Kind, ethical and fun dog training classes, puppy classes and workshops

What is scent detection training?

Scent Detection Training has long been used widely across the world, for working and operational services.

Our amazing dogs have been used to search for drugs, bombs, firearms, cash, contraband, missing people and human remains.

Then even more amazing , in recent years dogs are being used for assistance purposes, medical alert (Diabetes) and medical detection, detecting cancer cells in humans!

UK Sniffer Dogs was created with pet dog owners in mind, making it fun and rewarding whilst putting your dog's natural scent abilities to work.

Our classes are designed for ALL dogs, whether they are slightly unsociable, energetic, elderly, young or perhaps a breed you may not associate with scent work. ALL dogs benefit from scent work! Did you know that just 10 minutes of scent work can be the equivalent of up to an hour long run!

We run our beginners, improvers and bronze level UK Sniffer Dogs classes on Thursday evenings and Saturday mornings at Wickham Community Centre, Wickham, Fareham, near Portsmouth and our silver level classes are held at Clanfield Memorial Hall on Sunday afternoons.

UK Sniffer Dogs 2 Week Beginners Course - £50

Saturday 22nd and 29th August 2020 - 9.30am to 11am

Suitable for dogs of any age, breed and activity level, this 2 week beginners course will introduce you to the world of scent work using fun and easy to follow techniques, providing a great source of mental exercise for your dog.

In our beginners, improvers and bronze level sniffer classes, we work using the target scent of Kong (the red food toys that dogs love), which makes learning scent work fun and engaging for your dog.

In this course we will work on scent pairing, indication, game of choice, line ups, pipe and chair searches.

Each class is 2 hours in length and includes comfort breaks.

This course also includes an accompanying course booklet, homework kit and certificate of attendance.

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UK Sniffer Dogs 2 Week Improvers Course - £50

Saturday 18th and 25th July - 9.30am to 11.30am - FULL

Following on from our 2 week beginners course, in this next 2 week course we will be expanding our searches to include bags, vehicles, novel environments and blind searches as well as working on more advanced indication skills, again using the target scent of red Kong.

Each session is 2 hours in length and includes comfort breaks.

Your dog must have completed the 2 week beginners course prior to attending this course. Upon completing this course you will be eligible to attend bronze level trials, which are held both at K9 Klass Dog Training and across the country.

This course also includes an accompanying course booklet and certificate of attendance.

UK Sniffer Dogs Bronze (Foundation) 6 Week Course - £70

Next course date TBC

Ideal for dogs new to scent work or who have already completed the UK Sniffer Dogs series 1 and 2 workshops and want to continue their scent work training or work towards completing the bronze trial.

Exercises include building freeze indication on target scent (KONG), completing searches on pots, pipes, and boxes, chairs, bags, vehicles and novel search environments such as exterior walls, fences and random new areas as well as mock trials.

Each class is 50 minutes long.

Certificate of attendance given upon course completion.

UK Sniffer Dogs Bronze Trial - £20

Saturday 1st August 2020 - Slots between 9.30am and 11.10am

Putting your dog's sniffer skills to work, the bronze trial will test them across bag, chair, novel and vehicle searches for the target scent of red Kong.

For bronze level, both the beginners and improvers courses or the 6 week bronze course must have been attended.

The trial will consist of 4 timed searches as follows:

Search 1: Line up search 6-8 bags x 1 hide (1 minute)

Search 2: 6-8 chairs x 2 hides (2 minutes) Search 3: 12 sqm vertical "novel area" x 3 hides (3 minutes) Search 4: Vehicle search x 2 hides (2 minutes)

Pass: 5 hides found Merit: 6-7 hides found Distinction: 8 hides found

The cost of each trial is £20 and a certificate and rosette will be awarded upon passing the trial. Upon booking you will be allocated a 20 minute time slot for your trial between the times of 9.30am and 11.10am.

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UK Sniffer Dogs Silver 6 Week Courses - £70

Course 1 - Next date TBC

Course 2 - Next date TBC

Police working dogs can be trained on up to 8 different scents. Cocaine, Cannabis, Cash, Amphetamine, Heroin, Bombs and more. We believe the dog can be trained on many more and this is referred to this as their target scent library. In our beginners, improvers and bronze classes we added red KONG to our dog's scent target library. Moving on from our bronze level, our silver classes introduce two new target scents, gun oil and cat nip as well as new "active searches"

Our silver level classes are held at Clanfield Memorial Hall and are split into two 6 week courses:

Course 1 will cover the introduction of gun oil to our dog's scent target library, working on chair and bag searches, novel environments and vehicle searches, as well as building upon distance, difficulty, duration and distraction of indications.

Course 2 will cover a new type of indication, known as an active search on a new target scent, cat nip. We will be teaching the dogs a new indication which will be a retrieve so that when they find the cat nip toy or key, they retrieve it to the handler. In course 2 we will also work on preparations for the silver trial, which includes chair and bag searches, novel searches and vehicle searches in addition to our new active search .