The tell tail tell
Every dog is different and that is one of the things that I like best about teaching scentwork. There is no magic way for you to understand your dog and what it is telling you when it’s working or on scent, the only way to understand your dog is to take the time to watch and learn, to observe them and take note.
Lisa and her dog Marlowe have been coming to me for years now and she now knows her dogs body language really well.
Her lad Marlowe had his first introduction to scent distractions so we had his clove-scented article hidden under one cone and under the other we had an article scented with the smell of dog food! Tempting!
Because this was his first time on scent distraction we didn’t know how he would react but interestingly he reacted by being unsure which to indicate and he held on the first cone longer than we would have expected him to if just taking in the scent. Had Lisa not known her dog as well as she does she would likely have then called this an ‘alert’.
But Lisa does know her dog well, he has a few tells when giving a false indication but the clearest message from him is that when on a false alert (the first cone) his tail is still and down in a relaxed manner, when he holds on his hot scent which is cloves the difference in his tail is huge, he wags it happily and confidently.
He also does have several other small tells that Lisa has worked out over time and combining all these Lisa is confident enough and called the correct ‘alert’ during this session.
Scentwork really can deepen your relationship with your dog, it is a discipline that sees you watching and learning from your dog as much as you work teaching your dog and a partnership builds based on mutual trust.
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