Free nose work at home
Your Dog’s First
Nose Work Lesson.
The first lesson from our Intro to Nose Work class, free and set up for your living room. A few boxes, some treats, and your dog finds out their nose works.
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How the lesson works
Boxes, treats
and a nose.
1Set out the boxesFive to eight open cardboard boxes on the floor. Hide a few treats in each.
2Let them huntThree to five minutes. No pointing and no help. Your dog is doing the work.
3Stop on a highEnd while your dog is still excited, not tired. That is the win for this week.
About 10 minutes. A few cardboard boxes and some treats. Your dog finds out their nose works.
Start here
Four steps, in order
Set it up
Spread 5 to 8 open cardboard boxes on the floor. Drop a treat or two in each one.
Let them hunt
Bring your dog in on a loose leash and start the timer. Three minutes. No pointing, no help.
3:00Boxes out? Start the clock.
Watch the nose
Stay quiet and watch. Which box does your dog go to first? That is their nose talking.
Stop on a high
End while your dog still wants more. Excited, not tired. That is the win.
Unsure dog? Use fewer boxes and give them more time. Touching a box and finding food is enough for today.
Lesson done
Your dog found out their nose works. Want to keep going? Book a free consultation and we will find the right next step together.
Book a Free ConsultationThe science
A cardboard box?
Weird, right?
But here is why it works.
Scent receptors in your dog's nose. Up to that many.
You have about six million. Today they get to use them.-
2006
The box is where the sport starts
Three detection dog trainers built the sport of K9 Nose Work around this exact game: open boxes with food inside. They trained dogs to find drugs and explosives, then brought the same first step to pet dogs. An open box keeps the smell close, so your dog can win right away.
National Association of Canine Scent Work, the sport's governing body. nacsw.net -
2 weeks
Sniffing made dogs more hopeful
Researchers gave pet dogs two weeks of either nose work or heel work. Then they tested how hopeful each dog was about an unclear bowl. Only the nose work dogs got more optimistic. The heel work dogs stayed the same.
Duranton and Horowitz, Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 2019. Read the study -
More wags
Dogs love earning it
In one study, dogs who solved a task to get food wagged more and got more excited than dogs who got the same food for nothing. Finding the treat on their own is part of the reward. That is why you stay quiet and let your dog do the work.
McGowan and colleagues, Animal Cognition, 2014. Read the study -
5 paths
Smell reaches the whole brain
Brain scans of 23 dogs at Cornell found smell wired into five major paths, including the parts that handle vision, memory and emotion. When your dog sniffs out a box, a lot of their brain is working at once.
Andrews and colleagues, Journal of Neuroscience, 2022. Read the study
So the box is not the point. The search is.
Your dog uses their nose, solves it on their own, and walks away feeling good. That is the whole first lesson.
Real dogs in our scent classes
The rest of the class, with a trainer
Lesson 2Complexity BuildsBoxes get stacked and arranged. The hunt adapts.
Lesson 3Going VerticalHides move off the floor. The nose works at every height.
Lesson 4Under and ConcealedHides move under and behind. Problem-solving begins.
Lesson 5Outside and New LocationsThe hunt moves outdoors. The game travels with your dog.
Lesson 6Challenge and ConsolidationEverything combined. Your dog proves what they have built.
The rest of the class happens with a trainer watching your dog and moving them up when they are ready. Any dog can start. A free consultation is the first step.
Book a Free Consultation See the Intro to Nose Work class Questions about your dog? Text us at (208) 247-8073. A real person answers.