UK Sniffer Dogs Scent Work Classes
UK Sniffer Dogs was created with pet dog owners in mind, making it fun and rewarding putting your dog's natural scent abilities to work; helping to create a calm and focused dog with a great balance of mental and physical exercise. At K9 Klass Dog Training we run Bronze, Silver and Gold level courses and trials.
UK Sniffer Dogs Bronze (Beginners) 6 Week Courses - £70
Suitable for dogs of any age, breed and activity level, this 6 week foundation 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.
This course is suitable for dogs new to scent work or those that have some experience of scent work but are new to the target scent of Kong.
Exercises in the courses 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.
TBC - Group classes are on hold due to Covid-19 restrictions
UK Sniffer Dogs Bronze Trial - £25
Next date TBC
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 foundation 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.
UK Sniffer Dogs Silver 6 Week Course - £70
TBC - Group classes are on hold due to Covid-19 restrictions
Moving on from the bronze level, our silver classes introduce two new target scents, gun oil and cat nip as well as new "active searches". 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.
Our silver level classes are held at Clanfield Memorial Hall and 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.
We will also cover a new type of indication, known as an active search on another new target scent, cat nip. The active search involves teaching the dog a retrieve so that when they find the cat nip toy or key, they retrieve it and return to the handler.
At the end of the silver course, we will 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 .
Each class is 50 minutes long.
Certificate of attendance given upon course completion.
UK Sniffer Dogs Silver Trial - £25
Next date TBC
Putting your dog's sniffer skills to work, the silver trial will test them across bag, chair, novel and vehicle searches for the target scent of gun oil and cat nip.
For silver level, dogs must have completed either the UK Sniffer Dogs Series 3 and 4 workshops or the 6 week silver course.
The trial will consist of 4 timed searches as follows:
Search 1: Chairs & Bags x 3 hides (3 minutes)
Search 2: Novel Environment x 4 hides (4 minutes)
Search 3: Vehicle x 2 hides (2 minutes)
Search 4: Active Search x 1 hide (1 minute)
Pass: 6-7 hides found Merit: 8-9 hides found Distinction: 10 hides found
* Delivery to hand on active searches earns a minus 20 seconds on the time taken to complete the search.
The cost of each trial is £25 and a certificate and rosette will be awarded upon passing the trial.
Upon booking you will be allocated a 30 minute time slot for your trial.
UK Sniffer Dogs Gold 6 Week Course - £70
TBC - Group classes are on hold due to Covid-19 restrictions
Moving on from the silver level, our gold classes introduce a new target scent of English truffle oil, as well as new search environments including people searches and water searches!
Our gold level classes are held at Clanfield Memorial Hall and involve working with the entire UK Sniffer Dogs scent library of Kong, gun oil, cat nip and English truffle oil. We will work on inaccessible hides, improving duration of indications, as well as learning more about how dogs use different techniques to search.
We will also continue to work on the active cat nip searches we learned in the silver level, but this time expanding it to retrieve different textured items including material, wood and plastic, learning how scent permeates different surfaces.
At the end of the gold course, we will work on preparations for the gold trial, which includes novel, water, person and active searches.
Each class is 50 minutes long.
Certificate of attendance given upon course completion.
UK Sniffer Dogs Gold Trial - £25
Coming in 2021
Putting your dog's sniffer skills to work, the gold trial will test them across novel, people, water and active searches for the target scents of Kong, gun oil, cat nip and English truffle oil.
For gold level, dogs must have completed either the UK Sniffer Dogs Series 5 and 6 workshops or the 6 week gold course.
The trial will consist of 4 timed searches as follows:
Search 1: Water x 1 hide (1 minute)
Search 2: People x 1 hide (up to 2 minutes)
Search 3: Novel Environment x 6 hides (6 minutes)
Search 4: Active Search x 3 hides (3 minutes)
Pass: 8 hides found Merit: 9-10 hides found Distinction: 11 hides found
* Delivery to hand on active searches earns up to a minus 30 seconds on the time taken to complete the search.
The cost of each trial is £25 and a certificate and rosette will be awarded upon passing the trial.
Upon booking you will be allocated a 30 minute time slot for your trial.