Alert! Scent Work

Kristi Murdock might be the most appreciated person in AKC Scent Work. She built wesmellbetter.com, a free site that tracks every qualifying score, title, placement, and fastest-in-trial result in the sport. I talk to Kristi about the site's origin, what she thinks is the coolest feature more people need to know about, and how people use the site to increase their enjoyment of scent work.
But this episode is also about Kristi as a competitor. We talk about why, at first, her dog didn't seem to like nosework, what she's learned about being a better handler, and why she considers herself a smellevangelist.
What we talk about:
The origin of wesmellbetter.com — holiday complaining, a visiting brother who knew how to scrape websites, and Doug deciding to learn Python
What other competitors say about the site.
The alerts feature — Kristi's current infatuation and why you probably want to sign up for them
The Trial Finder, the achievement section, and the NQ tracking most people don't know about
How the site changed the way Scot thinks about titles, and why Kristi blames herself for his new spending habits
The story of Kristi's first nose work dog — and what she figured out years later that explains everything
Nose work as rehabilitation — how it became the right tool at exactly the right moment
Handler challenges — living in the moment and what Kristi calls odor goggles
What coaching finally taught her about her job as a handler
Stress management for dog sports — Hélène Lawler's curriculum and what it actually addresses
Seven questions with Kristi — including her dog's favorite reward, what her dog would say about her as a handler, a very specific strategy she had for dealing with a very unique distractor in a Detective search.

Find Kristi: wesmellbetter.com — sign up for a free account and the alerts feature
Facebook: We Smell Better
Alert! Scent Work is a podcast for competitors — the parking lot conversations you'd never get to have at a trial, with the judges and community members you wish you had more time with.
Listen to the podcast and find everything here: https://www.AlertScentWork.com
Follow along: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AlertScentWork
Subscribe to the newsletter: https://www.alertscentwork.com/newsletter/

I ran under Karen Allen at a detective trial and didn't Q. What stayed with me wasn't the result, it was the feeling walking away. She was rooting for us. That's who she is as a judge, and it's a big part of why I wanted to have this conversation.
One of the threads running through this whole conversation is how much we impact our dogs without realizing it. Body chatter. Disappointment going down the leash. Turning away at the wrong moment. Not opening your body to give permission. A lot of us are probably in that same place.
We also both got into something we're each actively working through — what happens when your dog stops searching and starts asking you questions.
And inaccessibles. What makes them challenging, and she and Scot talk about how their dogs each handle them.
What we talk about:
Karen's origin story — a cattle dog rescue who was hard to do activities with, and how scent work became the thing that finally worked
What changed in Aspen after scent work
Newton, who is deaf in one ear and very sound sensitive — and Larkin, who can shut down easily
How Karen plans a search — the Cirrus tool, the yes zone, and videoing search areas before trial day
Sniff and dismiss — and why patience matters more than most competitors realize
Collection, false alerts, and nerves — why it's more complicated than it looks
What Karen loves to see in a team when she's judging — and what she admits she's still working on herself
How much we impact our dogs without realizing it — what Karen sees as a judge and what Scot admitted about Murphy
What counts as a win when you don't get the Q
The boundaries — what newer competitors get wrong about them
When your dog stops searching and starts asking you questions
Inaccessibles — why they're hard to call and why we don't practice them enough
Escential Nosework ABCs — Karen's new business and what it focuses on
Seven questions with Karen
Find Karen: AKC Judges Directory — search Karen Allen
Escential Nosework ABC: noseworkabcs.com
Alert! Scent Work is a podcast for competitors — the parking lot conversations you'd never get to have at a trial, with the judges and community members you wish you had more time with.
Listen to the podcast and find everything here: https://www.AlertScentWork.com
Follow along: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AlertScentWork
Subscribe to the newsletter: https://www.alertscentwork.com/newsletter/

When I started out in scent work, I thought it was simple: place a hide, dog finds the hide, call alert. Judith Guthrie started pulling that apart the first time I sat down near her at a trial. What she was saying about odor behavior and how handlers were impacting their dogs blew my mind. Judith brings together a deep understanding of odor theory, dog psychology, and handling strategy all in one place. I didn't even know they were three separate things.
In this conversation, she shares her 100 rule — a framework for balancing environment, airflow, hide complexity, and time to create level-appropriate challenges. Understanding it makes you a smarter competitor and a better trainer. She also talks about independence and hunt drive — what to do when your dog isn't in odor right away and how to train for it. And we talk about why not every search should be run the same, and why getting out of your local bubble and showing under judges you've never seen is one of the fastest ways to grow.
What we talk about:
Judith's origin story — SAR dogs, retired police dogs, horses, protection sports, and how Buddha brought it all into focus
Why scent work was such a powerful tool for a genetically reactive dog — and the important caveat that goes with that
What made Buddha and Judith such an effective team — and how she built that foundation from five weeks old
Ron Gaunt's thumbs up / thumbs down feedback method — frustrating and brilliant at the same time
The 100 rule — Judith's judging framework for creating level-appropriate challenges, and how competitors can use it to better understand what's going on in a search
How time pressure fits into the 100 rule — and why a short time limit isn't what you think it is
Independence — the number one lesson from professional detection work, and why it matters in sport too
How to build hunt drive in a dog that goes flat when there's no odor at the start line
Regional trends in scent work — why you should be putting yourself in front of judges from outside your area
The names judges give to odor puzzles — and how closeness and inaccessibility work as modifiers
Why two hides of the same odor close together is not the problem your human brain thinks it is
Shrimp, demo dogs, and why training a dog to show you the whole odor picture can become a competition problem
Seven questions with Judith — including what it means to honor the dog, her signature distractor, and why her dog would call her annoying

