Welcome! I'm so glad you're here! I'd love to see you share: ▪️Your dog’s name(s) and a photo 📸 ▪️A fun fact about them ▪️What you’re hoping to learn or gain from this community

In training, your dog often knows the environment well. They may train alone, at home, or with the same few dogs — which means background scent is predictable. Trials change that picture completely. In a trial environment, your dog is suddenly exposed to: • Residual dog odor from dozens of unfamiliar dogs • Leash paths, corners, and furniture heavily trafficked by dogs • Possible drool or pheromone scent where dogs have paused, waited, or been rewarded • Scent pictures that don’t exist in your normal training spaces For some dogs, this creates a totally new kind of scent picture. Dogs sometime alert where another dog alerted even if that other dog was wrong. Other times this creates a handler challenge where the dog isn't actually indicating, but shows a change of behaviour that the handler incorrectly identifies as source odor. This is especially common for dogs that have limited experience: • Training only at home • Training with the same dogs • Training in low-traffic environments How to work through this in training Instead of trying to “ignore dog odor,” teach your dog how to sort through it: • Train in spaces used by unfamiliar dogs --- especially if those other dogs a drooly • Intentionally run searches after other dogs have worked • Reinforce clear sourcing away from dog odor • Occasionally train with no target odor in high dog-traffic areas (for teams that have progressed to blank searches) The goal isn’t to eliminate dog odor — it’s to help your dog learn that dog scent is just part of the environment, not the answer. Has your dog ever "falsed" and you've come to find out later that dogs ahead of you incorrectly indicated to the same spot? Could be that your dog is picking up on scent from the other dog! Although it could also mean that multiple dogs are getting tripped up by the same problem.

CHEERS TO NAOMI & REMY FOR EARNING THEIR INTERMEDIATE TRICK DOG TITLE! Another entry into the draw for a free trick dog title! Everyone still has until February 15th to earn a title evaluated by me to be entered into the draw!

BIG CHEERS FOR EARNING YOUR EXPERT TRICKS (ETD) TITLE! Naomi is the first one into the draw to win a free trick title! Anyone else interested in getting into the draw for a free title just needs to have me evaluate a title before February 15th!

It's Thursday and with it comes a new TRICK OF THE WEEK! This week I'd love to see your dogs ROLL OVER! This is an intermediate trick with DMWYD with the requirement for your dog to roll completely over in either direction. Check out this lesson in Dog Training 101 on Shaping and Luring a Roll Over behaviour: https://www.skool.com/extraordinary-canines-8712/classroom/173b2962?md=8fb2d35c030e4f8e8635d7bf7f4f718f Share video of your dog rolling over in the comments OR if you've tried teaching it, but haven't quite got there yet, tell me about what part you're struggling with (or even share a video of a training session even if the roll over isn't quite there yet)