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Introduction to Nosework

This course also helped a lot with my bond with my dogs

Agnieszka Janarek Agnieszka Janarek
Start: 01 Nov 2024
Next: TBA

Auditor:

  • Duration: 6 weeks.
  • Learning materials: Written lessons with video tutorials.
  • Access to other Premium members' threads for additional insights.
  • Certificate of attendance upon completion.
  • Lifetime, 24/7 access to course materials.
  • Join the vibrant Tromplo community.
  • Earn 4 loyalty program points.

Premium:

  • Earn 15 loyalty program points.
  • Personalized attention: Instructor analyzes 12 minutes of your training videos weekly.
  • Engage in interactive learning with homework and daily feedback.

No premium spots available

– Do you want to test yourself as a police dog handler without leaving your home?

– Do you want your dog to be able to search cars and indicate hidden scents?

– Do you like the spectacular searches conducted by working dogs that can detect drugs and explosives?

– Unsure how to use up your dog’s energy when it’s raining outside?

– Do you want to tire out your dog without leaving home in just 5 minutes?

– Do you want your dog to become a special task canine?

– Or perhaps you want to improve your dog’s freeze indication?

Nosework is for you and your dog!

An activity for every dog and handler!

– Requires minimal time and financial investment!

– In just a few weeks, your dog can detect hidden scents in containers!

– Perfect activity for any dog, even for aggressive, disabled, or injured dogs!

– Utilizes the most important canine sense – SMELL!

– Requires only a few minutes of training each day!

Fun for the whole family!

A few minutes of training tires more than an hour-long walk!

– Builds a bond with the caregiver!

– Your dog can feel like a police dog searching for scent oils!

Nosework is a sport discipline derived from police dog training. Since not everyone can benefit from the knowledge and skills of trainers working in law enforcement, who professionally deal with detection, an activity was devised to imitate the work of search dogs. This is where nosework comes in. Thanks to this discipline, dogs around the world can specialize in searching for various scents and participate in competitions.

Anyone can sniff – the phenomenon of nosework

Dog caregivers worldwide are crazy about nosework, and it’s no wonder. This discipline is not limited by the dog’s breed, its mobility, physical fitness, or age. Additionally, it utilizes the most important sense of our dogs – smell. Nosework literally develops and perfects a dog’s nose, bringing immense joy. This activity discriminates against absolutely no one.

Nosework is a great solution for fearful or reactive dogs. Because it relies largely on the dog’s independent work, it greatly strengthens their self-confidence and decision-making abilities. At the same time, it helps strengthen our bonds through teamwork in higher classes.

Scent work is also perfect for older dogs who don’t want to spend their retirement on the couch. Nosework won’t overly burden them physically but will stimulate their minds. Therefore, it’s great for dissipating energy in disabled or injured dogs.

Are you ready to get started?

Join me for 6 weeks nosework online course!

I am the founder of the first and the biggest Polish Nosework Organisation. As a licensed judge and instructor I have taught and prepared dozens of judges, trainers around the country and hundred of teams worldwide.

Don’t listen just to me!

Check out whhat my former students say about this course:

Agnieszka Janarek did not disappoint, as always 🙂 

The course is well planned and tasks well divided throughout the 6 weeks. I I think is a must to take this course as a premium, especially if you are not a trainer or have little to no experience in nose work – like me. The audios from the teacher over my homework videos were really helpful – especially when I felt stuck with a specific task. I love the alert/freeze indication my dogs developed along the 6 weeks of work with Agnieszka (looks so cool! and my dogs had 0 experience/contact with scent before). This course also helped a lot with my bond with my dogs – not always granted with shy dogs. Agnieszka was always kind and constructive in her comments to my homework and always explained very clearly how I could improve my skills when teaching a new task to my dog. 6 weeks went way too fast! Nose Work is a lot of fun & I truly recommend this course. 

Sofia Tavares

What will you learn from this course?

