Dave Kroyer Seminar, Saturday, 9/17/22
See An Illustrated Explanation of Nosework for Those Unfamiliar with It
Learn more at www.davekroyer.com (including a thirteen-video “Super Snout series showing his method) and on @davekroyerdogs.

to page 2 of the Saturday seminar (Superior and Master Exterior searches)
to page 3 of the Saturday seminar (detailing and Interiors search)
to Friday’s seminar page
back to main seminar page

In Dave’s method, the indication is a sit or down (or reaching up on high hides to get as close as possible) and staring at the hide until released by a clicker of spoken “yes,” at which time the dog goes away from the hide to the owner to receive its reward.  All of us in Sheridan use that indication but some seminar participants don’t.

In the mornings we worked exteriors at Craftco Metal’s storage yard; in the afternoon we worked interiors in Sue’s arena

On Saturday and Sunday, Katina and I took as many photos as we could when we weren’t running our dogs.  Also on Saturday and Sunday, Sheila, a professional photographer, took photos except when she was walking or working her dog.  Sometimes her husband, Bob, took Photos when Sheila was otherwise occupied.  Sheila didn’t do all dogs, so some searches just have my photos; I didn’t photograph every search, so some dogs just have Sheila’s photos.  We tried to make sure every dog was photographed as it worked. 

You may notice that we have more photos of some dogs than others.  I take a lot more than Sheila does – probably the teacher in me, as I like to go over the photos to watch a search, look at leash handling, note any change in the dog’s posture that perhaps I missed, but which could be used to tell when it was coming the scent cone, etc.  This year Sheila did not put her copyright mark on her photos, so I’m concerned that she gets credit.  Instead of mixing them into a sequence, n each search and each dog, I put my photos first since they might tell the search story, and then hers, so it may look like 2 searches as my photos end with an indication and then Sheila’s start at the beginning.  She was often on an opposite of the search area than I was.  You can usually tell Sheila’s outdoor photos pretty easily as she is much better at setting the camera for lighting conditions, so her photos are much better.  We started early in the morning and the novice searches were against the east property fence, making us look into the glare.  Some of my photos are pretty bad so just see them as a help to learning more about searching.  

One of the reasons I hate covid is that all photography classes stopped and our photo shop where we could get help closed.  I used to go down with my camera and ask what I did wrong to cause what I got.  So now I’m trying to figure things out on my own, which is a really slow learning process when I have a year to forget what worked on one seminar before we do another seminar.

Novice classes only 1 hide (birch), with no distractions.  Advanced classes also contain only 1 hide (anise), with no distractions.  Novice exterior and interior search areas are pretty small, while the Advanced search areas are larger.   Above Novice, the classes (Superior, Masters & Elite) get increasingly harder, with larger areas containing multiple hides, one or more distractions (toys or food).  Superior has clove plus one of the scents from before (birch, anise); Masters has myrrh plus two of the earlier scents (birch, anise, clove); Elite has vetiver plus any and all of the earlier scents – and the judge doesn’t tell you how many hides and distractions there are.  There can be 1 or up to 5 hides, and multiple distractions.

Participating dogs were Cat Baloo (mixed breed), Diesel (English Shepherd), Gavyn (Welsh Springer Spaniel), my Hopeful (a black & tan Cantor/GloryToo daughter from the SS litter), Joe (Vizsla), Kaiser (a Cantor/Lovely son from my RR litter), Pansy (Yorkshire Terrier), Rambler (blue heeler), Rumor (Belgian Tervuren), my Spirit, a sable Quasi/Lively daughter from my ii litter and Ursa (a Cantor/Mercy son from my UU litter.

Dave set up two novice exterior searches, two advanced, one for superior and one for masters (we had no elite dogs).  All of them were a little more difficult than actual competition searches.  If a Novice dog did really well, he let them try the Advanced searches. 

Cat Ballou, Gavyn, Joe, Pansy and Ursa worked Novice Exteriors, with Ursa and Cat Ballou being invited by Dave to also do the Advanced Exterior searches.  Dave showed Scott how to use the ball to increase Ursa’s intensity in searching.  Hopeful and Kaiser did Advanced Exteriors. 

Novice Exterior Search 1

We had a bunch of Novice dogs and only a couple of Advanced dogs and, so I put my Hopeful in Advanced even though she has only been to one trial.  She does, however, do the same searches as my higher-level dogs when I go train.  I try to go train at Craftco on weekends.  On Saturday I’ll take 3 dogs, then on Sunday I’ll take the other 3.  (Yes, I have 6 in active training, plus Varoom!, who is beginning). 

Advanced Exterior Search 1

to page 2 of the Saturday seminar (Superior and Master Exterior searches)
to page 3 of the Saturday seminar (detailing and Interiors search)
to Friday’s seminar page
back to main seminar page