Ep 8. Find your dog’s superpower with the magic of Scent Work with Jamie Pound from UK Sniffer Dogs

  📍 Welcome to the Yappy Hour, powered by Yappily, the podcast for dog lovers who want to better understand and connect with their furry friends. I’m your host, Nathan Dunleavy, and today we’re diving into the world of scent work, one of the most powerful ways to engage and fulfil your dog. My guest is Jamie Pound, founder of UK Sniffer Dogs, and a professional dog trainer specialising in scent work.

Jamie is passionate about showing pet parents how tapping into their dog’s incredible sense of smell can reduce stress, boost confidence and provide essential mental stimulation. In this episode, we explore why scent work is so important, how it can help Anxious or high energy dogs and how pet parents can easily get started at home.

If you’ve ever wondered how to make life more enrich, more enriching for your dog, this is an episode you won’t want to miss. So grab a cup of tea, settle in and let’s get started.

 Welcome back to the Yappy Hour. I’m your host, Nathan Dunleavy, and I’m so excited to bring you another episode today. We’ve got the amazing Jamie Pound from UK Sniffer Dogs, and we’re going to be having a chat all about Jamie and UK Sniffer Dogs, what it’s all about. Jamie’s a professional dog trainer with a strong focus on enrichment based training and an advocate for mental stimulation use.

and the dog’s natural abilities in training. So I’m really, I’ve been really looking forward to this episode and hearing more about scent work. So Jamie, welcome to the yappy hour. I’m so excited to chat with you today. How are you doing?

Brilliant. Thank you so much for having me on. It’s a pleasure to be here. Absolute pleasure.

Wicked. Great. So let’s get stuck in then. So for those who may not be familiar with your work, could you tell us a little bit, a little bit about UK sniffer dogs and how it all began?

Yeah, absolutely. So I’ve been a dog trainer now professionally for 2013. And going through my journey, I dealt quite a lot with reactive dogs. There was quite a few reactive dogs coming into classes and also had one myself. So I had a German shepherd who was reactive to dogs and people. And it was difficult to you know, let that sort of dog off the lead, give it the stimulation it needed. so we got into scent work and we did different types of scent work. We did some detection work, we did tracking, we also did some trailing and he absolutely loved all of his scent work that he did. And we enjoyed doing it together.

Silence.

not only with his reactivity, but at home with the other dogs, he was also a bit of a resource guarder.

Okay.

so he had a whole host of different things going on with him and a challenge, let’s say, but he was a

Yeah.

and yeah, he’s that heart dog that everybody has for me. It’s that one that took me on the journey.

Was that Nemo?

No, it’s Frankie. It’s my

Oh,

before. Yeah. Yeah. Nemo’s my newer German Shepherd. He’s coming through but Frankie. Yeah, he died a few years back now.

Oh, bless.

yeah, he’s the whole reason that I do what I do,

Yeah.

his behaviour and it definitely benefited how he How we took to new situations as well.

He’s a little bit more optimistic. He was easier to handle. So for me, I then started using it within my behaviour work and our classes. I incorporated into our classes and back in 2018 sniffer dogs was born

Brilliant. Thank you again.

to work through within my own dog school.

So within Jamie Bound Dog Training.

Okay.

yeah, so it was only meant to be just a bit of fun for our dog owners to enjoy a little bit of competition here and there.

Yeah.

From there, people then started asking me to go and do it in Manchester and host workshops, different

Yes. Yeah.

and absolutely, I wanted to do this because I wanted to get it out to as many pet dog owners as possible because I wanted them to be able to use it to enrich the dog’s lives, but also

Yeah.

Problem solving behaviours

Yeah. Yeah.

then I said, why don’t I train up instructors to do it themselves? So that

Yeah,

course was born,

yeah,

where we’ve got our bronze, silver, gold levels, and now we’ve

yeah.

as well. So it’s more accessible

Pretty good.

the world.

Yeah, that’s pretty. That’s where I came across yourselves because I’ve done the bronze one. I don’t do a lot of in person training now, but I did do the bronze one. I don’t know if it was before lockdown, but I did it in Salisbury football club

I

with,

location.

yeah, with Mike and it was Yeah, it was brilliant.

It was a really good cut the day. So no, that’s that’s great. And it’s really interesting because everyone I speak to yourself and other dog trainers, they all got into dog training because of their own dog. It’s the same with my dog, my essay dog. I’ve got three chihuahuas that all think they’re rottweilers and reactive on lead.

Then I’ve got the toy pedals, which are all drama queens, but everyone I speak to, they were a dog owner with their own dog. special dog and then that then led them into the world of training because they then wanted to have other pet parents with similar issues. So I love that. I love that. I love a bit of a story.

So thank you for that. So scent work is something that’s gaining a lot of momentum. It’s getting really popular, but it’s still quite misunderstood. Jamie, can you explain why it’s such an important activity for dogs, please?

Absolutely. Now dogs see the world through their nose.

Yes.

and one of the best things I love watching is watching when the dog is following its nose because you see all these different body language changes

Yes.

benefits to our dogs having that outlet.

Yeah.

a natural outlet that dogs need for their welfare.

Okay.

Yeah.

So I like to liken it to sort of mindfulness or if you’ve got an activity that you

interesting.

Yeah. And, and

Yeah.

if you’ve got something that makes you feel good. So some people like going to the gym and they come out and they feel good, or some people like reading or,

Yeah.

reads to, to unwind and feel

That’s good. Yeah.

Scentwork is that for dogs and

great.

we have this I mean, a lot of pet dog owners that I deal with, they say, Oh, he’s sniffing all the time and I don’t really want to encourage you sniffing. So that

Right.

getting into it.

Yes. That’s,

dog the outlet of, of, of scent work, we’re providing it.

Actually, we mean not. So we actually end up getting more focus, more engagement out of the

that’s it.

we’re providing them that outlet.

Yes. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, you’ve got to close your eyes for the whole walk.

