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Tuesday, January 16, 2018

How Nosework has Helped Shyla

Shyla and I have continued with her nosework even though we haven't competed yet, and I'm not sure that we will in the future. I started nosework with Shyla to help build her confidence, especially when dealing with bustling environments that usually scare her. That is still my primary goal.
My goal is to help her be as confident in a town as out in our forest

For those who don't know, "nosework" is a dog sport where scent sources are hidden, and dog/handler teams must find them. The scents are usually essential oils - birch, anise, and clove. One or two oil-soaked q-tips are placed in a ventilated tube and then attached to something in the search area.

It's not a simple sport because there are so many skills involved. For the dog, she first has to learn that her job is to search for these particular scents. Then, as she gets more advanced, she has to figure out how to find the source of what can be visualized a big cone or cloud of scent in the search area.

I think that nosework is great for building up a dog's confidence because it's a sport where the dog is the driver. The human cannot smell the scent sources. The dog is the one with the amazing sense of smell who is in charge, leading the human to the scent sources. In a sense, the human's job is primarily learning how to read her dog's body language to know when the dog has picked up scent.

No doubt, nosework has helped Shyla learn to cope with scary environments. She gets so focused on her "job" of finding the scent sources that she doesn't obsess about the scary stuff around her.

I want to show you an example of Shyla searching on a bustling road in town. In Shyla's first couple of years with us, I took her to this road innumerable times, trying to help her learn to navigate the urban bustle using tried-and-true socialization techniques. It never worked. I finally gave up, and I decided that we would avoid places like that in everyday life.

Fast forward 4 years and we've been doing nosework for 2 years. I took Shyla to the exact area that used to scare her so much. I set up a search *on the sidewalk* of this busy place. People walked by talking loudly and cars zoomed past but Shyla kept searching. I was doing a happy dance in my heart! She is transformed when doing nosework, and it's starting to extend to simply navigating scary environments when she's not doing nosework.

Here's that search in a short video. There were three scent sources hidden. When you hear me say "alert" and give Shyla a treat, you know that she just found a scent source. You can watch here or at Youtube.


The one thing that Shyla still cannot handle is strangers watching her search. Some pedestrians stopped to watch her in a search that we did after the one in the video, and Shyla froze up. There's something about people staring at her (even from a distance) that terrifies Shyla. That's part of why I'm not sure that we'll ever compete (judges would have to stare at us). To be honest, we're achieving my goal for nosework so I don't feel the need to try to do formal competitions.
I love my Shyla. She has taught me more than any previous dog in my life as I've tried to learn to see the world through her eyes and thereby help her to learn not to be afraid of our world.

19 comments:

  1. Hari OM
    That was a wonderful little clip, giving us a good feel for Shyla's presence. No competition needed! YAM xx

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  2. Your dedication with Shyla is proof she can
    do the nosework. No judges needed.
    Lots of treats for Shyla, win win.
    xo Astro

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  3. Shyla is so special and we think she is always a winner!

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  4. Did you hear us chanting, "Good girl, Shyla?" We did over and over and with happy smiles☺

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  5. What terrific work. Love seeing her search focus. I wish I had known about this a number of years ago to help a PTSD diagnosed OES who could have used something like that. He had been abused by a man and was so terrified of so many things but smart as a whip. Pawsome job you guys!

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  6. great job to both of you. and there was a lot of noise, so glad she did so well. was R in the car, i could see a tail wagging inside the silver car. no need to compete, she is happy and healthy

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    1. R wasn't in the car but maybe another dog was. I've found that Shyla cannot search with R nearby. She loses her ability to work independently and constantly looks toward him. It't surprising but true!

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  7. What a great video...and I agree, no competing necessary!

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  8. Tackling the fear, with dogs, cats or humans, is a huge step that could take ages. Our oldest cat Felicity, took about 10 years to get over her absolute dread of folding up newspaper to light the fire.I am guessing when a kitten she was whacked with rolled up pages. The vacuum cleaner, much the same. Boris panics at strangers, when the plumbers were on the roof cleaning the chimney, and walking to the other end, he vanished. Fled across the stream, then it rained!! The water rose from a trickle to a torrent. I had to cross it and carry him back. Shyla is so confident with all that noise, the strangers, the traffic, well done to have all those months of training, and patience with her. Medals, no need to enter a competition, I give you both the one with purple rosette and a lot of ribbons!!! ( in Dani's horse events, this is the Champion award).

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    1. I remember the story of Boris ending up on the wrong side of the stream but I didn't realize that it was fear that caused him to go there. It takes a long time to help a traumatized animal be calm in the face of scary things. I'm glad that you saved Boris.

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  9. Oh how fun! I used to do it with my blind Golden, but haven't tried it on with any of our current pups.

    Monty, Harlow, and Ramble

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  10. I will read your post tomorrow, I need to go eat now and then to bed. I just wanted to thank you for the tip about one extra month's sup[ply of medicine. I will talk to the vet about that tomorrow. Also, Jean told me she made a bag for you. What a kind and so talented a woman she is. Would love to meet her, but she's far away. Finally, I just posted a few thoughts about what's going on in these United States. I don't care if people agree with me or not, just had to get it out. Later....

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    Replies
    1. I hope that you feel better. I'm heading over to read your post. And, yes, I have a beautiful bag from Jean too :)

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  11. Thanks for stopping by and leaving such an encouraging comment. I believe that Shyla and you both were very lucky to find each other. She's such a lovely dog and it would have been so sad if she had ended up in the wrong environment and with someone not as patient and good with dogs as you are.

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  12. I think you and Shyla both have overcome many hurdles! No need to compete!
    love
    tweedles

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  13. that is amazing to watch Shyla's concentration!
    hugs
    Hazel & Mabel

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  14. Nose work is the best sport around for so many reasons! So glad she is transforming, and focusing so much more on her work. Even watching Madison who is a social butterfly evolve from ignoring her job to run to people to now only sometimes acknowledge people but if she does, go right back to her job all on her own in just six months has been so fun to see. Too bad you can't be in a class as that would really help with the people thing. Many friends have the same problem but their dogs overcome it. As you know, time, patience, and practice are the key. Keep on sniffing!

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  15. We love nose works even though we do it just for fun. I hope it will build confidence for Luke too, but we haven't really moved to doing much outdoors yet. I just know he enjoys it and he's really good at it. Even if we go weeks in between doing any, he remembers exactly where we left off. He did so well the other day I had to keep searching for more difficult places to put the hide so it took him just a little longer!
    Jan, Wag 'n Woof Pets

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