http://www.perthscentwork.com.au/

Perth Scent Work, Jarrahdale (2026)

18/07/2026

Below is a photo from when my dog, Charlie false alerted at our most recent trial.

I think when we compete we think we have to be perfect and pass every trial and if we don’t there is something wrong.

The reality is if you are going to compete you are going to get NQ’s. It’s what you do after that makes the difference.

Do you blame your dog?
Do you blame the judge?
Do you blame yourself?

To me it’s not about blame - why can’t we just embrace it as part of the journey and learn from it?

In this search there were 28 teams competing with one pass.
There has been lots conjecture on the reason why such a large amount of dogs false alerted under the table.

This was just a dog hair distraction which we have trained on many times but I think the presentation potentially identified a hole in our training. Here are some of the reasons that might have had an impact on the false alerts (or it could also be a combination of these):

• the distraction was presented in shrink wrap. I know myself I have never put a distraction in shrink wrap, only odour

• lack of use of shrink wrap as a control. I generally use other vessels such as tins and centrifuge vessels as controls

• lack of exposure to controls in pooling odour

• distraction was fixed with adhesive tape and I have not done enough training with different types of adhesive as controls

• over running of the dog when there was nothing else to find. This search had 1-3 hides – we had found the only 2 hides but I kept Charlie searching

• Dopamine dump/lots of dog contamination/disturbance at the site as many other dogs had also false alerted here

No dog, handler or training program is perfect. Don't fear a NQ - embrace it, analyse it, learn from it and keep moving forward. Progress isn't measured by perfect results—it's measured by how much we grow along the way.

Thanks Jodie Grieve Photographer for capturing my learning moment! :)

16/07/2026

Below is one of my favourite searches from the recent 2026 WA State Scent Work Trial.

It’s the Master Container search by Cass and my boy Harry. Harry entered the search area with focus, commitment and confidence. Just as important, Cass trusted what he was communicating and allowed him to work independently.This search was unknown hides – from 1 to 3 and they found the one hide and cleared the rest of the containers to complete this search in 44 seconds.

For me, this is what beautiful scent work looks like—a happy independent dog who values odour and a handler who reads the dog well. Both equal parts of the one team.

Sometimes the placings don't tell the whole story, but the video certainly does.

13/07/2026

*** 𝐋𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐓𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐔𝐩𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐞 ***

The WA 2026 State Scent Work Trial is over! 2 Massive weekends, 6 days, 18 classes and over 600 searches done!

Day 5 and 6….

Saturday morning started bright and early with briefings at 8.30am followed by searches starting at 9am. The classes were Excellent Exteriors and Vehicles. Exteriors was in paved area with garden beds split over two levels. There were 3 hides to find in a time of 5 minutes. There was also 2 distractions to ignore, one of which was a ham and cheese sandwich.

Excellent Vehicles, which I was judging was run at the same time in a school carpark. Competitors had 4 vehicles to search – a van, quad bike, sign trailer and an Erde trailer in a time-limit of 4 minutes. Distractions included Ziwipeak and horse hair – both of which caught out a few teams. We had 33 competitors with 19 qualifications.

After morning presentations and lunch we had the Novice searches – Vehicles and Interiors.
Novice Vehicles had a trailer and a car to search and Novice Interiors was inside a classroom.
Both searches had 1 hide to find and no intentional distractions. Searches concluded and another round of presentations and we had packed up before 4pm for an early day!

Sunday morning we had the Advanced classes – Exteriors and Vehicles. Advanced Exteriors was in a paved area near a classroom and had two hides to find. It was a rather large class with 41 competitors. The time limit to locate the two hides was 2mins and 30seconds and there were 12 passes in this class.

Vehicles was again out in the carpark. Competitors had a mini truck to search and a ride-on lawn mover. This time the judge chose to have a double seam search – with hides placed in door seams in the same place on each side of the mini truck. The time limit was 2 minutes. Again a large class with 50 competitors with 12 passes.

After presentations and a lunch break we had the final searches of the trial – Master Vehicles and Containers.

