Yesterday was spent listening to various people talking about canine noses, some of the information I knew, mainly due to a couple of John Rogerson courses I have done, other stuff was totally new. It was a very worth while day, with my favourite speaker being David Ryan as he gave practical training advice which I need for ADT. Dr John Bradshaw gave an in depth talk on the how dogs noses work, knowing the theory behind something helps give a basis to work up from.
Harold Burrows MBE talked passionately about the work of the National Search and Rescue Dogs Association, and I was lucky enough to sit with him at lunch and continue talking about whether the take their dogs aboard, which was a no, the hard work put in Lockerbie, and how understanding their families are.
The Blue Cross use scent training to help with some high energy dogs and even to get aggressive dogs to relax in the company of others using scent work as a distraction. The day finished with an update on the amazing work medical detection dogs are doing, reminding us that scent work is not only something fun to do with your dog, but also still has serious uses to help mankind.
I come away with a renewed drive towards scent work and lots of knowledge for how to progress with my college practical. It is a shame that there seem to be limited classes for scent work. I know there are courses for example the ones run by John Rogerson, but they are few and far between and run as a bloke of four or more days rather than weekly classes. Maybe this is a gap in the market to exploit? I feel I could run a class for object or people searching and trailing, even basic tracking although this is an area which I find slow and haven't really done, but with work it is trying to fit it in and finding a market it for it. Maybe something for the future.
