Alert! Scent Work

Alert! Scent Work is a podcast for everyone who's fallen down the scent work rabbit hole — and loves it there. Scot sits down with judges, competitors, and community builders from AKC, NACSW, ASCA, UKC, and beyond for the conversations you've always wanted to have but never had time for on trial day. We talk nose work and scent work training philosophy, competition mindset, and the perspectives that shape how we think about this dog sport. We celebrate the wins, laugh at the disasters, and dig into origin stories — because how did any of us end up here, completely obsessed with watching our dogs use their noses? Whether you're trialing every weekend or just discovering K9 nose work and scent work for the first time, this show is about the whole scent work life — the sport, the dogs, and the community that makes it all worth it.

Alert! Scent Work is a leisure podcast hosted by Unknown Host, with 28 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

Unknown Host hosts Alert! Scent Work, a leisure show with 28 episodes published.

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  Episode #4

  Penny Scott-Fox & Jeff McMahon | Penny Scott-Fox and Jeff McMahon | Getting the Most Out of a Scent Work Camp

  Aug 14, 202637 minS3

  When you go to a scent work camp or an all-day seminar, how do you get the most out of it? What stops people from fully committing to new ideas? And when you leave with a notebook full of things to try, what do you actually do with all of it? This episode was recorded live on the last day of the Penny Scott-Fox Scent Work Camp at Galway Downs in California. I'm joined by Penny and fellow instructor Jeff McMahon. In addition to how to get the most out of an experience like this, we talk about three of the exercises from camp, what they were designed to teach, and what else people took away from the exercises. What we talk about: What stops people from fully committing to new ideas at camp, and why it's more complicated than just being resistant to change The difference between going in with a competition mindset and going in with a learning mindset Projecting onto your dog, and what it really means when you say you want your dog to have a positive experience Breaking old habits and building new ones, and what self-awareness has to do with it Trade expectation for appreciation The breed genetics distance challenge, dogs off leash 70 feet from a hide, and what each breed did with that The lesson inside the lesson, what Scot took away that had nothing to do with breed tendencies The "What-if Game", where it came from, what it teaches, and some of the scenarios from this camp Why nose work should probably be called nose fun The 80 box challenge, the spiral grid pattern, and what being a teammate has to do with finding the hide What to do with a notebook full of ideas when you get home What lights Penny and Jeff up when they see it happen Find Penny: scott-foxdogtraining.com Find Jeff McMahon: https://k9noseworkblog.blogspot.com/ Alert! Scent Work is a podcast for competitors: the parking lot conversations you'd never get to have at a trial, with the judges and community members you wish you had more time with. Listen to the podcast and find everything here: https://www.AlertScentWork.com Follow along: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AlertScentWork Subscribe to the newsletter: https://www.alertscentwork.com/newsletter/

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  Episode #3

  Caroline Oldham | Make the Journey the Priority

  Jul 27, 202659 minS3

  If the journey with your dog in this sport is the priority, success can fall into place for any team. And Caroline Oldham puts a lot of effort into focusing on the journey. And doing so helps both the dog and handler achieve their goals. She also talks about her crate-to-crate ritual and why she does it, what your dog's breed group tells you about how they search, building handler grit, and a start line tip she thinks will make a difference for most teams. What We Talk About Caroline's pack, Timber the Welsh Springer, Kate the Malinois who made her a planner, and Rebarre the yellow lab she planned a year before she got her What training a Malinois teaches you that no other breed will Breed groups and what they tell you about how your dog searches The dog is always learning whether or not you're teaching, and what Caroline did with that idea the first hour she had Rebarre Your dog is perceiving odor, not just smelling it, and why that reframe changes how you handle The toy basket mistake and why all good things should come from you Clarity, no gray days, black and white rules that hold even when you don't feel like training The one treat that is only for the discovery of odor Crate to crate, what the ritual looks like from the hotel to the search area to the car ride home What success looked like with the first dog and what it looks like now Two stories about what it looks like to drive home from a trial and call it a success even when you don't do as well as you wanted Handler grit and what it takes to keep your rituals in place when everything is falling apart The self-care coach on her training team and why the handler is half the partnership Seven questions with Caroline, including her signature distractor, the start line tip she thinks will make a difference for most teams, and what her dog would say about her in one word Links and Resources Find Caroline: Facebook: Caroline Oldham Facebook group: Scent Work Texas Southern DFW Scent Training seminars: ckoldham@att.net Alert! Scent Work is a podcast for competitors, the parking lot conversations you'd never get to have at a trial, with the judges and community members you wish you had more time with. Listen to the podcast and find everything here: https://www.AlertScentWork.com Follow along: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AlertScentWork Subscribe to the newsletter: https://www.alertscentwork.com/newsletter/

