The Sniffing Zone

31/03/2026

FYI!

⚠️ Parvo virus has been detected in our local area - North West Tasmania ⚠️

We are sharing this update to help keep our community informed and pets safe, following a confirmed case of canine parvovirus in the Devonport area.

Parvo is a highly contagious virus that can make dogs especially puppies, very unwell.
Parvo can also survive in the environment for long periods of time, meaning it’s easy to unknowingly bring it home on shoes, clothing or from shared spaces.
With the Easter long weekend coming up, please be mindful if taking your dogs out in public.

Symptoms of Parvo Virus are:
• Vomiting
• Diarrhoea
• Tiredness or weakness
• Loss of appetite

The good news is that Parvo is preventable with vaccination.
Making sure your dog’s vaccinations are up to date is the most effective way to protect them.

If you are unsure about your pet’s vaccination status, or if you notice any of these symptoms, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with our team on 64282703 we are here to help.

28/03/2026

🙌🏻

Are you feeling the pressure at trials? Even if you don’t realize you are, you can be sure your dog knows.

When we feel the pressure, our dogs might alert just to send us calming signals. 🤯

This is just one of the insights from my conversation with Penny Scott-Fox about how pressure affects all of us in scent work, and some tips for better managing it.

Listen at www.AlertScentWork.com

18/03/2026

I 1,000% agree with this! And this is something I try to impart on teams at the very start. You don't need a TFR to know if your dog has found source, IF you can read your dog.

When I started, I had no clue about Scent Work and def had ZERO idea about what a TFR was. I was taught to read my dog. And Lulu's not the easiest dog to read. But without that skill, we wouldn't have achieved what we have.

Only this past weekend did I use this knowledge in a blind search [at trial]. The difference between Lulu's 'alert' and her offering of a look that is similar, when she's telling me about pooling odour, is microscopic. What is different, is her behaviour before the 'look' that convincingly resembles an 'alert' on most occasions 😆

I consider a TFR as a garnish - nice to have but most of the time, you push it to the side bc the main meal is what you came for. I don't teach TFR's. I teach how to read your dog!

Judging this past weekend, there were a number of Teams where the handler said they didn't call the alert because it's not what their dog is 'trained' to do when they find source. My comments in a training capacity would be:
A). Your dog is not a robot; +
B). All that behaviour showing your dog sourcing the hide was ignored because of a reliance on a TFR, which clearly isn't solid.

I'm not saying there is no place for a TFR. I just believe it is more important to read behaviour and build a solid dog, before you focus on a TFR. Or unless you require a TFR for some other reason [to prevent box smashing eg].

𝗔 𝗱𝗼𝗴 𝗶𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗮 𝗺𝗮𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗲

Let’s talk about indication…

Too many people today are obsessed with the Trained Final Response (TFR).

Sit. Freeze. Job done.

But what about everything that comes before it?

👉🏻 The Change of Behaviour
👉🏻 The hesitation
👉🏻 The commitment to odour

That’s where the real information is.

I spend a lot of time in seminars teaching handlers to actually watch their dog, not just wait for a rehearsed action at source.

Recently someone gave me an analogy…

“If I had a gas detection machine, I’d want it to show green for no gas and red for gas. Simple. I don’t want to interpret different signals.”

And I understand the point.

But here’s the problem…

👉🏻 A dog is not a machine.

A machine gives you a final output.
A dog gives you a process.

If you ignore that process and only wait for the final response, you’re missing most of what the dog is telling you.

In the real world:
• Odour moves
• Source isn’t always accessible
• The dog can’t always get into position to give you that perfect sit

So what do you rely on then?

If your whole system is built around waiting for a TFR… you’ll miss things.

A good handler doesn’t just look for the end behaviour.

They read the dog on the way there.

And yes — I’ve had people disagree with this.

But if your dog is showing clear change of behaviour… and you’re ignoring it because you’re waiting for a sit,

That’s not a dog problem.

That’s a handler problem.

𝗙𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵𝘁…

Many countries, governments, and companies have tried to create a machine to replace the detection dog.

None have succeeded.

And there’s a reason for that.

17/03/2026

New study alert! 🔥
Excited to see a new publication from Jade of Animal Behaviour Matters out today! This study is part of her PhD work, investigating heart rate variability and behaviour in companion dogs during and after scent work.

💓Scent work in dogs is likely to be associated with increased arousal.
📉Short-term recovery patterns were similar across search and control conditions.
🐕Scent work is an engaging enrichment activity, and no stress-related behaviours were seen during the search.

Link to the open access study in the comments.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applanim.2026.106986

04/02/2026

REST.
Why is it important that your dogs can rest + how it is critical to your training - especially your Scent Work training?

Resting between repetitions is critical. Our dogs need time to process, consolidate and store new information, transforming short-term experiences into long-term memories. Without these breaks, dogs can become mentally overwhelmed, leading to fatigue, frustration, and a decline in performance.