Master Vehicles we had 4 to search – a trailer sign, a van, a trailer and a light fire truck. The judge gave us 5 minutes to complete the search. We also had to contend with a few distractions including a human sitting in the search and some interesting smelling popcorn that caught our a few dogs. Both Harry and Charlie competed in the search – unfortunately no pass for Harry as he was one of the dogs that got caught on the popcorn but Charlie passed with flying colours to come in 2nd place and we were also awarded the Denver Designs Aus Judges award.

Master Containers was held in the open sided under cover area. The judge chose to have 4 clusters of containers – 6 containers in each cluster which included 5 pencil cases and one small lunchbox. We were given a time limit of 3mins and 30 seconds.
There was only one hide in this search and multiple distractions which include two human distractions and a toy. Charlie qualified in just over a minute and came in second place. Harry and Cass also qualified in a beautiful search with a cracking time of 44 seconds (Search video to come) but unfortunately incurred a fault.

After final presentations the 2026 State Trial was done and we are all going home to rest and sleep for a week!

A massive thank you to the committee, judges and stewards that make this trial possible. Without everyone of them, a trial of this magnitude wouldn't happen.

Search photos by Tonia Abakumoff Photography

Massive thank you to sponsors of Week 2
Royal Canin
PK9 Gear
Fetch and Form
Antinol Plus
Denver Designs Aus
ZenDogTraining
KennardsHire
Puzzles by KivaDog
Leaps & Laps
KelpyBone
ScentKitsbyDeb
WAGD
Tonia Abakumoff Photography

10/07/2026

Day 4 of the 2026 WA State Scent Work Trial

For the next three days, we have changed location to Kelmscott Senior High school.

Today we had another Ultimate Class. This time the search encompassed 4 vehicles, containers, exteriors and an interior area in the form of a classroom.

The judge gave us 11 minutes to complete this search and had placed 6 hides in the search area - 1 on the vehicles, 1 in the containers, 2 in the classroom and 2 in the exterior area.

Harry unfortunately didnt pass this time but Charlie qualified and came in second place!

Thanks again to the judge, working party and stewards! Two more days to go!

09/07/2026

Every search starts with belief....

Photo by Jodie Grieve Photographer

07/07/2026

*** 𝐋𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐓𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐔𝐩𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐞 ***

Well what can I say! Week 1 of the WA State Scent Work trial is over!

First off was an early morning setup at 6.45am on Saturday morning which was very chilly at the awesome venue of Lesmurdie Senior High School. Masters Exteriors and Interiors were held first starting at 9am. Masters Exteriors was set up in an area of the school which encompassed a garden area and paving. It was approx. 180sqm and we were given a time limit of four and half minutes. There were 14 teams competing with 1 pass! In this class there was 1-3 hides (unknown to the competitors) and the judge chose to have 2 hides – 1 in a drain cover in the paving and the other in a hole in a large rock in the garden bed. Both Harry and Charlie were 2 of the 6 teams that found both hides however both went on to have false alerts on distractions which caught out more than half the class. The distractions were dog hair, cheese and salami.

Running at the same time we had Masters Interiors – 3 rooms in total with each room having a 2 minute time limit.
Room 1: 40 sqm – An inaccessible Anise hide in the cupboard and along with a converging Birch hide in corner under a bench nearby. The distraction was a toy elephant.
Room 2: 30 sqm - Blank with a distraction of Molasses in a cupboard.
Room 3: 27 sqm. Two Cypress hides 2m apart one under cupboard just off the floor and one in gap between same cupboard and wall. The distraction of dried Kangaroo heart was hidden behind books between them. The lovely Sona was handling Harry and qualified - they were also recognised by the judge and were given the judges award for this search. I was handling Charlie and he also qualified and placed 3rd.

After morning presentations, then came the afternoon classes of Advanced Interiors and Containers. Advanced Interiors had 42 competitors with 33 passes. The search was inside a tiled classroom and there were two hides of Clove – one down low on a small table and the other under a stool seat. The distractor was a toy donkey and competitors had 3 minutes to complete the search.

I was judging Advanced Containers and we had 20 containers of two different types placed in 4 offset rows of 5. An off lead option was given and competitors had 2 minutes to complete the search. The distraction in this class was dog hair.
Afternoon presentations were held and the trial wrapped up for the day.