No, you wouldn’t want to. That’s the way you explore. So yeah, that’s the main reason. But there’s so many benefits to the dogs. To their brain. There’s so many studies being done that just participating in scent work alone had the huge impact it will have on confidence or your, your nervous dogs or your over excitable dogs is going to calm as well.

So giving dogs that extra little bit of stimulation And you can practice it anywhere. That’s the biggest benefit for me is it can be done anywhere. Search area could be in the kitchen or in your garden or, or even out on walks. And that’s when

Yeah.

it fun is bringing it in out and walks.

Yeah. It’s mad because like as a dog trainer now, and I’m driving along in my van and I see someone, I don’t know about you, but I’m always looking at people’s dogs, rather than people. But I see a little dog there and he’s trying to have a little sniff and this poor dog’s getting yanked along to say, you know, and I’m like, I just almost want to shout out and say, let him sniff.

Let them bloody sniff because I’m a big advocate and just. In letting them sniff because I know the benefits, but you know, the, the pet parent doesn’t necessarily always know that. So again, it comes back down to education, which we’re really big on, is, you know, because they, you don’t know what you don’t know.

So

Absolutely. And I think back when I first got Frankie, I remember doing this myself. You have this picture of somebody walking down the street with their dog and their heads held up high. And they’re trotting like they do with heel work crafts. But. But that’s not reality. And it’s unrealistic to think that the dog can do that.

Yes, practicing heel work is a great application of a skill to practice for safety. You know, if you need to maneuver your dog whilst out on walks, keep them close, absolutely practice it. General lead walking. The dog should be allowed to sniff, should be able to engage with its environment.

that clear?

and you’ve got to remember it’s the dog’s walk, you know, it’s it’s not not a bad

It’s,

like we might think when we’re exercising, oh, we’ve got to go a certain distance.

Yeah.

a bit of time and enjoying that with your dog.

Yeah, I was only saying it to my husband yesterday. I don’t know why we’ve not spoke to it before, but I said, obviously the dog sees the world through their nose. It was like, what, not their eyes. And I was like, no, and he found it quite fascinating. So, you know, again, it’s just talking about more brilliant.

So we’re going to move on to our next section, which is all about why scent work is essential for dogs. And obviously we’ve touched on a bit of that already, but obviously we often hear about the importance of physical exercise. I must take my dog as. Brits were kind of con or as humans, were conditioned that I must walk my dog twice a day for an hour each time.

But why is mental stimulation just as inre just as crucial for dogs, Jamie?

So mainly with the stimulation I use, I’ll use it to train dogs, but also put them in a good head space. That’s the main important thing for me. So getting the right balance.

Mm.

When I train dogs, I use motivational training and I’ll use toys and food to engage in games with the dog and I’ll look to try and excite the dog with the food or the toys in ways that might involve sniffing, chasing or biting, you know, like your dog would want to do with a bunny rabbit or a squirrel.

Yeah. So, because I Nemo, you mentioned Nemo a minute

I did. Yeah.

He’s not very food motivated, so you could

Right.

a bit of sausage in his face, and he’s like, whatever absolutely,

Well, some dogs aren’t feeding me.

they’re not, but if you throw that food, he’ll chase it, and he’ll catch it,

Why?

for him,

Yes.

and

Is the chase.

be

Yes.

be ham, it could be a biscuit, the game, the reward for him is the chase and the bite of

Oh, that’s fair enough. Yeah.

The the, the idea with, with using ScentWork though, ScentWork generally calms dogs and it brings dogs down, it lowers arousal.

Hmm.

chasing and biting, we’re going to pump arousal.

Hmm.

yeah, there’s a time and a place and I’ll use the, the, the type of reward to replicate what effort I want. from the dog in the behaviour. So if I want a recall, yeah, I’ll reward the dog with a tug or a chase and a bite. Because I want that dog to bond back to me, but equally I’ll participate in scent work games because dogs will want to sniff with the environment and find hunting games of their own,

Hmm.

out bunny rabbits, squirrels, other dogs, bin bags, whatever. But if you participate in that game out in the environment with a dog, That benefits your recall as well because you’re now providing the dog the outlet of sniffing rather than the environment itself. So I think from everyday day to day recall training, scent work is important because if you’re not providing your dog the outlet, they’re going to find it elsewhere.

Yeah.

motivation or engagement in certain locations because your dog favors that game than you.

Yeah.

from an engagement point of view, recall point

Yeah. Yeah.

there’s so many other ways we can use it with our pet dogs. Puppy biting is one of the biggest things that I use it with.

Yeah, that’s a good point.

yeah, that killer puppy that comes home for the first

Sharp

it down on the

teeth.

yeah, and it’s killing your toes.

And you think, oh my God, I’ve got a killer puppy. But absolutely you haven’t. You’ve got a puppy that is seeing your feet move and saying, oh, that moves, I must

That’s exciting.

it.

Yeah.

So, using scent work to mentally stimulate these puppies,

Yeah.

bite and sniff at the same time. So, one, we’re going to stop the biting in

Yeah.

in that moment, but two, we’re going to give the dog stimulation that’s going to calm the arousal, which is going to result in less biting from the puppy as well. So There’s tons of ways we can use it, but generally dogs need it. They need it in their routine. And they, they are going to benefit and thrive from, from having it.

Brilliant. No, I love that. I didn’t even think about puppies and said, well, it’s mad really. But yeah, it’s just giving them, just redirecting it and giving them something else to do with their mouth. But I love, I love how you’ve sort of said to use it for puppies. So I’ve never even thought of that before.

How does engaging a dog’s nose help with their emotional wellbeing? So again, I guess all that’s around bringing those arousal and stress levels down.

This is, this is great one I could talk about. So we’ve done a few the PPM you’re part of the PPM and

I am. Yes.

very well.

I, I do. Yes. Of

we’ve done a few events where we’ve gone out Cyprus with those guys,

course. Yes. Yes.

work with rescue dogs in kennels which have

I really, I really want to go, but the husband’s

if

seven dogs at home on his own. So I’m not quite there yet, but it’s on my radar that I want to go.

you go, be prepared to come back with eight.

