Are you wondering what it takes to be successful trialing in the sport of nosework? Do you know how to prepare for and how to be a good teammate for your dog? Are you struggling to qualify or perhaps not getting the scores you'd like? If so, this class is for you!
This class will NOT teach you nuts and bolts skills... such as alerts, inaccessible hides, or high hides, etc. This class WILL teach you the fabric that will help your team to succeed. These are the "soft skills" of Nosework. These skills are what takes a team from "Good" to "Great". We will deep dive into the 5 main topics in a way that will help you to really understand your teammate and how to train with excellence.
In this class, we will delve into topics that will prepare you for the rigors of competition or help you to take your current competition to the next level. We will cover the psychology and biology required to be a good teammate. Trialing successfully in nosework is part art, part science. In this class, we will cover both!
Themes include:
Teamwork
Reading Your Dog
Excellent Handling
Managing Arousal
Emotional Needs & Mental Management
While we Deep Dive into these 5 Themes, we will cover these fabulous topics:
The elements of a successful team
What exactly IS teamwork in the sport of nosework?
Understanding your chosen venue, including Q strategies
How to avoid a False Alert
When to call Finish effectively
Knowing when your dog is, and most importantly ISN'T in odor
Supporting your dog's emotional needs
Riding the Arousal Curve with Yerkes-Dodson!
Foundations of Excellent handling
Blank Rooms
Calling Finish confidently in unknown hide number searches
Avoiding false alerts due to handling challenges or mis-reading the dog
Handling by effectively releasing pressure
When to influence the search and when to just follow
Strategies for trialing the high arousal dog
How to stay "in the moment"
Teaching Approach
This class will be both conceptual and experiential with lectures that will tell you the WHY and the HOW you can apply the concepts. Part of the assignments are prescriptive, however the learner will need to draw conclusion from the prescriptive practice in order to apply it to day to day training. Learners will also complete assignments based on adapting the concepts to their situation. Learners will be encouraged to experiment with these concepts in order to best train their dogs. Lectures will be a combination of written text and videos. Some videos are as short as 30s and up to 3 minutes, with the average between 1-2 minutes long. There will be on average 3 to 5 lectures per week, however the first week will have more. Gold students will be allowed 6:00 of video time per week and will be expected to keep track of their time usage in their threads. This course is best for students who enjoy concepts and adaptation to their situation.
This class will have a Teacher's Assistant (TA) available in the Facebook study group to help the bronze and silver students! Directions for joining will be in the classroom after you register.
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Syllabus
We will cover one theme per week:
Teamwork
Reading Your Dog
Excellent Handling
Managing Arousal
Emotional Needs & Mental Management
Week 1: Overview and Confidence & Motivation
Theme Overview
Goal Setting
Training Philosophies
Confidence in the Nosework Dog
Motivation in the Nosework Dog
3D Searching to Build Confidence and Motivation (new)
Week 2: Teamwork
Elements of a Successful Team (new)
What exactly IS Teamwork in the sport of Nosework? (new)
Understanding your chosen venue, including Q strategies (new)
When to Influence and when to Follow (new)
Getting those P’s!
A Judge’s Perspective on P’s
Teamwork and Video Critique
Week 3: Reading Your Dog
All about the Change of Behavior
Recognizing Distraction Odor
Changes of Behavior with Multiple Hides
Recognizing Blank Area Behavior
Week 4: Managing Arousal
Yerkes-Dodson Law
Arousal as a Secret to Success
Increasing and Decreasing Arousal
Strategies for trialing the high arousal dog
Strategies for trialing a dog with variable arousal
Conditioning Appropriate Arousal
Week 5: Excellent Handling
Social Cues
All About Motion
All About Position
All Abut Pressure (new)
How to Avoid a False Alert (new)
Handling Evaluation
When to call Finish effectively (new)
Week 6: Emotional Needs & Mental Management
Supporting your dog’s emotional needs (new)
Frame of Mind
Changing Your Space
Mindfulness
Staying “in the moment” (new)
Prerequisites & Supplies
There are no titling requirements for this class, however this class is best suited for dogs who are either preparing for trialing or who would benefit from improving their trialing performance. Some of the topics will be more advanced. Newer teams may elect to skip some of the more advanced topics and save them for future training.
Sample Lecture
Getting those P's
Aside from qualifying or placing, if you compete in NACSW, you might be trying to earn P's on your searches. P's stand for "Pronoucement" which means that the judge has seen something special in your search. It the way for the judge to give the handler a virtual pat on the back for a job well done.
It's important though to remember that P's are subjective. They are intended to acknowledge tremendous teamwork. What you will find though that judge's may award these if they see something special, regardless of how fast or flashy the team was. It's also important to remember that what is "special" to one judge may be different for another judge. Some judges are very liberal with P's and some judges may actually seem like they don't know that the letter exists! So it's equally important not to be disappointed if you don't get one. However, P's give the competitor something to strive for above and beyond just getting the job done. I always tell people to train for P's and Q's! Train for excellence, not just a pass.
Remember that P's are based on teamwork, NOT speed! If you are at the Elite level, you MIGHT need to find all or nearly all of the hides in order to earn a P. At the lower levels it's unlikely for you to earn a P without finding all of the hides.
How do you handle when you are off leash? Are you engaged or do you abdicate responsibility to the dog by just standing to the side? Although you might be effective, are you a team member? Do you move with the dog and support the dog without dictating the search?
Here's an example of a search where I earned a P. This is an Elite search with Judd with a judge who is fairly notorious for not giving P's. What do you see? What would earn a P with this search (besides finding all of the hides)?
Here's an example of a search where I did NOT earn a P. This is a NW3 Vehicles search from the day that Judd earned his NW3 Elite. What do you see? What could I have done differently to earn a P?
You can see that P's are rather subjective! Two successful searches, two different judges, two different results. What I see in the second search is a little too much direction, some overworking of the areas.
Here's a search from Nationals that earned a P. In this case, Judd was 2nd place finding all of the hides (we knew there were 3).
Here's a search that Joey did more recently at NW3 that did NOT earn a P. It was a successful search and was 1st place. I can see some handling issues... do you see how I am a little too much of the team?
Our next lecture will be a guest lecture from a Judge to find out in her own words what it takes to earn a P!
Testimonials
A sampling of what prior students have said about this course...
Thank you Stacy! This was a great class, I will continue to refer back to it as we prepare for future trials.
Great class Stacy. Learned so much. Thanks
Great class as usual Stacy. Many thanks for wonderful support of your students. Margo Banks
Genuine thanks for the substantive critique and training suggestions. Stacy has boots on the ground and has already seen anything my canine partner and I are working through on our road to trialing success. Kudos
This was one of the best classes so far. I fell like I really learned a lot & have made progress with Gracie. Stacy was great as usual!!.
Registration
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