Articles

When I first started out in scentwork, there were only two relatively new organisations in the whole of the UK, and just a small handful of people with real operational experience advising the sporting side of things. At the time I was working full time, as a canine...

My Tips for Helping Your Dog Cope With Environmental Worries During a Scent Work Activity Can your dog continue searching? Whether it’s a noisy tarpaulin moving in the wind or something else unexpected within the environment, a sudden sight or sound can concern even a...

“It’s Never Just One Smell, Understanding Odour Discrimination” We often think our dogs are searching for the exact smell of a target odour as we know it straight from the container or jar. But once that odour is placed into the environment, it no longer exists in...

Thermal Layers Indoors — What Your Dog Is Really Working Through When we move scent detection indoors, it may be thought that conditions are way more predictable than outdoors.  In reality, interior environments create their own complex odour picture, and one of the...

What a truly special day we have just had at Crufts 2026. Being invited to demonstrate scentwork at Crufts, the largest dog show in the world, was an incredible honour for all of us at Canine Scentwork Academy. For many years my personal mission has been to help...

Phew, another day nearly gone, time to sit down and relax .... Is this the time your dog seems to come alive? Perhaps you have experienced your dog displaying attention-seeking behaviours, nudging you, bringing you their toys, pacing, and looking for things to steal...

Working the Nose Series / Benefit - ‘Increased Problem Solving Abilities’ I repeatedly observe the positive impact of people being involved in scent detection, how a dog's behaviour develops and how relationships are enhanced between the dog and their human. As I...

Scent Work & Low Humidity   In recent articles, I have looked into high humidity, prompted by a cold snap we had in the UK recently where humidity was 80%. A few of the comments were interested in the opposing conditions of low humidity in hot and cold temps...

If scent work were on a dating app… your dog would absolutely swipe right. And honestly it would be the best and most fun relationship they can have. Why? It’s a match made in heaven. Scent training understands their needs. Whether energetic, anxious, bouncy,...

Scent Work Training - Time Brings the Magic ! With any human and dog activity, the magic rarely appears straight away. While I can’t speak with authority on every dog sport, scent detection is the world I know, and it’s here that I see that time brings the magic...