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Painting the Picture: What is your dog’s behavior revealing about odor?

Saturday, Oct. 7

11:00AM - 12:40PM

Experience Level: Intermediate/Advanced

When dogs respond to odor, they are following dovetailing pathways through the air that humans cannot see. Becoming more attuned to this secret world requires close observation of body language. Can you tell what type of hide your dog is working long before he actually tells you where it is? How soon in a search can you recognize the telltale signs of a ground hide, an inaccessible hide, converging hides, or a high hide?

In this session we are going to test different types of hide placements and let the dogs teach us about what the odor is doing. Dogs should already be on odor, and familiar with multi-hide searches in novel environments.

Presenter Bio

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Sarah Owings

Sarah Owings (she/her) is a long time educator. She specializes in the practical application of learning principles, transforming the lives of challenging dogs, as well as the lives of the humans that care for them. As an international speaker and regular contributor to both online and in-person conferences, she is known for innovative approaches to tough behavior problems and her compassionate and insightful teaching.

Sarah has written for Clean Run Magazine on topics such as stimulus control, release cues, and reinforcement-specific cues. She currently gets her fill of what she calls “brave learning” as a member of the ClickerExpo faculty, and as a curriculum designer and instructor for several online training platforms.

In the past she has advised the Glendale Humane Society in Los Angeles, as well as the training team at Marin Humane Society in Northern, CA, where she now also teaches classes. Sarah is an avid Nose Work competitor, currently competing at the Summit level with her canine teammate, Tucker. She shares her life with her husband, Fred, Tucker, a small herd of pet cattle, a dove named Latte, and a tortoise named Bug on a fifteen acre ranch in Petaluma, CA.