Tell a Tail Dog Training

09/06/2026

So, Carbon likes to take off at full speed with a ton of acceleration after finding each hide. This makes close proximity hides a challenge for us. I've been managing him with a leash to slow him down and bringing him back to zones with already found hides. I feel like he's improved a bit over time, but decided it was time to put on my thinking cap and come up with a training plan to progress him even more.

So, thanks to talking to Amy Herot - I rearranged TAT so we could do perimeter searches with lots of easy to encounter hides in proximity. For all of the searches except the very last one, there were 8 hides - all on the same objects (hand truck, 2 white chairs, no parking sign, plastic drawers, plastic bin, black cart, and vacuum hand tool). I just rearranged where they were located.

I had two plans -
1) build reinforcement history. This involved using the leash to help him successfully encounter each hide. For these searches, I had all the hides super close together.
2) One pass - Run the search without the leash assisted slow down as a one pass exercise. One try and you don't get to go back. For these, the objects were a little further apart.

Over 2 days I did 3 iterations the reinforcement version and 6 iterations of one pass. I felt like I was seeing some improvement, but the last run was worse and I felt I had over drilled it. So, I put it away for 5 days.

Came back to the building today and did a new version - two close together hides in the middle of the room. Purposefully made the 2nd hide low and not on as obvious an object as the first. WOW!!! This is the video I've included here. (And we'll ignore that he grabbed the 2nd hide and threw it on the floor :D)

I don't think my problem is solved, but I feel I've laid some good groundwork to continue to progress this.

For those who want a longer version and to see one of each of the two plans as well here's the link: https://photos.app.goo.gl/oTh7N8WccHrvPMTq6

08/18/2026

My next online course with Clean Run starts in September. We are running Building Skills #2 again. We will be looking at Close Proximity hides, Containers, Backdoors and Inaccessible hides in this course.

If you enjoyed Building Skills #1, come join us! Or if you missed out on Building Skills #1, you can come join the fun for #2 as they are independent courses.

This standalone course will help you expand your dog's problem-solving toolkit and mastery of complex scent pictures. It is perfect for teams already proficient in finding the target odor who want to build a foundation for Elite-level work, and the exercises also have options for challenges appropri...

08/02/2026

I wanted to share this video of Element demonstrating her understanding of my cues for her in nose work. I think it is easy to not be clear with your cues in this sport since it is so up to the dog to do the job.

In this situation, I'm looking at two cues. 1) Her cue to recommunicate at the current hide and 2) The cue to move on and find another hide.

Her cue to continue to re-communicate on the same hide is my physical support of the hide. In the long run, it will be the absence of the verbal cue to find a new hide that means the current hide is still the one in play, but we aren't all the way there yet on that.

Her cue to find a new hide is the verbal "Find"

Not everyone needs to or should teach a dog to recommunicate at the same hide, but it can be useful in several scenarios:
1) If you don't see your dog find a hide in a trial, the repeated reinforcement can increase the likelihood of the dog communicating again
2) If a judge asks "where", as you take a deep breath to answer the question, your dog may opt to recommunicate
3) If you need to teach an intentionally trained final response for any reason - in her case, grabbing hides was a problem
4) Just to allow additional reinforcement opportunities - to build odor importance, to build stickiness, to increase motivation, to reward effort and then finishing the problem, and probably more.

The important thing if you do teach recommunication is that your dog also understands when the current ATM (hide) is out of money and that they need to find a new ATM (hide).

I like to clarify the cues to my dog with simple setups that do not involve challenging searches. The first few times we did this setup, I pulled the first hide to help her move on.

07/07/2026

Hey all, my online class Building Skills #1 with Clean Run starts tomorrow! There's still room to come play!

Great way to motivate your training, improve your dog's skills and work on your hide setting skills with a focus on a specific goal.
https://www.cleanrun.com/product/nose_work_building_skills_1_sourcing_elevation_threshold_multiple_hides/index.cfm?ParentCat=1480

06/22/2026

Excited to be running my building skills #1 class again with Clean Run! If you missed it the first time, come play with us now!

Great if you are looking to motivate yourself to get training and/or if you are looking to improve your dog's skills!

Designed for teams that are already proficient in finding the target odor, this course systematically addresses four common challenges faced in competitive nose work: sourcing, elevation, threshold, and multiple hides.

06/09/2026

Wrapping up the last details on my upcoming webinar with Scent Work University and I'm really excited.

June 18 - Building Blocks for Elite and Summit

Learn how to master the transition from NW3 to the Elite and Summit levels by deconstructing high-level challenges into foundational building blocks.

03/22/2026

Excited to be offering another Skill building class with Clean Run. We're going to explore four new skills in Building Skills 2. Class starts on April 1st

This standalone course will help you expand your dog's problem-solving toolkit and mastery of complex scent pictures. It is perfect for teams already proficient in finding the target odor who want to build a foundation for Elite-level work, and the exercises also have options for challenges appropri...

01/05/2026

Excited about my upcoming online nose work skills building class with Clean Run!

Designed for teams that are already proficient in finding the target odor, this course systematically addresses four common challenges faced in competitive nose work: sourcing, elevation, threshold, and multiple hides.

11/16/2025

Sharing this montage I made of Element working on a lot of the nose work skills while searching for her toy (this was before we added odor).
So fun to watch how simple some of the setups can be to teach the dog the concepts that will apply throughout their nose work career.

09/02/2025

Excited that my toy rewards in nose work webinar from a few months ago is now available all the time on demand through Clean Run! Clean Run

This webinar will take you through the fundamental components of teaching nose work as it looks in detail at how to use toy rewards in this process. Wendy will also address how you might integrate toy rewards with dogs already trained on odor to help build drive, excitement, and handler/dog connecti...