Throughout the course, you will gain an understanding of nosework and its fundamental principles. The key topics covered include:

  • Understanding Nosework: Learn about the rules and regulations of nosework, ensuring a solid foundation for participation in this sport.
  • Odor Conditioning: Discover the process of classically conditioning dogs to specific odors.
  • Building Alert Behavior: Develop a solid alert behavior in your dog using clicker training techniques, ensuring clear communication between you and your canine partner during searches.
  • Discrimination Training: Introduce the concept of discriminating between hot and cold objects, teaching your dog to differentiate between odors and focus on the target scent.
  • Odor Holder Introduction: Familiarize your dog with different odor holders, preparing them to search for and indicate the presence of specific scents.
  • Cardboard Box Training: Learn how to introduce and utilize cardboard boxes as search elements, enabling your dog to practice their search skills in a controlled environment.
  • Generalization: Help your dog generalize their nosework skills by expanding their search scenarios to different locations, surfaces, and situations.

By the end of this course, you will have the necessary knowledge and skills to get ready even for Odor Recognition Tests confidently. But don’t worry – you don’t need to compete! Whether you aim to participate in competitive nosework trials or simply engage in a fun and mentally stimulating activity with your dog, this course will unlock the potential of your dog’s olfactory abilities.

You will understand the fundamental concepts of nosework, possess effective training techniques, and have the ability to create engaging and challenging searches for your dog.

Course Testimonials

Agnieszka is an amazing instructor that individualizes the program and really sees the individuals. She challenges as well as supports and always makes me make great leaps in my training! She always finds ways to deal with obstacles and it is so amazing to have her experienced gaze on my training.

Elin Bååth

April 12, 2024

Agnieszka Janarek did not disappoint, as always 🙂

The course is well planned and tasks well divided throughout the 6 weeks. I I think is a must to take this course as a premium, especially if you are not a trainer or have little to no experience in nose work – like me. The audios from the teacher over my homework videos were really helpful – especially when I felt stuck with a specific task. I love the alert/freeze indication my dogs developed along the 6 weeks of work with Agnieszka (looks so cool! and my dogs had 0 experience/contact with scent before). This course also helped a lot with my bond with my dogs – not always granted with shy dogs. Agnieszka was always kind and constructive in her comments to my homework and always explained very clearly how I could improve my skills when teaching a new task to my dog. 6 weeks went way too fast! Nose Work is a lot of fun & I truly recommend this course.

Sofia Tavares

February 1, 2024

We do some scentwork in the uk but there were a few things that I wanted help with and it’s always good to revisit foundations especially if they have been trained a bit differently. What a huge help it was…and the freeze indication that Pie had (which was a bit messy and meant…”I can smell something vaguely in this area ?”) has been replaced with a lovely precise nose freeze ? Thanks so much to you Aga for your infinite patience and your great suggestions…we are a much better team now! And I’m itching to dive into Stage 2 in July ?

Jennifer Will

June 30, 2023

This is the second course I’ve done that has been taught by Agnieszka and I enjoyed this one as much as R+ course.  Agnieszka is an exceptional tutor demonstrating enviable patience and teaching skills and brilliant problem solving solutions!  I always wanted to do nosework with Odie and I loved that the course was broken up into perfect bite size chunks with excellent video demonstrations.  We got way further than I was expecting with the content, despite me really learning what works for my boy (thanks to great advice from Agnieszka!), and it has given me lots of work to do to ensure I’ve got fluent behaviours before we go on to Nosework Stage 2. As with my previous Tromplo course it’s made me think so much about the way I train and ensuring I set my dog up for success even if that means 30 second training sessions to prevent “away with the faeries” moments!  Thank you so much Aga, me and Odie had a blast!  I hope we’ll see you soon for Nosework Stage 2 🙂

Carol Milner

June 30, 2023

Another fantastic tromplo course. What is the most important to me, is that You do not need to rush to follow the lessons. Agnieszka individualize the program, so You and Your dog can achive the most. There is always clear feedback and You know what to do next, when to stop and practise more, when to progress.