That’s the problem. That’s why I’ve got seven dogs now. Oh, okay. So yeah. So you went out to Cyprus and with the rescue dogs. Yeah.

That’s it. And we used, we used a lot of scent work. The idea was I was going to be there with Maria and we were going to use some, teach some scent work to the kennel hands and the the people that were helping. So the dog’s got a bit of scent outlet.

Love it.

found with, with a couple of the dogs, cause we were there over a few days, we found with a couple of dogs that they were quite shy, quite timid.

They’re not used to human contact,

Yeah.

some dogs that were quite. Reactive to the other dogs within the kennels, but they can’t separate them completely. They can do their best, but they are going to see and hear other dogs in this environment. But over the couple of days, the dogs that we worked with, you saw their behaviour and their emotional state change,

Oh, wow.

more receptive to the humans

we weren’t directly, Trying, if you think about behaviour training, this is where I recommend with rescue dogs in particular, if you’re going to rehome or you’re going

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

stressy kennels, and now they’re starting to become more relaxed in this environment. doing searches within the kennels.

They’re coming out of their pen and doing some search work. They

That’s lovely.

end to walk these dogs. These dogs

No.

for 10 minutes a day, and

Oh, bless them. Yeah, yeah.

get out and do 10 minutes of sniffing,

Yeah, amazing.

do maybe three minutes of sniffing here and there throughout the day, then they’re getting out a lot more and getting more of a balance level of stimulation.

I love that.

affected those dogs. And, and, and yeah, if we can get it into rescue, if you rehome it, when you’re bringing that dog home, you know, especially from abroad, they need that time to decompress

Well,

way

yeah,

to get them using their nose.

yeah, because apparently it can take up to six months for a rescue dog to fully decompress. And obviously if it’s been like free, like a traumatic event that, you know, that kind of sticks with them. So I love how you bring scent work into it again to just build that confidence, build that bond, that relationship it has so many amazing uses, doesn’t it?

That’s brilliant.

that we’re talking about that comes off a plane, the first thing we want to do when we get that dog is walk it. We’re like, Oh, let’s take it out. And

Probably the worst thing you could do.

yeah. And we’ve told people that we’ve got this dog and we want people to

All these people coming round.

yeah, it’s not going to be good for the dog. If you’re,

Yeah,

dog out to somewhere that they’re going to see as stressful, they’re only going to attach that negativity to you.

that’s it.

going to not weaken the bond, but it’s going to make it harder to build,

Yeah. Yeah.

to build up the trust, play scent games in the house with a dog, get it used to the garden with some scent games. Now start bringing those in on your walks. Now you’ve got a dog that’s looking to you. with trust as its caregiver, rather than fear what situation is this person going to put me into next? Yeah,

No, I love that. And I love all the work that you do in Cyprus with Maria and that. So I get so jealous, but I maybe get there one day once I can talk. Finally, maybe we’ve got lesser dogs that I can talk the husband into.

I

This year because it’s

Oh, you. Oh, right. Okay. That’s a shame.

It would

Yeah.

have dog care and child care for

Oh God. Too,

way I can do that,

too much. No, you have to.

go back.

No, that’s fair enough.

Perfect. So moving on to our next question. For any pet parents who might not have thought about scent work before, what are some signs that their dog would really benefit from it?

Absolutely. So, I mean, easy answer is every dog is going to benefit from it,

Hmm.

but dogs that are sort of getting themselves into trouble. Okay. So dogs that are self employed possibly need a job. We’ve

like that

you know, we’ve always heard dogs need a job. Yeah. Everybody’s

They do? Yeah.

if a dog could pick its own job, guarantee you it would be sniffing. if we give that dog that job, we’re going to see their general behaviour shift.

Mm.

We’re going to start to see better decisions

Yeah.

they’re being fulfilled in that certain way.

Yeah.

Puppies, puppies. When this is the biggest thing for me, the, before the puppies can go out. So that window of where they’re being vaccinated,

Yes,

many problems at home with these puppies because they

To get familiar with their environment and they’ve, they’ve been there for a week or so now and they’ve checked it.

It’s not so new anymore.

yeah,

to find trouble.

yes.

got these, these, these two or three week period where we can’t take the dog out for

Yeah, yeah.

also their physical makeup at the minute, we can’t walk them for long periods,

And they’ve got all this energy. Yes.

but

Yeah.

that brain. And if we get that pup sniffing, then we’re giving it a good mental stimulation, a good balance. You’re going to see less bad behaviour in the house.

I love that.

but so many people getting working breeds and not realizing that they need working.

They need that outlet.

Absolutely. Two typical examples. One being the, the, the ever popular at the minute cockapoo. Yeah.

Oh God, yeah.

Yeah. Every family is, is getting a cockapoo and it’s made

Yes. And people don’t realise that, do they? They do not realise that. Yes. They just get this cute dog and they don’t realise they’ve got these two breeds together. And then you’ve got a whole mountain of other stuff to contend with.

And you’ll see a lot of them with developing reactivity problems or

garden.

problems,

Yeah.

natural, natural innate behaviours are going to start to come out in the dog. and

Yeah.

in areas where we might class as naughty. So like you said, resource guarding or things like that. Now, if we stimulate the dog and they get to use their innate babies in other ways, like sniffing, you are definitely gonna, gonna see less resource guarding within that dog. As I mentioned with Frankie.

Yeah, brilliant. And what did you say? It was another breed as well that you’re seeing it more. Sorry.

I’ve,

Oh, dachshunds.

this one myself.

Yeah. Well, you’ve got one now, haven’t you? Yes.

Yeah. It’s funny cause you, you, you always seen for the dog that you have, haven’t you? So I’ve always been known as a German shepherd type man.

It’s like two,

me.

ends of the spectrum. You’ve got a massive little and large.

dogs. I think they’re popular on TV as well in movies and things like that. So kids like them, but they are not your sofa pet. You know, I’ve got four dogs and Lily. My Dachshund is the smallest and we’ll go out for a walk and all the dogs will come back and lay on their beds. Lily might do it for. Two minutes and then she wants to go again. So are bred for hunting badgers and working down holes and working independently.

