rather than oils is easy, quick, and fun. There is also no residual/lingering odor so you can play the game till your dog is good and tired. The best part is that you can use these skills functionally to have your dog pick up the mail that you dropped, help you sort your socks, or look for your lost cell phone.
When Iona was a puppy, she taught me that she LOVES to search for any hidden object. We have been playing this game before she started with scent work and I feel that this is a foundation skill that is often overlooked. Iona will search for ANYTHING: her toys, a toy, my hat, my wallet, my phone, a piece of mail, you get the idea. So it is no wonder that she can search for essential oils fluently! We play this game nearly daily and she never tires of it. In fact, she often demands to work.
Here is a sample video with a guest lecturer.