From content persoective- all lectures are clear and packed with practical informations. Movies with instructions are short and exercises are very well presented. Course is suitable for auditors to follow along but I truly recommand to take course as premium participant, because with Agnieszka’s advices You can learn much more also from handling perspective and session design

Janina Gmiter

June 30, 2023

Lessons:

  • Week 1 21 Nov 2024

    • Welcome!

      Read this before proceeding to the first lesson! Welcome, students! …

    • Samples preparation and handling odor

      When participating in nosework trials, it’s important to familiarize yourself with the rules…

    • Cocktail or not to cocktail?

      When it comes to introducing the odor in nosework, there are two options…

    • Classical conditioning of odor

      Classical conditioning, also known as Pavlovian conditioning, is a process where a neutral stimulus becomes a conditioned stimulus through its…

    • Hand touch

      Teaching the sustained hand touch or chin rest before introducing odor is beneficial for several reasons. The reason we start…

  • Week 2 21 Nov 2024

    • Tick tock!

      This exercise is based on Cyber Scent Around the Clock exercise. A course led by amazing Sarah…

    • Precision

      This week, our focus will be on shaping the alert behavior. We will begin with the first criterion, which is…

    • Duration

      This week we will focus on adding another criterion in the process of shaping the alert behavior.   The first…

  • Week 3 21 Nov 2024

    • 1. Duration part 2: chin rest in use (Free lesson)

      Throughout week 1 and 2, we practiced nose touch/chin rest. You may be wondering why have we done it? Why…

    • Cue for alert behavior

      This week, our focus will be on adding a cue to our target behavior. Specifically, I want your dog to…

    • Handler’s movement

      To progress in our training, we will now introduce competing stimuli, also known as distractions. The first distraction we will…

  • Week 4 21 Nov 2024

    • Nice weather today – Competing stimulus

      In today’s exercise, we will focus on adding a handler’s chit-chat as a distraction, ensuring that it does not affect…

    • Various holders

      During competitions, it is unlikely that the odor sample will be hidden in a tin, although we start working with…

  • Week 5 21 Nov 2024

    • Location of the holder – variations

      Once we have established a stable alert behavior on the tin and introduced new holders, we can further challenge our…

    • Discrimination

      We dedicated nearly five weeks to building the alert behavior, which serves as the first element in the chain of…

  • Week 6 21 Nov 2024

    • New locations

      The primary reason for unsuccessful results during exams is not a lack of searching skills, weak alert behavior, or an…

    • New objects

      This week, we will begin introducing plastic containers and cardboard boxes into our training. These new objects are another important…

    • Cue for search

      This week, we will focus on introducing the search cue in nosework training. In nosework, we will eventually need three…

    • Final Thoughts: Celebrating Achievements and Continuing the Journey

      Farewell and Keep Moving Forward! Mega Cheers…

Free Lesson

Duration part 2: chin rest in use

Throughout week 1 and 2, we practiced nose touch/chin rest. You may be wondering why have we done it? Why was it important? 

The answer is in the lesson. We will use nose touch, the dog can offer on our palm, to build duration on the tin with odor!

It is not mandatory to use it, we can build duration just using the progression from the previous lesson, but for some teams this is a useful troubleshooting tool! 

 

Behavior:

  • nose vertically on the tin, 
  • tin is hold in your palm
  • nose position maintained for a specific time

You will need: 

  • around 40 treats per session (it is good to use some of your dog’s daily portion)
  • duration on your nose touch behavior

Criteria:

  • correct, precise position and maintaining this position for specified in advance time. It can be one second for a start.

Delivery of treats:

  • you can use marker cue if you had used it for the nose touch alone
  • deliver treats from the second hand (not the nose touch hand) 
  • if you click deliver away from the source

Progression:

  • nose touch no tin x3
  • nose touch tin x1 
  • nose touch no tin x3
  • nose touch tin x1 
  • end of session! When this goes well, you can start increasing the numbers of repetitions involving tin. 

This is a video of my former students Carol and Odie, doing variation of this exercise. Carol also shows a great way to deal with error – she just tossed a treat rest for another repetition.