That’s the main thing. So, you know, our Spaniards and our, our German Shepherds, German Shepherds, especially are reliant on their handler. They’re, they’re very in tune with their handler and You know, it’s a part of a handler and dog game when I’m working with Nemo, my German shepherd. But when I’m working with Lily, yeah, she’s totally independent.

She’s doing her thing which is what they’re bred for to go down and hunt the badgers alone.

Yes.

the holes with them.

Yeah, no, we weren’t fit for starters. Yeah,

they’re bred to be barkers. So what we see is if they’re, if their needs aren’t met and they’re given that stimulation, given that job, we’re going to see more barking, more digging more burying of stuff, more stealing of stuff and possibly resource guarding as well,

yeah,

type of breeds.

yeah.

Lily’s Lily’s been a challenge, but she’s, she’s great for

No, I walk a couple of dachshunds and we’ve got a few on our walking books. And yeah, they have come with their, with their, what’s the word? Their special, special, yeah, attitudes probably. I didn’t want to like, didn’t want to sound negative because I love them. Like, I know. You know, I love all the dogs, but no, they’ve come, they come with their big personalities.

Yes, absolutely. And

perfect.

All dogs can do it. But yeah,

Yeah.

I love seeing the breeds that are not known for it as well.

Yeah.

boxers, we have

Yes.

I’ve got a three legged staffie at the minute, Nala who’s absolutely smashing it in classes. And, and yeah, she’s got three legs.

It doesn’t bother her. She searches really, really well.

Well, he does better than some of the others. Yeah.

Yeah.

love that. And I think that leads us nicely into our next section, which is the benefits of scent work for different dogs. So I like that obviously you’ve spoken about puppies and that every dog can do it. And obviously even older dogs, like they may lose their sight on their hearing, but they’re never going to lose their scent.

their sense of smell. So yeah, senior dogs and stuff like that with dogs that got made mobility issues. But we have mentioned it a little bit. But how can scent work help dogs that do struggle with reactivity or anxiety?

So for dogs with reactivity and anxiety generally are, dogs are reactive to what they see in hear.

Mm.

And they’re very in tune with scanning the environment and watching for a trigger or hearing a trigger.

Mm.

working its nose, ge generally starts to overpower every other sense, and they start to ignore.

Distractions around them. So I run general pet dog classes

Right.

reactive dogs to our classes. We work outside. So we make sure we give them plenty of space.

Good.

If a, if a, if a owner phone me up tomorrow and said, I’ve got a

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

walk nicely on the lead, look at

Yes. Yeah.

Can, can take the pressure off as well. And they start to ignore the other dogs. And I had it once with dog code.

And I think it was Nero. Yeah, Nero. And was highly reactive, German shepherd. And we would tell all the owners, right. When it’s his go to come up for the search, I want you all to step back. So it gives him space to come up. And,

Yeah,

Now, normally, if that was in a behaviour class, he’d have looked across at the other dog and probably kicked off. But I think because he was in his flow of his sniffing and doing his job, he was

yeah,

it.

oh, that’s pretty good. Mm hmm. Yeah.

exercises. The movement in the other dogs is going to heighten the reactivity in our dogs. Whereas when we’re working on stay work, it might be easier for the dog to focus because the triggers stationary. actually, it can be a bit confusing for that for the owner as well, they’re saying, Oh, well, he was okay last week because we were doing stays and and whatever. But this week we’re doing recalls and he’s just lost his mind. it’s because of the movement in the other dogs. Whereas

Yeah.

the game is predictable. They know they’re coming to do that job. It might be a different search, but it’s the same job.

Yeah.

and you’re naturally building that positive association around those other dogs.

Yeah. Brilliant. I love that. Absolutely love that. And obviously he’s focused on what, what he’s doing is he doesn’t have to worry about what’s going on around him because he’s so involved with, you know, the scent work.

All this stuff can be done on lead as well. There’s no

yeah.

dog off the lead. It can be done in small spaces. So these dogs that these reactive dogs generally can’t be let off leading in local parks and woodland,

Yeah,

we can do searches with them on the lead in different places to add to that stimulation.

yeah. What I love there as well is that you said, I mean, because a lot of people, they’re basically advertised no reactive dogs allowed. And I love that you said that you welcome reactive dogs because for the, for the pet parent or the guardian, the owner to see that, that’s nice because otherwise they can sometimes feel they can feel a bit isolated if they’ve got a reactive dog.

And whereas you’ve said, you know, you know, they’re welcome. And I think I really like that.

I think I’ve personally got a soft spot for that area of training because of my history of what I went through. I know the feelings. I know how that that

Exactly.

feeling. And

Yeah.

before, it is normally a bond breakdown. And if we can get that person to like their dog again, yeah, rather than going, I dread putting that lead on the dog and taking that dog out for a walk.

I dread even it. taking him anywhere. Actually, if they start enjoying at least just once an hour a week, whether it’s in classes with you or they managed to start them practicing at home. Now you are improving that bond and that person is changing their perception of that dog and

Yeah.

the behaviour training itself.

Yeah. Love that. Brilliant. So what about then our high energy breeds? How does Scentwork help them focus and relax?

So absolutely. Now you’re talking your your let’s talk about our working Cocker Spaniels. Yeah. There’s lots of people that go out and get a working Cocker Spaniel

Yeah.

think they’re getting a clever dog so that it’s going to be easy to train. That’s totally the wrong thing. dogs are normally the harder ones to train because they pick up bad behaviour just as good as they do quick as they do good behaviour. So most of the time I like it. I always use Okay. Thanks. Spaniels for this is this example, but most Spaniel owners might turn up to the, the, the park with their dog. They open the boot of the car and the dog just does the best fun of its life chasing birds or running 400 yards away from them and having the best game scent game in their life in the bushes. Well, then what you get is a dog jumping out of the car, rushing off for this game, which is nothing to do with you, which is going to affect your recall. If you got that Spaniel out of the car, and you popped it on the lead, and you did some searches around your car first, then you went on a walk, you’re going to have a dog that’s lower in arousal, so easier to manage on walks.

