06/06/2026
TRAINING TO FIND SOURCE, NOT ODOR
In following up on Michael McManus' Using Competition to Improve Your Training livestream, let's tease out the importance of highlighting what it is we are training the dog to do.
As Michael points out, "We are not training the dogs to find odor, we are training the dogs to find source. If we are training the dogs to find odor, then pools of odor and residual odor should all be fair game."
Ambiguity in our training can unintentionally cause the dog to make the incorrect association, where simply being in odor is enough. This can absolutely lead to fringing.
Michael also pointed out how trialing differs from training and can throw a wrench into things if we are not careful.
At trial, there are oftentimes "Yes" zones set for hides. The hide setter will use their expertise, experience and understanding of the environmental factors for that particular day to determine what the "Yes" zone for a hide will be. The odor picture will likely change throughout the day. Trial officials attempt to create as stable of a hide as possible, so regardless of when a team is tackling the search, the challenge is roughly the same. These "Yes" zones facilitate this and should be reasonable and customized to the specific hide and situation.
Why does this matter?
It is very possible that a dog may not hit their nose directly onto the hide itself yet still be within the "Yes" zone. In this scenario, the handler calls, "Alert", the judge says "Yes" and the dog may think, "Oh, that was interesting...I didn't have to get right to source!"
Hence why instructors stress the need for teams to do recovery training after each and every trial they attend.
At trial, handlers have no idea where precisely the hide is, nor are they expected to. It is entirely possible for a handler to call, "Alert" as the dog was ducking their head underneath a chair and get a "Yes" even though the dog had not yet reached the odor vessel itself. This could potentially be acceptable at the trial. However, this is a huge problem if the dog now thinks, "I do NOT have to get to source!"
The same issue occurs with container hides, inaccessible hides or elevated hides. Additionally, Michael mentioned how at trial, trial officials may purposefully try to set a hide so it cannot be easily dislodged by the dog. Once again, this creates a situation where the dog quite literally cannot get their nose right to source. They can get super close, but not right on it.
Therefore, at trial, there is a good chance your dog is not getting right to source, even they could have, and are still being rewarded.
When there is no follow-up training and teams simply trial over and over and over again, new problematic learning takes shape. Source is no longer important. Fringing is not only permitted but even preferrable from the dog's perspective. Hence why Michael stressed the power of pairing in training. By placing a primary reinforcer, food or toys, directly with the hide, it underlines for the dog that we do indeed care about source. It is as if we are trying to communicate to our dogs, "While it is true we sometimes attend these weird trial events when you cannot get to source, you should try your best to. Think of all those other times when we trained and practiced. Getting right to source is how you get your cookie!"
Lastly, Michael's marble example highlights how Scent Work trials differ from other scent sports, such as hunting or even the retrieval of scented articles in competition obedience or tracking. In all those other examples, the dog is expected to get right to the item, retrieve it and then the item is removed from the area.
With Scent Work trials, having dogs retrieve the odor vessels and handlers holding them, carrying them around the space would be a huge problem. The closest equivalent would be if we placed something, such as a marble, near the odor vessel itself that the handler was expected to pick up to show that they did indeed find the hide. However, this also brings with it its own set of challenges! Now we would have people crawling around search areas, or trying to climb on top of things, handlers with walkers or wheelchairs would not be able to participate...it would be a mess!
Fully comprehending what Scent Work trials are truly posing, how it can be perceived by the dog and why we should have a clearer criteria set in our training is key.
DID YOU MISS THE LIVESTREAM? WATCH THE RECORDING HERE:
https://www.youtube.com/live/MaSWmM2fYcg?si=GlKgqrUON91cEKQj
Happy Training!
A wonderful feature of dog sports is the competition organizations ...