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  Episode #1

  Melissa Sowa | Take Your Time

  Jun 22, 202655 minS3

  Melissa Sowa has been judging since buried hides had to be placed using a drill. She's competed through Summit in NACSW and detective in AKC, and judges for AKC, C-WAGS, and USCSS. When she talks about what works and what doesn't in this sport, she has seen it from just about every angle there is. And a lot of what she comes back to is the same idea. Take your time. At the start line. Covering your search area. Moving up the levels. Paying your dog. It shows up everywhere in this conversation and in everything she sees as a judge. We also spend a lot of time on the handler side of things, because in scent work we talk a lot about training the dog but there is just as much to work on as the human half of the team. What we talk about: Detective search coverage, what covering an area really means, and what Melissa does before she calls finish One hide syndrome, why it's real, what causes it, and what to do about it How competing at Summit changed how detective search areas feel to her Memory as a skill, she said she has a horrible memory and walked us through exactly how she trained herself out of it How you start the search is how it's going to go What organizational psychology taught her about rewarding her dog The pay discrepancy between training and trialing and what to do about it Don't rush the levels, why staying and getting more practice can make a real difference Why you might pay for a lack of nos at the lower levels What she sees handlers do that costs them Qs, things that have nothing to do with the dog Influencing your dog, her thoughts, and how she idiot proofs her own dogs in training USCSS and the stupid handler trick, yes this is a real competition element Two judge stories, one involving a metal detector, one involving a monsoon Seven questions with Melissa, signature distractors, what her dogs would say about her, and what happened when she played a kitten meowing and frogs chirping as audio distractors at trials Find Melissa: vforcedogtraining.com Facebook: VForce Dog Training Alert! Scent Work is a podcast for competitors, the parking lot conversations you'd never get to have at a trial, with the judges and community members you wish you had more time with. Listen to the podcast and find everything here: https://www.AlertScentWork.com Follow along: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AlertScentWork Subscribe to the newsletter: https://www.alertscentwork.com/newsletter/

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  Episode #11

  Dianna Santos | Odor Will Humble You

  Jun 4, 202649 minS2

  <p>Dianna Santos came to scent work through a dog-aggressive Doberman who needed a reason to be a dog. Zeus couldn't go for walks. He couldn't be around other dogs. His world was shrinking, and so was hers. What happened when he started searching changed him. It also changed how she thinks about this activity: who it's for, what it can do, and why she believes every dog with a nose deserves to play it.</p><p>She went on to build Scent Work University and produce over 140 episodes of the All About Scent Work podcast. When I asked her...

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  Episode #10

  Kristi Murdock | The Smellevangelist Behind WeSmellBetter.com

  May 11, 202645 minS2

  <p>Kristi Murdock might be the most appreciated person in AKC Scent Work. She built wesmellbetter.com, a free site that tracks every qualifying score, title, placement, and fastest-in-trial result in the sport. I talk to Kristi about the site's origin, what she thinks is the coolest feature more people need to know about, and how people use the site to increase their enjoyment of scent work.</p><p>But this episode is also about Kristi as a competitor. We talk about why, at first, her dog didn't seem to like nosework, what she's learned about being a better handler...

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