K9 InScentives

09/21/2026

Look who’s the poster team for Dude Nose Videos: our very own Beth Karp and her amazing Wind! Beautiful searches!!

09/08/2026

Listen to that wind and notice the shadow of the flag blowing. I love that we could do this search off-leash so the dog's behavior isn't affected by the handler at all. Notice how far he ranges and where he gathers information about the hide. Yes, I could have called it around the 0:39 mark, but this was training and I wanted to see more certainty from the dog, which you see at around 1:50.

09/04/2026

I could never understand the reasoning behind not feeding before the trial. These findings just make sense to me.

New research! 🔥
Excited to see new research from Jade of Animal Behaviour Matters out this week! These two studies were undertaken with the Scent Detection Research Group at the The University of Waikato in New Zealand.

🦴 Dogs were given breakfast before or after completing a scent-detection task.

❌ When working prior to eating, dogs made significantly more false alarms.

🐺 Being hungry may cause a mild increase in frustration-related behaviour during scent work for some dogs.

🐕 Dog’s hunger state can influence both scent-detection performance and behaviour.

Yee et al. (2026) found that dogs working before breakfast produced more false alarms, suggesting hunger may increase dogs' tendency to respond to non-target odours.

Fountain et al. (2026) found that unfed dogs showed more whining and interaction with the equipment, indicating mild frustration associated with hunger. However, frustration behaviours were generally infrequent and varied between individual dogs.

Links to both of these open access articles will be in the comments or search them on google scholar/research gate.

Fountain, J., Yee, J., Hazel, S. J., McWhorter, T. J., McNutt, T., & Edwards, T. L. (2026). Effects of feeding on dogs’ frustration-related behaviours during a laboratory-based scent detection task. Behavioural Processes, 105430.

Yee, J., Downie, I., Fountain, J., & Edwards, T. L. (2026). The breakfast effect revisited: Dogs’ scent detection performance before and after a meal. Learning and Motivation, 95, 102328.

08/23/2026

Thank you for this yearly reminder, Linda Murphy.

08/22/2026

This is a video from a couple of years ago. My dog is sniffing the carpeted floor (yes, I'm crowding him - shame on me), so I immediately assume he's not searching (another shame on me) and decide to take control of the situation by putting his leash on (yet another shame on me!). Watching in slow motion is particularly hilarious, as you can see me disregarding my dog as I'm clipping the leash and trying to move off (never take your eyes off your dog!), just as he goes to source! He looks at me to indicate, but I'm not looking, so he looks at my coach as if to say "WTF???" Needless to say, he got LOTS of apology cookies!

08/13/2026

Can you tell by watching the way this dog searches what kind of hide he's looking for? Is it elevated? Is it somewhere on the picnic table? Etc. Give me your thoughts and then stay tuned for the rest of the video. (PS - there was a slight breeze blowing from left to right as you view the search area. Audio is turned off)

07/20/2026

My good friend and colleague, Sarah J Cowell was in a very bad car accident on July 6th. The dogs were in the car but thankfully weren't hurt. Sarah, on the other hand, suffered multiple injuries and will be out of work for at least the next month as she recovers.
We're reaching out to our dog-peeps community with a Go Fund Me to help Sarah get through this. Sarah is one of the first to jump in when someone needs help - she had to be talked into now being on the receiving end! Please donate whatever you can easily afford. Every little bit helps in a big way.

Please feel free to share this link. Thanks!

As many of you may know, our friend Sarah Cowell and her two Vizslas were re… Marty Smith needs your support for Support Sarah Cowell's Recovery & Her Vizslas

07/10/2026

The temperature does not tell the whole story. Humidity can make panting less effective, slow recovery, and turn a hot day into a bigger risk than it appears.