Without TRUE REST breaks, the picture they remember, may be different to the picture that they encountered.... the lines may become blurred, so to speak.

So, how does rest help or a lack of rest hinder?

Capturing the Learning:
Just like humans, a dog’s brain needs downtime to process what it has just learned. Studies show that giving a dog a break [be it a nap or quiet / down time] helps move information move from the short-term to the long-term memory, leading to learning retention.

Preventing Information Overload:
If too many new commands/scenarios/problems are taught in a row without sufficient breaks, the dog's brain experiences a back-log, where new, incoming, information interferes with the retention of the previous, freshly learned behaviour/s.... which can lead to a blurring of the lines!

Improved Retention:
Research indicates that incorporating rest into training schedules can increase learning retention by up to 20%. So rests are critical within training sessions [break between run/s] and if you are just doing a short session, your rest period is between the next training session. And if you do a lot of training with your dog, a day of rest [NO training] is actually a training day.

Avoiding "Over-training" - and I would include exercise here, too:
While training is mental work, it is exhausting for a dog. A well-rested dog is more focused and enthusiastic, while a tired dog will become distracted, slow to respond, +/or lack focus. The reason I also include exercise here too, is if you start a training session and the dog is already tired from exercise, they will also present with distraction, slowness to learn/respond and potentially also lack focus. You dog is not in the best head-space to absorb learnings!

Preventing Stress:
Constant, un-paused training (or environmental pressure/stressors) increases stress hormones (like cortisol), which actually hinders learning and can make the dog unwilling to participate in future sessions. If the stress from the training is greater than the success, joy and confidence they experience, then they are less likely to be willing participants.

Quality Over Quantity:
Short, focused reps with rest in between (eg, 2-5 minute sessions) are far more effective than long, 20-minute sessions that end in frustration. FINISH ON A CLEAR REPETITION IN A SHORT SESSION! If you want to wind up and the problem looks to be too hard for a dog that is distracted/tired, change the problem to an easier one and CELEBRATE the crap out of that find!! Your last rep will form a majority of the memory which your dog will retain.

Rest is a learned skill for a lot of dogs. It is critical to their development, emotional regulation and overall wellbeing ♡

03/02/2026

Like most things we do, skills cross over. And that's why I thought I'd try a little conformation with Snoop - resting, coming out and doing a job, being calm and focused with a load of other distractions... I also thought it would help with scent work when we start competing [no time soon], but also life. Plus it is something we could do from puppy age, to fulfil some needs and we can both have fun.

Specific sport skills do not need to be trained in the context of that sport alone! It's worth remembering that - at any stage of your training.

Snoop loves going to shows because he thinks he's there to play with all of his mates 🤭 And what is the point of doing things with your dogs, if you don't enjoy it, just as much?!

Thank you to EVERYONE that helped me over the weekend - I'd be here all day listing everyone I begged for help and tips 🤣. Thank you to Mandy for allowing this wonderful young dog to come to our home! And to Ulverstone Kennel Club Inc. and "Coach" Jeri for making such wonderful events happen and your training! And to Odin for being Snoop's fav show-bro ♡

📸 by Sniff K9 and Samara [video]

03/02/2026

A good, short, sharp article on Scent Drift: explaining why dogs might miss a hidewhich, on the surface, looks straight forward!

Key take-away: "Odor never behaves the way humans expect".

Missing a known odor isn’t always a mistake.

We published a blog examining why dogs miss known odors — and why defaulting to “bad training” or “handler error” often misses what’s actually happening.

Scent moves. Conditions change. Dogs respond to incomplete information.

🔗 Read the full article:
workingdogmagazine.com/why-dogs-miss-known-odors

29/01/2026

We're starting back up with Introduction Classes this week!

This format is a little different to what we started with - these classes are weekly, shorter in session length and there is no committment to fixed dates, unlike the courses. You can simply miss a week or two and pick up where you left off.

This is the starting point for most new dogs... we begin with your dog's *primary* reinforcer [food or toy] and spend between 6 and 8 weeks learning the art of the hunt!

These sessions are not only for those that want to then introduce target odour to the search, they are great for
⇾ building an amazing relationship with your dog;
⇾ learning how to add more enrichment into your dogs routine at home [esp on rainy days!!];
⇾ dogs that are environmentally sensitive [take this skill to new places to make new places less scary];
⇾ reactive dogs who have limited options for activities [classes are one dog at a time]; +
⇾ dogs who may need a little help building confidence + independence.

Once dogs have worked with primary, we are in a position to introduce target odour [birch, clove, anise + cypress]. We spend the same amount of time, introducing odour.

𝘽𝙊𝙊𝙆 𝙔𝙊𝙐𝙍 𝙎𝙋𝙊𝙏 𝙃𝙀𝙍𝙀: https://www.thesniffingzone.com.au/service-page/scent-school-introduction-hour-1

20/11/2025

Good luck of you're trialling this weekend 😉😆

26/10/2025

I find "she will bite" gets a better response 🤣