Find Judith: Facebook: Nose Dogs Detection Services Scent Work University: scentworku.com — search Judith Guthrie for classes and webinars
Alert! Scent Work is a podcast for competitors — the parking lot conversations you'd never get to have at a trial, with the judges and community members you wish you had more time with.
Listen to the podcast and find everything here: https://www.AlertScentWork.com
Follow along: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AlertScentWork
Subscribe to the newsletter: https://www.alertscentwork.com/newsletter/

In scent work, we talk a lot about odor theory, training, and handling technique. But there's something else affecting your performance, your dog's performance, and your experience of the sport that doesn't get nearly enough attention — pressure. Penny Scott-Fox has been watching what it does to competitors, dogs, clubs, and judges, and she wanted to talk about it.
Before we get to the main topic, we start with her recent 2 minute and 14 second detective run. I had to ask how that was even possible. What followed was a conversation about how to better train for detective, how to build a dog that drives to odor, and two very different handling philosophies based on the dogs we each have. I think a lot of people will see themselves in this conversation.
Then we get into the main topic, pressure in scent work. Through the conversation, we uncovered ideas that will help competitors, trial committees, and judges alike succeed and enjoy the sport more fully.
What we talk about:
The 2:14 detective run — what made it possible, and what it reveals about foundation training and building a dog that drives to odor
Why dogs that have sailed through the lower levels sometimes hit a wall in detective — and what to do about it in training
Two different handling philosophies for detective — Penny's and mine — and why the dog you have shapes everything
Penny's 40th detective Q — and the bronze, silver, and gold detective titles her club awards that AKC doesn't recognize
Pressure on the dog and how it impacts your partner in scent work
Pressure on the handler and what both of us do to take the edge off, including Penny's ritual to reduce pressure in obedience (works for scent work too)
Why pressure on the handler almost pushed me out of the sport, and the two rules that made it fun again
Pressure on clubs. What the growth of scent work is doing to trial quality, and how clubs can best serve competitors
Pressure on judges, why the push to be the judge that sets sexy hides isn't always good for dogs or competitors, and a conversation about what really makes the sport fun for competitors

Find Penny at scott-foxdogtraining.com
Alert! Scent Work is a podcast for competitors — the parking lot conversations you'd never get to have at a trial, with the judges and community members you wish you had more time with.
Listen to the podcast and find everything here: https://www.AlertScentWork.com
Follow along: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AlertScentWork Subscribe to the newsletter: https://www.alertscentwork.com/newsletter/

Many competitors have seen Ana's AKC trial debrief videos — breaking down hide placement, odor movement, and what teams were experiencing in the search area. In this episode, the judge, trainer, and competitor talks about the lessons she has learned from years of watching teams search.
Before scent work, Ana had a career in medicine and medical education. She views judging as education — through the hides she sets, the briefings she gives, and the debriefs she shares publicly after every trial. In my observation, that medical background shows up in how she approaches the sport — doctors are always learning, digesting new material, and teaching it to others at the same time. You can see that in how deeply Ana understands odor theory and how dogs work.
And if you've ever wondered what the dogs would say about us in the parking lot after a trial — Ana has some thoughts on that too.
What we talk about:
Ana's origin story — this is a familiar story about how scent work wasn't even the thing until it was the thing
The recurring themes she sees across her debriefs — what handlers consistently struggle with and what the best teams do differently
Close proximity hides and convergence — why handlers miss them and what to do about it
Why handlers over-handle under pressure — and what the dog thinks about it
The twenty-plus picnic table search — what Ana was testing and why competitors over-focused on the objects instead of the odor
How dogs perceive a search area versus how handlers perceive it — and why that difference matters
Ana's distractor philosophy — why she uses food distractors, what she tests with them, and why gummy bears tripped up more dogs than bacon
Why the boundaries define where hides are placed but not where odor goes — and how to help your dog collect information outside the search area
Retiring Axel from competition — and why making that call was the right thing for their team
Seven questions with Ana — what she loves to see teams celebrate, her signature distractor, the best compliment she ever received, and what Axel and VI would say about her as a handler

Find Ana: YouTube: Ana Cilursu for her AKC trial debrief videos:
Training: Rots-n-Nots Nosework
Staten Island Companion Dog Training Club — nose work instructor
Alert! Scent Work is a podcast for competitors — the parking lot conversations you'd never get to have at a trial, with the judges and community members you wish you had more time with.
Listen to the podcast and find everything here:
https://www.AlertScentWork.com
Follow along: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AlertScentWork
Subscribe to the newsletter: https://www.alertscentwork.com/newsletter/ #ScentWork