Sniffs and Giggles, Traverse City, MI (2026)

Mercedes earned her Elite Champion UKC Title. We do this for fun and competition. I have been a NACSW Certified Nose Work Instructor since 2022. I have been an AKC Scent Work Judge since 2021
I have hundreds of hours of watching teams work and setting level appropriate searches. Mercedes earned her AKC Super Elite title with 10 Q's in every element from Novice to Master including Handler Discrimin

ation and her Detective Title. When you work with me, I have the experience to back up my knowledge with results.

06/24/2026

Keep it Simple !

06/20/2026

Search Tip: Before you start any search, check how the air is moving.

Before you begin, pause briefly and ask: Where is the air coming from, where is it going, and what is it doing in this space?

This applies to interiors, exteriors, containers, vehicles, buried, training problems, sport trials, and detection searches. Target odor moves through an environment, and that environment can shape your first handling decision.

You do not need a full weather report. You need a quick read. Check airflow at your level, then remember: your dog is not hunting at your head height. Unless you happen to have a wolfhound with their paws up. 🤔

The air on your face may not match what your dog is working near the ground, under vehicles, along walls, around thresholds, or in corners.

Quick checks: feel the air on your face or hands; watch what already moves, like grass, leaves, flags, fabric, loose hair, or someone’s flyaway hair; notice doors, fans, vents, shade, sun, walls, vehicle gaps, container lines, and structures that push, block, or redirect air.

And yes, "dog glitter" counts. If you have loose hair on your fingers or coat, rub your fingers together and watch how it drifts.

Then use that read to shape your handling. If air moves toward you, give your dog room to sort odor earlier than expected. If air moves away, plan to get deeper before deciding odor is not available. If air wraps around an object, wall, vehicle, or container line, consider changing your angle instead of repeating the same path.

If the search stalls or your dog’s behavior changes, check again. Airflow can shift.

Try this in training: stand at the search start and predict where odor may travel. Check the air at your level, look lower to the ground, make one handling choice, then run the search and compare your prediction to your dog’s behavior.

The goal is not to overthink the search. The goal is one more observation before you decide how to move, wait, or change your angle.

Let me know if this helps in your next trial, training session, or detection search.

For more tools to understand airflow, or for a better understanding of how to use wind to your advantage, these two SWU webinars may help:

Use the Wind

Are Smoke Machines Required?

I’ll put links for both webinars in the comments.

I also added the Cirrus Wind Indicator as the product link on this post. It is my favorite tool for quickly reading airflow.

Full disclosure: purchases made through the Cirrus Wind Indicator product link may earn me a small commission at no additional cost to you. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

06/18/2026

Sometimes our dogs aren't finding odor. They're finding our expectations. 😆

Maybe your dog shows a little interest somewhere, and suddenly you're convinced there's another hide.

Maybe you've already cleared the area, but you work a spot one more time than necessary, and your dog says, "Okay, if we're still here, how about this?"

Or the one I'm currently working on: your dog checks something out, you see a little interest, and think, "A judge would totally put a hide there." Then you square up to it, and before you know it, you've accidentally helped create a hide that never existed.

Bonus hides are a good reminder that our dogs are paying attention to more than just odor.

06/15/2026

The Nose Is Always On. The Command Starts the Game. Odor Keeps the Game Going.

I remember after a successful certification, an old-school evaluator made a comment that stuck with me.

He said, “I only heard you say ‘Seek’ once or twice during the entire search.”

I responded, “But we found everything, right? No false responses. No aggressive responses. No missed hides?”

He said, “Yes, but you only said ‘Seek’ twice.”

At that point, I just rolled with it.

The conversation got me thinking.

One thing I’ve never fully understood is the idea that a dog won’t search unless we constantly remind it to.

A dog’s nose doesn’t turn on and off with a command.

The dog is smelling the environment all day long. Whether it’s on a foot patrol, walking through a parking lot, standing in a crowd, riding in a vehicle, or resting in a kennel, odor is constantly entering that dog’s nose.

The command isn’t activating the nose.

The command tells the dog there is an opportunity to actively engage in the search and earn reinforcement.

That’s an important distinction.

I absolutely have a cue that lets my dog know we’re about to do detection work. But I want that cue to have value. I don’t want to water it down to the point where it becomes background noise.

I’ve watched handlers search rows of luggage, vehicles, or containers while repeating “Seek, seek, seek, seek…” every few seconds.

That always makes me wonder:

If you don’t say “Seek,” does the dog suddenly stop searching?

Does the dog’s nose shut off?

Of course not.

