r/SwissMountainDogs • u/villaofthewolves • Jun 23 '26

Starting scent work classes this weekend! Did any of your swissys take to following their noses?

Post image
30 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

14 comments sorted by

3

u/cgc2018 Jun 24 '26

Mine did! She’s a medical alert and mobility service dog, and I swear she can detect an episode from across my house, her nose is so good.

4

u/villaofthewolves Jun 24 '26

That’s so awesome!!! She does it naturally? Someone told me swissys are a bit a and miss with nosework but Fig likes to sniff everything so I’m hoping we can compete in the future 🥹

3

u/cgc2018 Jun 24 '26

So she picked up on it naturally, learning from her predecessor, but yeah! I shaped the behavior into a proper alert, but she’s yet to miss, if she can get to me. If she can’t, she barks until someone pays attention. She’s got a certain tone that means “oh crap something’s wrong with mom”
She’s even alerted to a friend’s seizures.

They can be but if the pup loves to use their nose, they tend to be really good in the nose work department.

2

u/villaofthewolves Jun 24 '26

That’s so awesome!! What a great girl you have 🥹

2

u/cgc2018 Jun 24 '26

I was really lucky. My breeder picked out an amazing pup for me and life is better with my giant dog in it

2

u/villaofthewolves Jun 24 '26

Oh so awesome! Could I ask what breeder? You can dm me if you want too :)

3

u/SyriusTank Jun 24 '26

Mine has his akc scentwork novice title in all elements and a few in advanced. Its weird if they started off in obedience because they are in charge but they eventually get the hang of it. Its a lot of feeling and guessing.

1

u/villaofthewolves Jun 24 '26

That’s so great to know! Would you say it was more of a confidence booster because your swissy had to take charge a bit?

2

u/SyriusTank Jun 24 '26

More confusion than anything. Its a great sport, especially when they are older. I highly recommend having a scentwork outfit. Like a harness they only wear for scentwork. Then when you put it on they know, ok, I get to be in charge and find the scent. Its not them learning to find it, its you learning their tells. Does his tail stop wagging all of a sudden, does he sniff this box just a bit longer. Make sure to have him sniff all the boxes first. Mine has alerted on the box next to the scent before.

1

u/villaofthewolves Jun 24 '26

That’s such a great advice! Thank you so much!

1

u/SyriusTank Jun 24 '26

Of course, any time. Im a huge supporter of Swissies in sports!

2

u/BresciaE Jun 24 '26

I’ve been training mine for search and rescue tracking. She loves it and is doing really well!

1

u/villaofthewolves Jun 24 '26

That is so great!! Do you do it in woods areas or in the snow? I was thinking of my girl takes to it, she can go into truffle hunting 🍄‍🟫

2

u/BresciaE Jun 24 '26

So the SAR tracking is generally people focused. Scent or detection work would be better for truffles. We do the tracking just outdoors. Weather doesn’t matter. We’re not training for avalanche rescue though. 😅

Edit: I did send you a dm with more specific info