Sniffing Around Scent Work

It has finally, finally reached EXTERIORS season here in Texas. For obvious reasons, I don’t teach exteriors during the hellmouth time. So all of my exterior searches are concentrated in the cooler weather period, which means in just about every class, from now until April, we will have at least one exteriors search.

Dogs typically struggle in exteriors because there are more distractions outside and because of the “pottying” issue.  Per AKC rules (and every other competitive sniffing organization) any dog who eliminates in the search area will be excused from the search. And, because dogs are dogs, once a search area has been fouled, other dogs are more likely to also eliminate there, creating what I call the chain of NQs.

People seem to expect that because we are giving the dog a search command, they should automatically know that we don’t want them to potty while searching. In fact, the act of sniffing is intimately tied up with elimination for the dog, because as we all know, it is not just elimination of waste, it is ALSO a form of communication. So to ask dogs to ignore all of the communication smells they might encounter during a search is tantamount to asking you walk down the hallway at work without acknowledging any of your coworkers when you pass them—don’t nod, don’t smile, don’t say hello.  Can you do it? Yes. Might it take some explicit instruction and practice, so you don’t forget and inadvertently say hello? Yes.

So How Do You Train This?

Surprise: we all know how to train this. So I am pretty puzzled with competitor’s struggles with this (it is sadly very common to have lots of accidents in the Novice Exteriors area).

The methodology for teaching your dog NOT to potty in the search area is the same methodology used for house training:

1. Make sure your dog has pottied SUFFICIENTLY before entering the search area. In general, you should treat the exterior search area of a trial as if it were your brand-new white living room carpet and pretend that your dog is an eight-week-old puppy. 

 If you have a dog who likes to mark a lot, or is unaltered, this means giving them a lot of opportunity to potty. I have a young, intact male and I generally let him mark areas until I see almost nothing coming out when he lifts his leg.

Where people seem to go the most wrong with this is in making sure the dog has pottied RIGHT BEFORE ENTERING THE SEARCH AREA.

Many, many people seem to think that having pottied their dog briefly an hour or two hours ago (like when they first came to the trial site, or they first came to class) is enough to ensure that the dog won’t potty. I have seen this time and time again. Sometimes I have asked my students “did you potty your dog” and they say “yes” and I ask “when” and they say “an hour ago,” or worse, they say he doesn’t have to go, he went at home.

Yes, I know your dogs doesn’t have to potty that much AT HOME. This is not AT HOME.

The actual ritual of going to an area and giving the command to let the dog potty is important. Dogs learn through compare and contrast, and by doing this every time you search outside, you emphasize “go here” and “not here.” Even after the dog seems to understand the concept, they need a reminder.

I learned when I was training Astra in exteriors that it didn’t matter how eager she was to go search, or how hurried I was, taking the time to potty her in an area away from the search area was crucial. There were several times when I had hurried home after work, loaded her into the car, drove to a search location, set up hides, and let her go to work without taking the time to walk her around and let her mark. And every time, she would pee in the search area.

I had to institute a strict rule (for both of us) about we are going to walk around until you have peed at least once. Then and only then, will we go search. After I did this, she stopped eliminating during searches.

2. If your dog does eliminate during the search, let him/her know that that behavior is not acceptable, and pull them out of the search area. Don’t be overly harsh with this, the dog was sniffing and that’s what you asked them to do. Just saying “uh uh” and interrupting them is probably enough.

3. Go over to an acceptable area, and ask him/her to potty.

4. Remove the poop (if any) and cover the soiled area with a piece of plastic, cardboard or wood—this makes the odor inaccessible to the dog, at least temporarily, and will reduce the chances of him/her marking that area again.

5. Return to the search area and ask your dog to search again.

There are variations to these steps, of course. For example, sometimes if my dog has soiled the search area, we are done for the day. And if that’s the case, obviously I don’t bother covering the soiled area.

Helpful Hints:   

The whole thing will be easier if you have a command that your dog associates with pottying. Don’t have one? It is well worth taking the time to train one.

You can also start with easier search areas, generally areas that are concrete or asphault, that have not in areas where dogs are likely to have traveled.

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