Yeah.

giving the dog the outlet of the game, so they’re going to look to you, rather than the environment for it.

Yeah.

But yeah, all these working breeds, Mally’s are high at the minute, you know, they’re, a lot of people are getting Mally’s

Yeah.

realize the work that they put in

Yeah, yeah,

yeah, they’re known for their bite work, but

yeah.

at arousal. So I do know a lot of Mally owners that, yeah, they might. participate in agility or high drive sports, which is going to pump arousal through the roof

Okay.

and probably make general behaviour worse. They balance it out with doing scent work throughout the week as well to

That’s, that’s good. Yeah. Brilliant.

so yeah,

Yeah. I often, I often say to some of my pet parents or owners like if the dog’s had quite an excitable walk, I’m like, oh, we need to do some brain and sniffy games between now and the next walk just to bring that, those arousal levels down. And it works because they come out on the next walk and they’re not as like you know, worked up and stuff.

So brilliant. So I think we touched on obviously this anyway again, but regardless of a dog’s age or breed is something is, yeah, it’s sent where it’s something that all dogs can do. I think, you know,

dogs. So again, older dogs. Now this is, again, I’m passionate about this because we’ve, there’s a couple of ends of the, there’s a couple of different types of older dog, let’s say. So you’ve got that older dog that has served you all its life. And you’ve, you’ve, you’ve done maybe agility with this dog and you’ve done some competitive type. training, which is physical, so it might be agility or competitive, obedient, something like that, working trials. Now this dog’s getting that little bit older and it physically can’t, you know, it’s getting aches and pains, might be suffering from illness, arthritis, things like that. We don’t just stop. Yeah, we don’t just stop. Okay, you can’t do agility anymore. So we just stop and we get another dog and we work on the new project and he just sits at home. No, we don’t. We we look for something else for that dog to do. And

Yeah,

we’re younger, we are physically active.

We might participate in certain sports or do running or things like that. As we get older, we’re probably likely to do more reading or puzzles or whatever it might be when, when we get to that age, flicking on TikTok or something. But, but yeah.

no, that’s good. It’s good. It can be for all ages and all breeds of dogs. I love that. Okay. So maybe not.

just touching on ages. And we were talking about that. It’s a mixture of dogs can participate in this together as well. So

Yeah.

classes, I might have younger dogs, puppies and older dogs. And we had a a retired is a colleague retired from he worked to music and the highest level of agility.

She used to compete across

Oh, wow.

same class. But then we had a six month old Labrador that had done absolutely nothing in terms of baby training. the six month old Labrador picked it up a hell of a lot quicker than the, the dog that had been trained in all these other disciplines. And it was great for that pet dog owner to see this Collie who’s normally like God, super dog, super dog.

Super dog.

yeah, absolutely. To her, being beaten by a little six month old Labrador who’s

Oh, that’s.

with toilet training, let’s say.

Yeah. Yeah.

so

Oh, that’s brilliant. No, I love that. So moving on to how pet parents can get started with scent work. So many pet parents assume scent work is just for working dogs, but how can everyday pet parents get started with scent work?

Absolutely. Now it doesn’t need to be complicated. That’s the

Hmm. Yeah.

think, Oh, that’s when I first got into it, my trainer used to scare me

Yeah. Ha ha. Gotcha.

used to be scared to do it when I was at home, just in case I got it wrong.

Oh, okay.

And that’s why my passion is making it really easy and foolproof for you to practice without making any mistakes.

Yes.

the we’ve got a UK sniffer dogs. We’ve got a free download that people can get, which is 12 free set exercises that they can do at home with their dog.

Brilliant.

Originally, it was five free exercises that we brought out in lockdown because people couldn’t get out as much and we were

Yes. Yes.

to be able to have exercise that they could do at home with their dog,

Yeah.

stimulation that they need.

Yeah.

over the years, we’ve built it now up to 12 free exercises, which will involve toys and food, which we can start activating the dog’s nose in different ways.

Brilliant.

some, it doesn’t need to be complicated. Most of them can be done within your home on your own. Sometimes you might need to venture out into your garden or, or things like that, or, or even get, get doing it on walks

Yeah.

to get started by just doing some simple search games for food or toys. And then. Sniffer Dogs, obviously we’ve got UK Sniffer Dogs instructors now all around the country that run practical courses for pet dog owners to go along and take their dog too.

Mm.

this week I’ve had a in my classes, I’ve had a Rottweiler Cross German Shepherd, I’ve

Wow. Wow.

I’ve got Jack Russells, Jack

Oh, wow.

she’s coming to crafts at little Jesse. She won our, one of, one of our gold competitions recently.

Yeah.

got, you’ve got Mally’s there working Cocker Spaniels and all these, these top working breeds and the Jack Russell’s in there winning it as well. So every dog can do it. And, and, and. Absolutely. I would look at just putting it in in some way into your routine with your dog, whether

Yeah.

a day, and it’s a different little sniff game each day, food or toys,

Yeah.

want to take it a bit further, look for a local instructor. If you don’t have a local instructor, we’ve got online courses where they can take

That’s right. Brilliant. Brilliant. Have you got any sort of fun and easy? I know you’ve got the 12 games, but is there any sort of fun, easy scent based games that people can play with their dogs at home?

absolutely. Now that the one that I normally use with puppies at home

Yeah. Oh,

cup game. So you’ll

okay.

Yeah, two, two cups and you’re up. I won’t turn them up the other way because Turn them up So they’re up the other way and pop a treat underneath one of them

Yeah. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay.

reward the dog for their effort in trying to get the treat So if they, some dogs might pour the pot and we say, yeah, good dog.

And they can take the pot and then we can place one under the pot again and switch them around. Some dogs might nose, but a couple of times, some dogs might bark at you being a taxi. Some dogs might you know, just sit basically, I would say reward effort in them trying to show you. And it’s just a quick, simple game. by placing a treat under two cups, switching them around, playing a little switch game. And you’re working that brain, you know, five treats, couple of repetitions of that. That’s going to lower that, that, that pops arousal. And it’s a bit of fun as well.

