Scent Work

What Scent Work is

A dog searches an area for a cotton swab carrying a target odour and tells the handler where it is. The sport borrows its shape from professional detection work: the handler has no idea where the hide sits and has to read the dog instead of steering it.

Any dog at least six months old can enter, including mixed breeds listed with AKC Canine Partners.

The elements

Element	The search
Container	Boxes, bags or luggage set out in a line or a grid
Interior	A room or an indoor space
Exterior	An outdoor area, weather and wind included
Buried	Containers sunk in sand or standing in water
Handler Discrimination	The dog picks out an article carrying its own handler’s scent

Levels and odours

Each level adds an odour to the one before it, and adds hides, search area and time pressure.

Level	Odours in play
Novice	Birch
Advanced	Birch, anise
Excellent	Birch, anise, clove
Master	Birch, anise, clove, cypress

Handler Discrimination sits outside that list, since the target there is the handler’s own scent.

Detective

Detective is the class above Master. It puts several elements into one large search area with an unknown number of hides and a single time limit, and the handler works it as one continuous problem.

Titles

A dog earns a title in each element at each level. Finishing all four search elements at a level earns the level title as well, from SWN at Novice through to SWM at Master. Handler Discrimination carries its own set of titles.