Alert! Scent Work

Joanne Soyke had a Border Collie named Flip who finally found a sport that let him use his powers for good rather than evil. From that moment, from competing to training to judging, she's made it her mission to bring the gift of scent work to every dog since.
That mission is rooted in something she comes back to throughout this conversation. Dogs let us into their world when they search. They share something with us that we can barely comprehend, and the more we learn to listen, the richer that experience gets for the dog and for us.
She also talks about the tools that help you get there. And a mantra she borrowed from Jeff McMahon that she takes to every start line: I'm grateful for whatever the dog wants to share with me today.
What we talk about:
Joanne's origin story, a border collie named Flip who finally got to use his powers for good instead of evil
CARAT, the Suzanne Clothier assessment tool that changed how Joanne sees every dog she works with
The over-aroused Doberman and the start line routine she built around him
The terrified rat terrier who went from scared of a box to knocking them across the room
Judging philosophy, fun and fair, not trying to trick you or your dog
How the environment dictates the difficulty of the hides she sets
The sunshine through the windows she didn't notice and what that moment taught her about judging.
What's actually going through her head when she's watching you run
The blind hide exercise that builds your ability to read your dog
Why your one step after finding a hide might be costing you a converging
Trusting your dog and sharing the responsibility of the search
Are you trying to trial today or for the next 10 years
The mantra she takes to every start line
Seven questions with Joanne, including who in her pack keeps her humble, the wedding line, and what her dog would say about her in one word

Find Joanne:
www.furbetterfurworse.com
Facebook: Fur Better Fur Worse Dog Training
Alert! Scent Work is a podcast for competitors — the parking lot conversations you'd never get to have at a trial, with the judges and community members you wish you had more time with.
Listen to the podcast and find everything here: https://www.AlertScentWork.com
Follow along: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AlertScentWork
Subscribe to the newsletter: https://www.alertscentwork.com/newsletter/

Melissa Sowa has been judging since buried hides had to be placed using a drill. She's competed through Summit in NACSW and detective in AKC, and judges for AKC, C-WAGS, and USCSS. When she talks about what works and what doesn't in this sport, she has seen it from just about every angle there is.
And a lot of what she comes back to is the same idea. Take your time. At the start line. Covering your search area. Moving up the levels. Paying your dog. It shows up everywhere in this conversation and in everything she sees as a judge.
We also spend a lot of time on the handler side of things, because in scent work we talk a lot about training the dog but there is just as much to work on as the human half of the team.
What we talk about:
Detective search coverage, what covering an area really means, and what Melissa does before she calls finish
One hide syndrome, why it's real, what causes it, and what to do about it
How competing at Summit changed how detective search areas feel to her
Memory as a skill, she said she has a horrible memory and walked us through exactly how she trained herself out of it
How you start the search is how it's going to go
What organizational psychology taught her about rewarding her dog
The pay discrepancy between training and trialing and what to do about it
Don't rush the levels, why staying and getting more practice can make a real difference
Why you might pay for a lack of nos at the lower levels
What she sees handlers do that costs them Qs, things that have nothing to do with the dog
Influencing your dog, her thoughts, and how she idiot proofs her own dogs in training
USCSS and the stupid handler trick, yes this is a real competition element
Two judge stories, one involving a metal detector, one involving a monsoon
Seven questions with Melissa, signature distractors, what her dogs would say about her, and what happened when she played a kitten meowing and frogs chirping as audio distractors at trials

Find Melissa:
vforcedogtraining.com
Facebook: VForce Dog Training
Alert! Scent Work is a podcast for competitors, the parking lot conversations you'd never get to have at a trial, with the judges and community members you wish you had more time with.
Listen to the podcast and find everything here: https://www.AlertScentWork.com
Follow along: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AlertScentWork
Subscribe to the newsletter: https://www.alertscentwork.com/newsletter/

Dianna Santos came to scent work through a dog-aggressive Doberman who needed a reason to be a dog. Zeus couldn't go for walks. He couldn't be around other dogs. His world was shrinking, and so was hers. What happened when he started searching changed him. It also changed how she thinks about this activity: who it's for, what it can do, and why she believes every dog with a nose deserves to play it.
She went on to build Scent Work University and produce over 140 episodes of the All About Scent Work podcast. When I asked her to distill all of those conversations down to some themes that keep coming up, she landed on odor will humble you and focus on the dog. What she said about the first one felt like she'd been following me around with a notebook. The second is a good paradigm for all of us to remember.
We also get into something many competitors wrestle with: how much involvement the handler should have, and what that balance actually looks like in a search.
And if you have a reactive or dog-aggressive dog, Dianna has a lot worth hearing that might help you.
What we talk about:
The two themes Dianna keeps hearing from the best in the sport and what they mean for the rest of us
The universal handler journey, why it looks the same for almost everyone, and why understanding it helps you push through the hard parts
What focus on the dog really means when something is going wrong in a search
How much involvement should a handler have, and what finding that equilibrium actually looks like
Zeus, a dog-aggressive Doberman, and what scent work gave him that nothing else could
The choice point, what it means for any dog to choose the work over whatever else is pulling at them
What scent work surfaces about your dog during training and how to address it outside of a search so it stops costing you in the ring
Dogs with challenges, reactive, fearful, dog aggressive, and what perspectives and approaches can actually help
How closed off a handler's life can become around a difficult dog, and what starts to open up
Scent work as the activity, not just the sport, and why Dianna will go to her grave defending every dog's right to play it
Seven questions with Dianna, including what still delights her, the most rewarding thing someone has ever said to her, and the piece of advice that stuck