The dog is still processing odor. The dog is still taking in information. The dog is still learning.

If I’m walking a dog down a row of vehicles during a narcotics search and co***ne odor smacks that dog in the face, I want the dog to investigate it. I don’t want the dog waiting for me to remind it to use its nose.

If I’m conducting explosive detection, I want a dog that recognizes odor and works toward source because odor has value—not because I’m continuously repeating a command.

I want a dog that understands the job. A dog that is committed to odor. A dog that will investigate, bracket, and work through an odor problem independently.

That’s the type of dog I’d trust with my life.

In fact, I’d put my life in the hands of a well-trained dog that has been taught to value odor over handler dependence. Not because the dog is perfect, but because it has been conditioned to trust its nose and work the problem in front of it.

To me, odor should become the magnet.

The command may start the game, but odor should be what keeps the dog engaged.

That’s one reason I place such a strong emphasis on foundation work, odor commitment, independence, and problem solving. I want dogs that understand the job. Dogs that can think through problems. Dogs that can work odor instead of waiting for handler direction every step of the way.

Dogs aren’t robots.

They are constantly learning. Good, bad, or indifferent—they are learning.

Whether you’re training for sport, certification, or real-world deployment, we’re trusting these dogs to do some incredible things. The more I train, the more I find myself wanting the dog focused on the odor problem in front of it rather than focused on me.

The command starts the game.

Odor keeps the game going

06/14/2026

TRUST YOUR TRAINING!

"Trust Your Dog" Sure. But Trust Them to Do What, Exactly?

Let's talk about the most repeated phrase in dog sports that nobody actually thinks through.

Trust your dog. Trust them to do what?

Because I hate to break this to you, but your dog is operating like a paid mercenary. No ideology. No team loyalty. No commitment to your criteria. Just one question running on a loop in that beautiful nose equipped head: what got me paid last time?

That's it. That's the whole algorithm.

They're not cheating. They're not blowing you off. They're doing exactly what operant conditioning says they should do. They found the pattern that produced the paycheck and they are STAYING ON THAT PATTERN. You'd do the same thing. I'd do the same thing. We all do the same thing.

So when your dog gives you a weak alert, a drive by sniff, a "well I looked in that direction" response, and you paid for it? They logged it. Filed it. Indexed it under behaviors that work.

You created that. Your sliding scale of criteria created that. Your "good enough for today" created that. Your "I don't want to be the bad guy" moment created that.

The dog has been consistent this whole time.
You are the variable.

So before you post the video asking why your dog isn't driving to source, ask yourself: what exactly did I train? Not what did I intend to train. What did I actually pay for?

TRUST YOUR TRAINING means your training has to be worth trusting first.

The dog already figured that out. Catch up.

Trust your dog... dogs don't lie we do.

No matter how you train, know why.

06/14/2026

An aggressive response is seen as biting, scratching, pawing, or digging at the source of an odor. As I’ve said before, every training drill or exercise should be done to preserve the dog’s detection potential. What I see too often is trainers stripping that potential when trying to remediate aggressive responses. They spend months building a strong foundation and commitment to odor, then throw it away the moment a dog displays an aggressive response on a door seam, a piece of luggage, or a buried aid.

The dog displays an aggressive response. The trainer panics. Out comes a physical correction and a verbal “No.” Now what happens the next time that dog approaches that area? Hesitation. Fear. A dog that second-guesses itself at the source.

I tell myself not to panic. The aggressive response is good — it shows odor commitment. What it also tells me is there’s a disconnect between the dog’s drive to source and its final trained response. That’s a training problem, not a drive problem. Building strong changes of behavior and commitment to odor matters because, as many explosive handlers know, we may call the find before the final indication for safety and tactical reasons. If the dog misses, now I have real problems to sort through. Is the dog weak on that specific aid? Is it the environment? The aggressive response is shapeable. Hesitation from overcorrection creates a much longer, harder road.

From an explosive detection standpoint — and I’ll take the criticism for this — consider the implications on both ends. A dog that misses a device entirely puts lives at risk. A dog that displays an aggressive response and triggers a device puts itself at risk. Both outcomes are serious. I’m not saying one is acceptable. What I am saying is that I’ve watched good dogs take a significant step back after a hard correction meant to extinguish that response. The aggressive response was never properly shaped out — the dog just started working with hesitation. And a hesitant detection dog in a real environment is its own kind of danger.

Shape the response. Don’t strip the drive that built it. The goal is a dog with the commitment and drive to find the odor and communicate it clearly.

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Traverse City, MI
49685

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+12316326090

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http://sniffsandgiggles.com/

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