When I decided I wanted to learn more about nose/scent work – I was thrilled to learn that past ATA podcast guest Sarah Owings was running an online learning opportunity called Cyber Scent with her colleague Helix Fairweather!
Cyber Scent is set up as a – learn at your own pace – (perfect for me) monthly subscription service, for people who already have clicker training skills and where you get drip fed course instructions based on your progress!
I am not quite at the end of my cyber scent journey yet … however, this week we had my dog – Fibi – doing her first little mini searches! And I got so excited I just had to share some of the awesomeness from my Cyber Scent experience so far!
So here are 5 of my favourite training videos of mine and Fibi’s scent work adventure.
Video 1 – Classical conditioning!
In this video you can see Fibi and I pairing the odour we will be using with high valued food items. The odour is located in the bottom of the bowl under a Colander. We did MANY repetitions of this so that when Fibi smelled the odour it would be associated with good things/feelings.
Video 2 – Adding movement with Fibi targeting the odour
Here we have added a verbal “eyes on” cue to the behaviour of Fibi targeting her nose over the odour (Still in the bowl under he Colander). And you can see I am starting to add the distraction of – me moving- whilst – reinforcing her for keeping her head in the bowl.
Video 3 – Different containers & Me in different positions
By this stage Fibi is offering a small duration nose target with the odour hidden in different containers! And she is also doing this with me being positioned in lots of different places around the room!
Video 4 – Fibi targeting odour up high.
In this video we have moved the odour up of the ground with a few distractions in place! Fibi is showing some of her first signs of actively sniffing out the odour!
Video 5 – Fibi does her first little mini search
In this video we have moved the odour onto objects in the room! The first time I put it up on the heater is one of the biggest searches Fibi had done up until that point! LOVING this so much!
This is fast becoming one of my favourite things to do with Fibi and I am just totally in love with everything I am learning at the moment from so many amazing trainers and instructors!
I highly recommend the Cyber Scent course if you already have clicker training experience and are looking to learn more about getting started in scent work yourself. I know I have absolutely loved my experience with it and am looking forward to learning even more over the coming whilst form other great minds in the industry! Especially Steve White who will be in New Zealand later this year! EEEEEP!
We were also totally lucky to have Steve join us at ATA a few months ago to present an amazing web-class called “Reading dogs scenting behavior” where he taught us – MacKenzie’s eight scent-work indicators (with video examples for all 8):
- Pull
- Nose Height
- Tail Carriage
- Breathing
- Cadence
- Circling
- Crabbing
- Head swing (Nose anchor)
If you missed this class when we did it live and are interested in seeing the replay you can do so in the members area on the ATA website! To gain access here is your exclusive $1 14 day ATA trail membership >>> https://atamember.com/14-day-trial/
What about your nose/scent work journey? Leave a comment below to share with us your experiences!
Love this! Where is the click?
Hi Ann.
Thanks for the feedback 🙂
In this training, I have chosen to use the word “good” to mean …
“Yes that’s what I want, stop what you are doing and get ready to receive subsequent reinforcement”
This replaces where a lot of people would use a clicker. Does this make sense? What do you think?
Ryan
Awesome work Ryan and Fibi. I love how much Fibi has matured 🙂 she is so much more with you now.
Hi Ryan,
I love the way you broke this down into “ byte sized” videos. This is an excellent way to show Trainers how important timing is and allowing the Fibi to “work it out” as the level of difficulty increases.
Well done!
What is the magnet? Something you repurposed or is it specifically designed for scent training?
Hey Sascha 🙂
Yeah the tin/magnet combination actually came in a pack i purchased specifically for this training. Here’s the link in case you wanted to check it out >>> http://www.paws4fun.net/complete-kit/
I hope this helps.
Ryan
Perfect timing! I’ve just finished the 1st weekend of three of a course of Nosework to become an instructor by Davide Marinelli here in Italy. Different technique but with this one you get duration on the odour immediately ( if you are a good clicker manager) Thank you
Hello Ryan, I am wondering how many sessions did this take with Fibi? Thank you for the video.
Hello Edward 🙂
Thanks for the question.
I think a great way to answer this might be to think about how many repetitions did it take us to get here – & I would say 100’s-1000’s 🙂
There was lots of approximations in the middle of all of these videos and many repetitions – especially in the classical conditioning stage at the start when we were just pairing odour with the food!
