by Stacy Barnett | Oct 14, 2026 | Nosework
Our dogs are MASTERS at reading us. That’s kind of their whole thing!! Your dog has been studying you since the day you brought them home. They know what your face does when dinner is coming and what your shoulders do right before you grab the car keys. Most of us couldn’t name half the little things we do that they’ve already picked up on.
So of course they’re watching you in a search area. If our body, our leash or our timing has been giving them answers, they’ll use them! Why wouldn’t they? Reading you is easy. Working odor in a tight spot with wicked airflow is hard.
Here’s the part that surprises people… it goes both ways. While our dogs are reading us, they’re also training US. Think about it. Your dog gets close, looks back at you, you lean toward the hide, they find it, and they get paid. Next time they look back a little sooner… and you help a little sooner. Nobody planned it, but you’ve BOTH been trained! The dog learned that the look gets an answer, and you learned that helping gets a find.
It feels like teamwork, and in a way it is. But that kind of teamwork falls apart the minute you’re on a blind hide and don’t have the answer to give.
by Stacy Barnett | Oct 6, 2026 | Nosework
I get asked about fans a LOT. Can you use a fan to teach your dog about airflow? Absolutely!! Fans are great for isolating one idea at a time…. and I DO use them! But if you’re setting up in your backyard or local park… you might already be standing in one...
by Stacy Barnett | May 10, 2026 | Nosework
“Cataloging” is one of those words we hear a lot in nosework. It sounds pretty sophisticated, doesn’t it? It makes it sound like the dog is taking inventory of the search area, gathering information, and making a plan. Is it possible that that is what is happening?...
by Stacy Barnett | Apr 21, 2026 | Nosework
How body pressure affects your dog’s ability to source odor One of the trickiest parts of nosework is that sometimes our dogs are doing exactly what we want… and we accidentally make the job harder anyway. Not because we’re doing something dramatic. Not because we’re...
by Stacy Barnett | Feb 19, 2026 | Nosework
Have you ever been in a situation where your dog is working SO hard to source a hide that you finally out of desperation call alert only to find out that you are standing in front of the hide? It happens to every nosework handler at least once in their career with...
by Stacy Barnett | Jan 26, 2026 | Nosework
One of the hardest adjustments for new nosework handlers isn’t learning how to hide odor. It’s learning how to judge a search. If you’ve ever watched your dog take what feels like the long way around to source and thought, That looked messy…, this...