Find Dianna: scentworku.com All About Scent Work podcast
Alert! Scent Work is a podcast for competitors, the parking lot conversations you'd never get to have at a trial, with the judges and community members you wish you had more time with.
Listen to the podcast and find everything here: https://www.AlertScentWork.com
Follow along: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AlertScentWork
Subscribe to the newsletter: https://www.alertscentwork.com/newsletter/

Kristi Murdock might be the most appreciated person in AKC Scent Work. She built wesmellbetter.com, a free site that tracks every qualifying score, title, placement, and fastest-in-trial result in the sport. I talk to Kristi about the site's origin, what she thinks is the coolest feature more people need to know about, and how people use the site to increase their enjoyment of scent work.
But this episode is also about Kristi as a competitor. We talk about why, at first, her dog didn't seem to like nosework, what she's learned about being a better handler, and why she considers herself a smellevangelist.
What we talk about:
The origin of wesmellbetter.com — holiday complaining, a visiting brother who knew how to scrape websites, and Doug deciding to learn Python
What other competitors say about the site.
The alerts feature — Kristi's current infatuation and why you probably want to sign up for them
The Trial Finder, the achievement section, and the NQ tracking most people don't know about
How the site changed the way Scot thinks about titles, and why Kristi blames herself for his new spending habits
The story of Kristi's first nose work dog — and what she figured out years later that explains everything
Nose work as rehabilitation — how it became the right tool at exactly the right moment
Handler challenges — living in the moment and what Kristi calls odor goggles
What coaching finally taught her about her job as a handler
Stress management for dog sports — Hélène Lawler's curriculum and what it actually addresses
Seven questions with Kristi — including her dog's favorite reward, what her dog would say about her as a handler, a very specific strategy she had for dealing with a very unique distractor in a Detective search.

Find Kristi: wesmellbetter.com — sign up for a free account and the alerts feature
Facebook: We Smell Better
Alert! Scent Work is a podcast for competitors — the parking lot conversations you'd never get to have at a trial, with the judges and community members you wish you had more time with.
Listen to the podcast and find everything here: https://www.AlertScentWork.com
Follow along: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AlertScentWork
Subscribe to the newsletter: https://www.alertscentwork.com/newsletter/

I ran under Karen Allen at a detective trial and didn't Q. What stayed with me wasn't the result, it was the feeling walking away. She was rooting for us. That's who she is as a judge, and it's a big part of why I wanted to have this conversation.
One of the threads running through this whole conversation is how much we impact our dogs without realizing it. Body chatter. Disappointment going down the leash. Turning away at the wrong moment. Not opening your body to give permission. A lot of us are probably in that same place.
We also both got into something we're each actively working through — what happens when your dog stops searching and starts asking you questions.
And inaccessibles. What makes them challenging, and she and Scot talk about how their dogs each handle them.
What we talk about:
Karen's origin story — a cattle dog rescue who was hard to do activities with, and how scent work became the thing that finally worked
What changed in Aspen after scent work
Newton, who is deaf in one ear and very sound sensitive — and Larkin, who can shut down easily
How Karen plans a search — the Cirrus tool, the yes zone, and videoing search areas before trial day
Sniff and dismiss — and why patience matters more than most competitors realize
Collection, false alerts, and nerves — why it's more complicated than it looks
What Karen loves to see in a team when she's judging — and what she admits she's still working on herself
How much we impact our dogs without realizing it — what Karen sees as a judge and what Scot admitted about Murphy
What counts as a win when you don't get the Q
The boundaries — what newer competitors get wrong about them
When your dog stops searching and starts asking you questions
Inaccessibles — why they're hard to call and why we don't practice them enough
Escential Nosework ABCs — Karen's new business and what it focuses on
Seven questions with Karen
Find Karen: AKC Judges Directory — search Karen Allen
Escential Nosework ABC: noseworkabcs.com
Alert! Scent Work is a podcast for competitors — the parking lot conversations you'd never get to have at a trial, with the judges and community members you wish you had more time with.
Listen to the podcast and find everything here: https://www.AlertScentWork.com
Follow along: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AlertScentWork
Subscribe to the newsletter: https://www.alertscentwork.com/newsletter/