Follow your nose to St Pauls…

SATURDAY is smelling pretty good for a growing bunch of dogs and their owners who regularly follow their noses to St Pauls Church grounds in Ballan to be part of something good for body and mind.

For about two years this friendly weekend gathering at the old church has seen dog owners from around the region bring their pooches to participate in the sport of dog scent work under the guidance of certified instructor and judge, Ballan’s Simone Daley of Dog Chewition.

You don’t need to spectate for long to see how much the dogs love detecting the scents that have been planted for them to find, with tasty treat rewards for motivation.

Dogs of all breeds, from Dachshunds and terriers to collies and shepherds, compete against each other, one at a time, to most effectively detect the hidden scents in a range of situations as they graduate through the ranks, from novice to advanced, excellent, masters and ultimate ranking.

Daley, also a certified animal behaviourist, said scent work provides vital mental stimulation for the dogs and a great social outing for their humans.

The number of people and pooches who are loving scent work Saturdays at Ballan has grown as more and more woofers around the region catch a whiff of it.

“We run two to three classes each time with eight people and their dogs in each class,” Daley said.

“The dogs love it and I love seeing the smiles on the people’s faces.

“The dogs learn to find specific odours including birch, clove, anise and cypress, that have been infused on a cotton bud tip and hidden.”

The challenge for the dog is to find and indicate the odour, or multiple odours, that have been hidden in a range of situations.

Container searches, vehicle searches, interior building searches and outdoors searches are all part of what’s on offer.

Daley said the sport of dog scent work was developed in the US initially by detective dog handlers as a fun downtime version of the scent detection work used by professional quarantine and law enforcement agencies when using dogs to detect contraband.

“It was developed specifically as a fun sport, without the pressure, for pet dogs,” she said.

It took off and now there are keenly contested annual national and state scent work trials including Victoria’s, at which Daley will be judging, at Yarra Glen Racecourse in October.

Daley is keen to find a Ballarat area venue both large enough, and happy to host the increasingly popular sport at state trial level.

Among the regulars at the Ballan scent work sessions are Woodend’s Bryan and Sandra Crowley and their smart blue merle collies, Enigma and Durif, who are preparing to compete at Adelaide in the South Australian scent work state trial later this month.

“We love it. It’s a low impact sport that really gets them motivated,” said Sandra.

For those who suspect scent work may just be right for their best four-legged friend, Daley is about to run a new three-week introductory course starting 14 June at Garibaldi.