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NW205: Creating Clarity with Contrasts

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NW205: Creating Clarity with Contrasts

Course Details

Nosework was originally developed as an enrichment activity and quickly grew into one of the fastest growing dog sports. While therapeutic in nature, it also requires skillful training and handling.

Training with clarity is a goal for any sports training and it’s no different for Nosework!

Let’s consider how we can use contrasts to provide clarity. Will odor always be in a container? Will odor always be accessible? What about that distractor? Will there always be odor? Nosework is not only about finding target odor, but clearing cold areas, working through pooling odor, dismissing novel odors and more. By structuring our training to include contrasts, dogs learn to understand more clearly the essential elements of the task.

Nosework struggles are often a lack of understanding. Contrasts highlight those struggles and provide a path of understanding for the dog and handler. We can then tweak the training to bring clarity to the game.

Teaching Approach

This class offers written lectures, no verbal lectures, and videos of varying lengths. It is rare that relevant speaking takes place within a video; they are designed to be watched and follow the ideas presented in the lecture. Lecture videos may run from 30s to 3 minutes long, with the average between 1-2 minutes. The lectures are designed to help a student understand the purpose of the exercise and how to set it up appropriartely. Care is taken to keep lectures short. 

A 1 minute unlimited homework video option is available, along with the standard 6 minutes option per week. This class will work best for students who learn by reading text lectures, watching videos and who like having structured lesson plans.

Julie SymonsInstructor: Julie Symons

Julie Symons (she/her) has been involved in dog sports for over 25 years. Starting with her mix, Dreyfus, in flyball, she went on to train and compete in conformation, agility, obedience, herding and tracking with her first Belgian tervuren, Rival. Rival was the first CH OTCH MACH Belgian...(Click here for full bio and to view Julie's upcoming courses)

Syllabus

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Week 1: It's all about Source!

  • Blank vs. Target odor
  • Novel odor vs. Target odor
  • Blank vs. Novel odor vs. Target odor

Week 2: Search areas 

  • Small areas vs. Large areas
  • Unproductive vs. Productive areas
  • Objectless areas vs. Areas with stuff/clutter 

Week 3: Hide Placement

  • Low vs. High 
  • Perimeter vs. Center
  • Threshold vs. Hides in back

Week 4: Odor presentation 

  • Accessible vs. Inaccessible
  • Pooling Odor vs. Source
  • Low amount of odor vs. High Amount of odor

Week 5: Wind and Weather

  • Downwind vs. Upwind vs. Point to Point
  • Other weather conditions (no wind, hot, cold, rainy/damp)

Week 6: 

  • Single vs. Pairs vs. Triangles
  • Context vs. Odor

* Due to this being a new course, the syllabus is subject to change.

Prerequisites & Supplies

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Suitable for teams preparing to trial or already trialing. Skills span all levels of training.

Basic NW odor supplies and access to different training locations.

Sample Lecture

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Week 1: Blank vs. Novel Odor (Distractor) vs. Target Odor

This is one of my favorite exercises because it embodies many key skills for Nosework. Nosework requires dogs to recognize blank areas and not find something that is not there. Nosework requires dogs to dismiss novel odor in both unproductive and productive areas. Nosework also requires dogs to quickly locate target odor in the presence of competing motivators (distractors).

Using secure containers that won’t get tossed around or encourage being stepped on, set up containers so they are spread out in a small group. You can sit on the ground, in a chair or stand up. Your repetitions should follow this order:

  1. A blank group of containers
  2. A group of containers with a food distractor, no target odor
  3. A group of containers with target odor, no distractor
  4. Optional, repeat step 3 with target odor and a distractor

Additionally you can do repetitions using toys.

  1. A group of containers with toy distractor, no odor
  2. A group of containers with target odor and with toy distractors out

Note: If you think your dog will interact/pick up the toy, start with the toy in a vented container and work up to them being able to dismiss it. I would have odor out with the toy to start as the distractor alone may be too hard. If they do pick it up, ask them to give or drop and remove from the search. Go back a step so that they can not retrieve it. 

The KEY on the repetitions without target odor is to wait for your dog to dismiss the pile of items and call finish when they are not interacting/sniffing any of the containers.

Testimonials & Reviews

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This is a new course for June 2022.

Registration

Next session starts: August 1, 2023
Registration starts: July 22, 2023
Registration ends: August 15, 2023

Registration opens at 12:00noon Pacific Time.

NW205 Subscriptions


Gold

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Bronze
Tuition $ 260.00 $ 130.00 $ 65.00
Enrollment Limits 12 25 Unlimited
Access all course lectures and materials ✔ ✔ ✔
Access to discussion and homework forums ✔ ✔ ✔
Read all posted questions and answers ✔ ✔ ✔
Watch all posted videos ✔ ✔ ✔
Post general questions to Discussion forum ✔ ✔ ✖
Submit written assignments ✔ ✖ ✖
Post dog specific questions ✔ With video only ✖
Post videos ✔ Up to 2 ✖
Receive instructor feedback on
  • Questions
  • All videos
  • Questions
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✖

Find more details, refund policies and answers to common questions in the Help center.

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