N3004 Designing Learning in Nosework: Think. Observe. Adapt

3 WEEK CLASS - We spend a lot of time thinking about where to put the hide.

But what if we spent just as much time thinking about what we want our dogs to learn?

Every search is a learning opportunity. Sometimes the lesson is exactly what we intended. Other times, our dogs walk away having learned something entirely different. The difference is whether we recognized what the search was actually teaching, and most importantly what we do next.

Through the 3 weeks we’ll shift our focus from simply setting hides to intentionally designing learning. Together, we’ll explore how to break complex nosework skills into smaller, teachable pieces, create exercises that support those skills, and recognize what our dogs are communicating throughout the search.

We’ll challenge ourselves to move beyond evaluating a search by its outcome alone. Instead of asking, “Did my dog find the hide?” we’ll begin asking questions like, “What skill was I trying to teach?” “What did my dog tell me during the search?” and “What should I change next?”

Throughout the class, students are encouraged to bring their own training challenges. Whether you’re working on commitment, inaccessible hides, pooling, independence, confidence, or another piece of your training puzzle, we’ll use those real-world examples to practice a simple framework:

Think. Observe. Adapt.

By the end of the class, you won’t just have a handful of new exercises. You will leave with a way of thinking about training that you can apply to every search, every environment, and every new challenge you and your dog encounter together.

Teaching Approach:

Guest Instructor: Michele Ellertson