Yeah, love that. And we mentioned about obviously on their walks. So how can pet parents incorporate scent work into their regular walks with their dogs to make them more enriching?

Brilliant. So I do a little thing called environmental searches

Okay.

Environmental search. If you think about maybe puppy confidence courses or where we used to get dogs used to different surfaces and things like that what we use in our behaviour class is similar to that, but on using scent work.

Yeah. Hmm.

And what I try and tell my owners to do, even in my behaviour classes, we cover searches and we, we, we stress the importance of, of, of playing searches with your dog and we just do it with

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

It can send some them. Of the air breathed in up to the brain. It can send some down to the lungs for breathing. And that takes a lot of work. So you’re mentally tiring your dog at the same time. They’re having a great game. So environmental searches is great and it can be done with food. Again, it can be done with toy, but just using, and I try and encourage owners to look for different surfaces. But I do say as my disclaimer, only use something that is safe and legal for you to do so. Don’t

Yeah.

it on next door’s car.

Yeah, definitely. And I guess they could take out if some of their food and do some scatter feeding on a, on a walk, a bit of find it and stuff like that. Yeah.

of stimulation that they need in the mornings and then we’ll do further training or walks later on in the day. So, you know, you can use it when you want to give your pup that extra stimulation, or you can use it when they are being a little bit aroused naughty.

Let’s say let’s use it to to activate that and people say well, aren’t we rewarding the dog food? He’s biting my foot. Aren’t we rewarding them with a find it by throwing food around? No, what you’re doing is you’re giving them an alternate game

Yeah.

predatory game, which is sniffing

Yeah. Yeah.

or hands

I know what I’d prefer.

Yeah.

Perfect.

that they will calm and they will relax after it as well.

Perfect. All right. So moving on to our next section. And then we’re, we’re, we’re not got much left after that. We’ve literally been sailing for us, which is brilliant. Cause it’s packed full of info, but just a little bit about the science behind scent work. So. We’ve already mentioned some bits already, but obviously dogs noses are 40 times more powerful than humans, and we’ve said that they experience the world through scent.

They have an incredible sense of smell. Can you explain what makes it so powerful?

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, one of the biggest, one is the amount of scent receptors a dog has.

Yeah.

have up to about 300 million scent receptors,

It’s mad.

five to six million.

That’s mad, isn’t it?

And, and yeah, there’s your, your blood hounds and your dogs that are bred for scent in are going to be in your three hundreds 300 millions.

Yeah.

your brachycephalic feeds and your breeds and your your pointy nose you know, whippets and things like that are still going to have high scent receptor cells and be good at using their nose.

Mm.

one of the most fascinating things for me, I would say is that dogs have two, what we call olfactory systems.

So

Yes. Mm. Mm.

that they have of detecting scents. And. Our main olfactory system is located at the front of their brain and it’s, you’ve got what was called the olfactory bulb, which processes the sense.

Other dogs wee. Yeah. We see, we see that

Yes.

Yeah. Okay. Yes.

finding out how healthy that dog is. It’s potential mate or potential threat. So they can detect things that are not necessarily there. And this is why it’s been why it’s so powerful.

And it’s now being used to detect things like cancer, diabetes, things like that.

Yeah.

and I say they’re detecting, they’re detecting smells that we can’t see. They’re invisible things. And another thing that I mentioned recently is, like I said, they detect ghosts so they can detect the pheromones of

I often wonder, I often wonder this.

well, they can detect they can detect pheromones of other dogs

Yeah.

locations. So for instance, dogs might go into a vets and a dog that was in there previously had a bad experience. Well, that dog would have given off certain pheromones

Yes.

fear pheromones.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Right.

With a potential threat, they’ll give off these pheromones,

Yeah.

because they can smell other

I can smell.

in the past. So

mad.

it’s so amazing. The dog snows and, and that’s where they. they’ll use it to detect in humans through sweat or saliva and then be a medical assistant stock in terms of like

Yes,

or things like that.

yeah, yeah.

their capabilities are endless. It’s amazing.

I think they can pick up on, like, when a woman’s pregnant, can’t they, like, the hormone changes and stuff like that affects their behaviour. Because that’s happened to a few dogs.

long before any other.

Yeah.

you know, dogs, dogs have proven to

just, that’s mad.

long before any medical tests can do.

I think they were starting to be used to, like, spot COVID, weren’t they, or something, or something along those lines.

Yeah,

efficient and they can pick it up a lot quicker

Yeah

yeah.

So there’s,

I don’t know. I don’t know if I’ve got this right but can they detect, I don’t know if I heard where I heard this, like, like a teaspoon of sugar in an Olympic sized pool, swimming pool. Ha ha ha ha ha.

is half a teaspoon of sugar

Harvesties.

swimming pool.

Yes. Ha ha ha ha

sugar in tea. I can’t, but some people can. But dogs can

ha.

half a teaspoon in an Olympic sized swimming pool. So,

That’s nuts.

as well.

One I like is because humans are quite visual. So,

Yeah.

things, we see the world with our eyes, don’t

We do.

If you In a comparison from sight to scent, so our sight to dog scent, you could see a third of a mile, the dog could see 3, 000 some miles away. So if you’re, and that’s like London to New York. So potentially your dog could sniff to New York, the distance that you can see a third of a mile. Yeah, the dog can see 3,

mad.

with their nose. So,

That’s mad.

Yeah, it’s a, it’s, it’s a powerful tool.

It is. So how does scent work actually affect a dog’s brain and mood?

