scent | Canines In Action, Inc.

Enrichment (Productivity, Sanity) in a Time of Social Distancing

woman seated in chair head wrapped in silicone and plaster, with black Labrador puppy leaning into her lap and soliciting petting — No worries! This was during a bodycasting session and she’s fine. Penny was unfazed by the weird faceless human. #socialization

As many of you know, Clicker Expo was cancelled at the last minute last weekend. While we were all, attendees and faculty, disappointed (to put it mildly), I absolutely support the decision. I’m not going to talk about the math and what should have been done here before now, because that’s readily available. Today I want to talk about best behavioral practices in a time of increased isolation and even quarantine.

Let’s talk about behavior and enrichment in both people and pets.

It’s Spring in Indiana

In Indiana, our calendar has months like the rest of the world, but they’re called January, February, Mud, Tornadoes, Welcome Race Fans, June, July… The month known as April in other places is characterized here by severe thunderstorms and tornadoes, which is not only murder on dogs with thunder phobias (like my Valenzia), but means that occasionally, you might need a rubber raft to get to the mailbox.

Nosework, or, Why Isn’t There More Time In My Week?

A year ago, I heard from Steve White of a new sport which could title dogs for identifying odors in scent boxes — very basic detection work. It sounded too good to be true.

Then this week, Laurie Luck posted about her trip to a seminar on that same sport. Now I am getting seriously jealous.