For Day 2 the Novice searches were first up. Novice Exteriors was under a verandah on paving with the Cypress hide place on a drain pipe bracket. Competitors were given a two and half minute time limit and the class had a 92% pass rate.

Novice Containers has 13 containers in the search placed in a U shape. The judge gave a time limit of 1 minute to complete the search and there were 25 passes in this class.

After morning presentations, the Excellent classes commenced just after 1pm. Excellent Interiors were in the art block. Room 1 was approx. 35 sqm with a 2 minute time limit. It had one hide of Anise placed low at the base of the stairs and then was also a carrot distractor in this area. The second search area had two hides, also Anise – one under a table leg and the other underneath a desk. Teams were given 3 minutes in this room and there was also a tennis ball on a rope distractor in this area. There were 2 passes in this class.

Excellent Containers were held in the gym. There were an assortment of 26 containers placed in a large circle and the judge gave 3 minutes for competitors to find the 3 hides. There was a visible pink pig distraction and there was also a food distractor of a jam biscuit hidden inside one of the containers.
Afternoon presentations were held and then a quick packup and we all headed home.

Day 3 was a quieter day with just the Ultimate class being run. We had 12 competitors entered in this class. The area was a large undercover outdoor area which encompassed raised garden beds and picnic tables. There were a variety of containers also placed in this area. Also in this search there were two classrooms – one of which was blank. We had a variety of distractions to contend with including a human distractor and cat hair. The judge chose to have 6 hides in this search – 1 classroom had 3 hides (a converging problem with two of the hides and also an inaccessible). The other hides were – 1 in a container, 1 along a downpipe and 1 in the garden bed. We were given 11 minutes to complete this search.
The amazing Cass handled Harry and came in 2nd place and I handled Charlie and he came in 1st! This search was extra special as it was the final pass required for both of boys to achieve their Ultimate and Champion titles(Dogswest Pending)! It was very meaningful that it happened for both of them on the same day.

An early finish was had and bring on Week 2 which starts this Friday!

Many thanks to the working party and judges. I would like to say an extra special thank you to all the stewards that generously gave up their time to help out at this trial.

Search photos by Jodie Grieve Photographer

Massive thank you to the sponsors of Week 1
Royal Canin
PK9 Gear
Fetch and Form
Antinol Plus
Denver Designs Aus
TheTreatTruck
WAGD
www.perthcaninemassage.com
Maple & Friends
ScentKitsbyDeb
Puzzles by KivaDog
EzyDog
Jodie Grieve Photographer
Wildhunde

03/07/2026

Day 1 of 6 of the WA State Scent Work Trial has started!!!

25/06/2026

𝐌𝐢𝐜𝐫𝐨𝐡𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐛𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐢𝐧 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐜𝐤!!!

Tiny Micro Coloured Magnetic Hides – designed to hold a single Q-tip. Their compact 2cm length makes them easy to conceal in even the smallest hiding locations.

Blue - this vessel has the word BIRCH written on it
Red - this vessel has the word CYPRESS written on it
Gold - this vessel has the word CLOVE written on it
Green - this vessel has the word ANISE written on it
Black - no writing. Use as a control

$25 for a set of five (one of each colour)

Save on postage and pick up at the WA State Scent Work Trial!

https://www.perthscentwork.com.au/shop/

23/06/2026

A beautiful morning for Vehicle lessons...

21/06/2026

This is a little search I set yesterday - I thought this would be a simple ground hide. The temptation is to assume the dog should go straight in, source quickly and indicate.

But dogs don’t work the hide – they work odour. This is clearly demonstrated by Charlie in this example.

This search is a great reminder that we should let go of our assumptions and pay attention to what the dog is showing us. The hide may have been simple, but the odour picture clearly wasn’t.

Learn from what the odour is doing, not what we think it should be doing.

Perth Scent Work

18/07/2026

16/07/2026

13/07/2026

10/07/2026

09/07/2026

07/07/2026

03/07/2026

25/06/2026

23/06/2026

21/06/2026

Address

Website

Alerts

Contact The Business

Shortcuts

Share

Category

Listing takedown request