So it’s going to release chemicals in the brain and there’s an actual chemical change happening in the dog’s brain when the dog is let’s say when a dog is doing something that they find pleasurable. Parts of their brain are going to be activated. So the orbital frontal cortex is one of these. And generally that’s activated when we, we have that as well. When we do something that we find pleasurable, know that dogs love sniffing. So we know that we’re making that chemical change within the brain. so we definitely see it cheered dogs up. I had a, I had a puppy week one sniffer dog class yesterday, and we got two litter mates poodly types. One of them is like over enthusiastic and just can’t wait to do the job. The other one was very reserved and, and, and a bit nervous to come forward. A little bit nervous of me as well. We did about three to four searches in the last search, that dog that was a little bit more reserved. jumped with excitement and wagged its tail when I went to hide the object, whereas all the other times I did it previously, the dog was showing signs of fear,

Yeah,

it was towards me or whether it was towards the kit that we were asking the dog to search.

yeah,

Just by doing three, and she started to build trust in the game and like the game, her whole attitude changed. In our mood. So absolutely affects their mental state

Love that.

to have a dog in a good mental state before we start the actual training because most of the time behaviour is down to trauma or past experiences or how the dog is feeling. Yeah, we can have learned behaviour. There is learned behaviour that happens, but most of the time see behaviour issues from, certain experiences or even pain. So once pain has been addressed and make sure pain is not there, then absolutely using scent work to mentally stimulate that dog is going to benefit.

Perfect. Brilliant. That’s great. So why is scent based problem solving much more rewarding for dogs than simply just running around?

I think it’s dogs revel in it and they they they’re the only ones that can do it.

Yeah.

I think sometimes we see I think dogs are that clever and you know,

They are.

pick up objects or do silly tricks and then I’ll shut up. You, you, you turn around on the spot or you pick the spoon up. Sniff.

You can’t do that. I’ll show you how it’s done. Yeah. So I think there’s that element that they know. They’re they’re capable of this.

Yeah.

they naturally enjoy doing it. And, and it’s just the pleasure I get watching the dog enjoy themselves to it. Enjoy themselves doing it because you, you just know by watching every single dog that’s doing it. I mean, drug stocks, when you watch them at the airport, they always look so bloody happy.

Yeah, they do. Well,

most of

again, you’re,

they don’t find

no, well, again, you’re giving them that job to do, aren’t you? You’re giving them something to do. That’s what they, they,

The reinforcement is in the game itself. Yeah,

mmm.

rewards to mold behaviour and shape indication. But most of the time, the reward is in the reward is in the in the game.

Yeah.

intrinsic behaviour. And

Yeah.

Drugstores and operational dogs will search all day long and they’re not always finding but they’re still enjoying that got job

Yeah.

the sniffing aspect of it.

Yeah.

and yeah, there’s certain things that we do where we reward the dog and we train the dog to cope with blind blank searches and things like that. The main thing is, is they’re enjoying it, whether they find or not, they’re going to enjoy it. And when

Yeah.

competition, this is what I try and get across to my owners. The owners are always so. focused on the find when the dog

okay, right. Yeah,

say, relax, let them enjoy the search is for the

definitely.

It’s not

Yes

that’s it.

do exercises in our classes where sometimes I won’t put any scent out and I said, just let your dog search the pipes and search the area. Let them

Yeah.

there’s nothing out there. And when I do that, it takes the pressure off the owner. And the

Yeah.

then enjoys the search and realizes that they enjoy watching their dog search rather than worrying about the find. And the

I think

it just as much.

I think that comes back to us though, as humans and our egos really, that we want, we always, we want them to find it, but don’t realise that they’re having just as much fun sniffing for it and finding it. You know, it comes back down to us really. Should be about the dog, not us! Aww.

like she’s mad for a ball, absolutely mad for a ball I, I’ll sometimes I’ll drop the ball on our walk but behind me without knowing and then we’ll carry on walking for ages and then I’ll, send her back to go and find it and I love watching her try so hard to find that and I think great I’m tiring her out even

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

in her. Yeah. But, but yeah, it’s great fun throwing in things like that. It will drop the toy back, send her back. And I like challenger. And sometimes, sometimes I’ll send her to look for things and knowing they’re not even there,

Yeah.

and she’ll enjoy it as well. And then I’ll reward her with a boss. So here is a sucker and then threat, but it’s all just part of the game.

And she enjoys the search just as much as she does when she finds the ball,

Yeah.

the scent.

I love the sma The smell. The sound. I love the sniffing. The sound. That, to me, I love a dog. The sound for dog sniffing.

call it those muscles is what I call

Yeah.

my word for it. Because,

good.

yeah, dogs can inhale and exhale at the same time.

Yeah. And that’s good. That’s amazing. Isn’t it? That.

It is. And it’s all about the high frequency sniffing. When a dog is high frequency sniffing, what happens is the mouth closes and they inhale and exhale at the same time.

So they’re taking

That’s mad.

for their nostrils, but the slits in the side of the nose are chucking scent out.

That’s mad. Hmm. Hmm. Hmm. Hmm.

typical Labrador sniffing in the ground. And you can almost imagine those swirls of air coming around the side of his nose. And you can hear those nostrils hoovering the ground. That’s the nose muscles and that’s what tires the dog out if we can activate those nose muscles.

I love that. All about the nose muscles. Right, gosh, we’ve literally sailed through this episode. We’re going to start wrapping it up for the last five minutes or so. It’s literally been jam packed full of information. So, just some final questions if I may, Jamie. If there’s one thing you wish all pet parents knew about scent work, what would that one thing be?

Oh, I wish that pet parents truly knew their dog would say to them they come off a search. Yeah, I would love to question the dog and say, how did you find that mate? And let

Yeah.

me a little bit of feedback. I’d have so much better reviews on my website if the dogs could leave the reviews rather than the humans.

Oh, okay. Post match, post match analysis or something. I’m not a football fan, but a bit of feedback.

If the dog could give me the feedback, I’ll tell you what, we’d get better reviews.

Well,

the the, know they’re enjoying it. And I think if

yeah.

knew exactly how much their dog would enjoy it, and most of the time, try it. Because once you try it, You will see how much your dog enjoys it. And for instance, there’s one in my business this week. So, Gemma phoned me earlier and I’ve been speaking to a lady. She’s got a reactive dog. She’s a bit nervous about joining the class.

Okay.

look, you’ll be fine. I’ve got space for your dog. Your dog will enjoy it. And normally we make them pay up front for a certain amount of. Classes. So they’re booked in for the slot. I said, just come along on Friday. Try it. I’ll send you the bank details after the class. If you’ve enjoyed it, send the money for the rest of the five weeks

That’s good.

