A new Nose Work adventure: STp

Ravenbird

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So, when I went to the IGP trial for the BH they were also holding a thing called STp, which I had to ask what it was. They said air scenting articles (an article with human scent on it) STp1 has 2 articles with handlers scent and STp2 & 3 have more articles, larger area and the articles are stranger-scented. The scent is simply the person holding the articles in their hands or in their pockets for a while. Anyway, the dog finds the articles by air scenting, not tracking footsteps, then indicating the find by a sit or down. I'd taught Asha to indicate articles by downing months ago when starting to learn tracking, but never put them into play because I never continued my tracking to that point. :bag: I saw 3 dogs doing this air scenting at the trial and thought omg, Asha could do that! So the other day I tossed out one article on the living room rug and she downed on it (since before Christmas that she'd seen an article) so I took 3 outside, put them in the grass and let her rip. In trial they have like 10 minutes. She completed this in less than 3. Definitely would have points off for touching / mouthing / moving the article, but she was so damn excited to do search work! She's never searched articles, and when we do odor nose work she indicates by looking at me, not by a down, so she already knows that this is a different game with different rules. She continues to amaze me. @Doberman Gang do you ever see this at many IGP trials? Look how much fun this dog is having!

 
Wow she has so many talents and you two are a great team! Well done!
 
Very fun! Shes soooo happy!! She'd be great at S&R it looks like ;)
 
So, when I went to the IGP trial for the BH they were also holding a thing called STp, which I had to ask what it was. They said air scenting articles (an article with human scent on it) STp1 has 2 articles with handlers scent and STp2 & 3 have more articles, larger area and the articles are stranger-scented. The scent is simply the person holding the articles in their hands or in their pockets for a while. Anyway, the dog finds the articles by air scenting, not tracking footsteps, then indicating the find by a sit or down. I'd taught Asha to indicate articles by downing months ago when starting to learn tracking, but never put them into play because I never continued my tracking to that point. :bag: I saw 3 dogs doing this air scenting at the trial and thought omg, Asha could do that! So the other day I tossed out one article on the living room rug and she downed on it (since before Christmas that she'd seen an article) so I took 3 outside, put them in the grass and let her rip. In trial they have like 10 minutes. She completed this in less than 3. Definitely would have points off for touching / mouthing / moving the article, but she was so damn excited to do search work! She's never searched articles, and when we do odor nose work she indicates by looking at me, not by a down, so she already knows that this is a different game with different rules. She continues to amaze me. @Doberman Gang do you ever see this at many IGP trials? Look how much fun this dog is having!

She definitely looks to be having fun, I have not heard of this at any trial before. Which organization was holding the trial?
Don’t know if I would do this while still competing in IGP. I wouldn’t want my dog to think it is ok to air scent for articles. That would be major points deducted.
 
I have not heard of this at any trial before. Which organization was holding the trial?
Don’t know if I would do this while still competing in IGP. I wouldn’t want my dog to think it is ok to air scent for articles. That would be major points deducted.
It's USCA, page 52 - 55 in the rule book. It's an IGP trial, but looking at the event calendar I only saw one other trial that was offering it. Not a popular thing, probably because as you mentioned, you don't want to confuse the dog with their hard-earned tracking for articles. I'd never heard of it until I saw it. There are several RH dogs in that club - another thing I'd never heard of - IGP title trialing for "Search & Rescue". Dog/handler must have a BH before eligible for the RH, then there are 3 phases for obedience, field work (rubble pile, walking planks, going through tunnels and sit, stand, down on command from a distance, dog being picked up and handed to another person (LOL, I'd lose all the points on that one) then lastly finding & alerting to a lost "victim" (live person). None of the dogs doing the STp air scenting were doing IGP.

I'm still amazed at Asha's ability to switch from odor nose work to this just for the asking. I never reached a point where I put articles on a track - I'd gotten discouraged with no live instructor and couldn't get Asha to go slow and steady except in snow foot prints. But she remembered an article meant lay down even after over 3 or 4 months not seeing one. She never lays down for alert on odor scent work, she whips her head around and looks at me to indicate the hide.

I just love having fun with my dog - thought if you have club members that don't want to trial in IGP but like to train and do stuff with their dogs you may want to offer this at your next club trial. It's easy to set up (no equipment, just articles) and fun to do and watch. They do have to have a BH first though.
 

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