Each team [dog & human trainer] is unique though and will vary depending on many factors.
Hopefully this helps answer your question.
Ryn
Is it at all doable and beneficial to do scent training with a cat?
Great question!
Do-able?
To train a cat to use its nose to find a scent & then do a trained behaviour near the scent to earn reinforcement? – Yes these behaviors would be ones a cat is physically capable of doing so theoretically they would be trainable.
Nothing quickly comes to my mind to offer as examples at this point though unfortunately.
Would it be beneficial? – I think the answer here depends on the individual cat and the goals of doing that specific training with that individual cat.
Hmmmm, does that makes sense? I would be super curious to hear about others thoughts on this.
And please let me know if you have any further questions on this.
Hi Ryan,
Thank you for the reply and sorry I’m so late with responding, the world has been pretty hectic lately.
You asked me for more thoughts, so here are my musings on why I’m interested in starting scent-work with a cat and think that would be very beneficial for this specific one.
Since I started introducing small whole-prey into her diet (fish, chick, and mice so far) and catching a feather wand toy before dinner she has been dragging the toy to her feeding area with pride when she managed to catch it. This ritual and the whole prey have become important to her. This shows me that she has a good functioning hunt-catch-kill-eat instinct as a cat should have.
Three additional factors:
1) She has medical issues which means on some days she is unwilling to run and jump as much as is needed to keep her from getting frustrated. On days like these I do brainwork like clicker training but I think hunting would be a wonderful addition to the roster as it simulates the hunt she is so eager for much better than my husbandry and trick training. You should see the satisfied look of her whole body posture to know why I’d like her to have that feeling every day, even if she is having a bad day medically.
2) She hardly ever uses her nose. If I toss a treat and she loses sight of it, she thinks it just fell off the wold and stopped existing, she just gives up very quickly. Herbs can’t really entice her either. This makes me wonder if I can unlock a whole new world of enrichment for her if she starts putting more value on her nose and all the good stuff it can bring her.
3) She is completely uninterested in playtime without human involvement, I’ve spent many hours trying out all sorts of enrichment ideas looking to meet certain behavioural goals until eventually it became clear that one of the more important goals should be: an increase in independent enrichment use. I feel scent-work (although very involved for the human but the dog/cat will not really know this once the searching starts) may greatly increase her confidence in her own capability of doing things without as much human guidance or involvement.
(Side note to anyone else reading this: would love to hear of any people doing scent work with their cats, don’t be afraid to comment if you have!)
The scents have been ordered and I’m waiting for them to come in before getting started. I feel I have an ok grip on progression in training, but I just saw Fibi’s gorgeous indicator behaviour! I thought of working on the indicator later, but seeing you have such an solid and strong behaviour so early on is very inspiring and makes me want to think really well on it before even starting. Honestly, this part is more a me-thing than a cat thing, but pushing my own training skills to become a better trainer and understand more about behaviour should always be a top goal. Plus, if this is going to be our new hobby with many hours put into it I gotta have a little something cool in there for myself as well, right?
– How did you train this indication so early and so well? Was it just the bowl technique you showcase in the video above or did anything else come into play? Would love to hear you elaborate on this a bit 🙂
– How long and often would you suggest a pairing session be for a cat?
I love the freeze of Fibi’s as it shows a clear difference from normal to indicating, and the nose is very clear about where the source is.
Thank you for your time, and also all the cool content you bring to the world. You’ve changed how I think about enrichment, behaviour, and training so much!
Hey Arya 🙂
Thanks so much for the. reply! I appreciate you taking the time to write this all out!
As I was reading your post I remembered this game I played with our cat & I thought you might like it >>> https://youtu.be/Yb77xhra4JA
And this one here with robotic fish >>> https://www.facebook.com/animaltrainingacademy/videos/1429305287154857/
Also, I learned everything in this blog post from Sarah Owings & Helix Fairweather via their cyber scent course. You can see more here >>> http://www.cyberdogonline.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=65&Itemid=174
Hmmm & unfortunately I don’t think there is a black & white answer to how long you should spend on a session. I like to keep sessions short [1-2mins] but this is more for me then my learners! I like to be able to step away and think about how everything just went & contemplate any changes I might need to make.
I hope this helps but any questions please let me know!
R ?
The membership link is not working 🙁
Thank you for letting me know Joanna – I have fixed the issue and it should now be working 🙂