Gemma was like, really, people should be paying before they come. I said,

Yeah, yeah, I get that.

she’s going to enjoy it and she’s going to pay anyway. So if I tell her she’s got to pay now, she might think

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I like that.

more job that I’ve got doing. You know, if I, if I say no, sorry, you’ve got to pay before and it’s got to be done, but every now and then you’ve got to, you’ve got

yeah, you’ve got a, yeah, work. We often say work with the dog in front of us, but maybe this case is working with a human in front of us. So, yeah, so for someone who wants to give it a try but isn’t sure where to start, what is your top tip?

Top tip would be finding your dog’s motivator. Because it is a lot of people try things in the home and the dog does well and they say, I hear it all the time, all the dog. Dog can do it at home, but when we go on walks, it just, he’s just too distracted. He wouldn’t do it. He wouldn’t do it in the field. Okay. But actually, if you find the right motivator for that particular location, you’re going to get it. Which that comes down to, you know, the golden rule that I tell pet dog owners is have a pick a mix of treats. Check what your dog likes more. Actually playing with your dog, learning to play with your dog, with, with different toys.

And then the dog has to go off and search for it and find it so we can play with with certain toys but mainly finding what your dog’s real motivator is what makes the dog tick

Yeah,

you know and i know

I love that.

it’s a ball luckily she does like food as well and like i said with nemo i know that he will go for moving food but he won’t go for still food

That’s so interesting. Yeah.

it’s It’s, it’s trying to

Yeah.

of the chasing the bite in the sniffing with the dogs to work out what they like.

Yeah. Find your motivator is it is your best thing

perfect.

you’re old dog like cheese doesn’t mean your new dog does, you

Now I know, and I was saying this on a podcast the other day is that when I used to do puppy classes, obviously I’d say to the owner to identify a high value treat, rather than like your normal boring treats or your kibble, whatever. But I used to do the taste test and I’d say to them to put different things under a pot and let the dog choose.

Let the dog choose and not you telling them, oh, this is your high value. And it might be you’ve got some chicken or cheese, but it might be that they picked two things or they. pick three things, but just have a choice, but let the dog pick. I love, used to love doing that.

Yeah,

Hmm.

And like you said, you could do it. I do one very similar where I use like a little baking tray and I’ll

Oh, yes.

each bake each little thing and you give it to the dog. But you do a few repetitions of the same treats in the same tray. And you start to record which one the dog takes first.

Yeah.

going for the chicken first or always going for the cheese first, you know, that’s number one.

Yeah. Yeah.

if, but if you only do it once, it’s not such a true reading. You’ve got to do a few

No, you got to do it a few times.

you

That’s, that’s a really good point.

Yeah.

I think it’s good to let the dog choose, really, rather than us choose for them. Right, Jamie, where can our listeners find out more about your work and get involved with UK Sniffer Dogs, please?

Absolutely. Well, if you are at Crufts 2025, we will be in hall five. So come over to the UK Snifferdog stand. I think it’s 66 or 65, one of the two. And we are just by the obedience ring. So we’ll be there. I’ve got my little Daxi. We’ve got some other pet of

Lily, Lily’s going again. Hmm.

nightmare, but she’s good fun. She’s good for the crowd. She loves the job and all, all some of the pet dog owners that have gone through our classes as pet dogs are gonna come and demonstrate as well. So it’s showing that your actual average pet dog owner is capable of doing this.

And you know, we’ve also got some reactive dogs. Two of the dogs coming are, have been reactive dogs that have come to us needing lots of space in group classes. And now haven’t ever targeted specific. with these two dogs. One’s a Cocker Spaniel who’s with us on Sunday, Reggie, and one is the Jack Russell, Jesse, who’s with us on Friday. They wear yellow things that say anxious, need space.

Okay.

they will cope no problem in that location because they’re there to do their job. So

Yeah.

is a proof in the pudding. These guys have been coming to me for a couple of years now, and all we’ve ever focused on is scent work with them.

Yeah.

specifically targeted reactivity training with the dogs. And it’s

Yeah. Yeah.

they can cope or not. So yeah.

That’s amazing. And

sniffer dogs. com.

I was going to say, so anyone, anyone that’s not going to craft. So what would like, have you got a website? So do you just want to mention that again?

it’s UK sniffer dogs, www. uksnifferdogs. com. That’s where you’ll find our 12 free set exercises. If you

Lovely.

your dog at home, we’ve also got a directory where you can find your local instructor and we’ve got our online courses. If you can’t find a local instructor that suits your needs or wise as well. So yeah, the

Yeah.

totally accessible for everybody.

Amazing. Jamie, thank you so much for joining me on the Yappy Hour today, powered by Yappily. I know you’re really busy and I was so conscious about getting you on and getting our diaries to sync together. So I really appreciate you taking the time out today to join me. And yeah, it’s been a great episode and we’ll have to get you back on again soon.

It’s been an absolute pleasure and thank you so much for having us.

Thank you, Jamie.

Thank you, mate.

 What a brilliant conversation with Jamie Pound. Here are some key takeaways from today’s episode. Number one, scent work is one of the best ways to engage your dog’s brain. Using their nose helps dogs to feel happy and fulfilled while providing essential mental stimulation. Number two, it’s not just for working dogs.

benefit from scent work. Whether your dog is anxious, high energy or a senior, scent based activities are adaptable for all. Number three, scent work can be a powerful tool for behaviour issues. Giving dogs structured scent based tasks reduces frustration, anxiety and overstimulation. Number four, you don’t need fancy equipment to get started.

Simple games that hide and Scatter feeding and scent trials are great ways to introduce scent work at home. Jamie, thank you for sharing your knowledge and passion with us here today. And to all our listeners, if you want to learn more about scent work and how to get started, please be sure to check out UK Sniffer Dogs.

If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review, share it with a fellow dog breeder, Parent and subscribe so you never miss an episode of the Yappy Hour. Thanks for listening and I’ll see you next time.