Scent For Six

Come and learn to harness the life saving, awe inspiring canine super power that is olfaction over 6 months with us.

  • Take a dog from complete novice to scent expert
  • Learn how to teach using the most effective & efficient methods
  • Understand how to build this knowledge into classes, workshops and behaviour modification
We believe that every dog in the world can benefit from learning to engage with owner via scent work. We can train even the most novice trainer not only handle their dog, not only learn to read dogs but also learn to train dogs via a daily dose of scent work.

Obviously to suggest that we are ‘teaching your dog to use olfaction’ is a ludicrous idea when you think about it. What we will do on this course though is teach a communication system whereby you and your dog can work together to use this incredible ability to detect target odours.

Ofcourse, whilst this is our scent work course, as with every SoCS Online course, we aren’t just teaching you to train scent work. We are infact meticulously developing your ability to read and understand dogs as well as carefully holding your hand through a journey devised to enhance your skills in precision training, controlling intrinsically motivated behaviour and emphasising specifically elements of your dogs thinking. Scent work is our vehicle but this is a course about dog training.

How does it all work?

Over the course of six busy months you will gain access to a Skill Up and a Geek Out weekly.

The Geek Outs will help you understand the way your dog responds to the world of scent on every level.

The Skill Ups will then apply your new knowledge of your dogs innermost workings and apply it to training principles to help you learn to emphasise, prevent, inhibit and control different parts of your dogs main and most prolific sense.

The result? An engaged dog who can identify, search, detect and indicate multiple odours with incredible accuracy, efficiently, on your cue.

After each weekly Skill Up and Geek Out has been sent out on the Monday, participants will have access to a previously recorded Facebook Live chat. When we first released the course we worked through every step with the first cohort to join the course. We used this opportunity to find out the most common obstacles and talk them through through as well as get the group to ask questions about the exercises which they will then complete. It’s here, in the section entitled ‘social support’ where you’re likely to find the problems your facing discussed in more detail. That said, if you have any questions - throw them up on the group and one of the instructors or founders of the course will get back to you.

Feel free to tag Nando, Jo and Dean in videos of your training. Whether you want to show off nearly learnt skills or you’ve hit a brick wall - we are happy to help. If you search #feedbackbackfriday you’ll find literally thousands of others who have done the same. We believe you gain a lot of knowledge through watching others work and receive feedback so do take some time to go through others work and the feedback they received via that hashtag.

What's in the Course?

This is a course for dog enthusiasts & trainers which means alongside teaching your dogs to participate in sport style scent work we will also teach you how to train and troubleshoot clients, how to run scent workshops, how to compete and how to set up competitions too.

The course will cover:

  • Preparation
  • What is scent?
  • Training strong indication behaviour
  • The pros and cons to starting your training with a target odour
  • Two journeys to the brain
  • Metrics and measurements
  • The biology of the nose
  • Sniffing and breathing
  • To control or not to control: obedience in scent work
  • Contamination
  • How to lay searches: from the first trial to advanced work
  • The behaviour of scent
  • Using food in scent work: the pros and cons
  • Using toys in scent work: the pros and cons
  • Dummy drops and multiple finds
  • Retro nasal olfaction
  • The neurobiology of olfaction
  • Searching for aged finds
  • Proofing indications
  • Scent boards
  • Active buried finds
  • Breed differences in olfaction: is scent work really for every dog?
  • Social scent work
  • Zoomemiotics: what they are and what they mean
  • What motivates sniffing and The dopamine hypothesis
  • Oxidation and the backtracking debate
  • Odour recognition and the dishabituation method
  • The pros and cons of errorless learning
  • Line ups: what’s memory got to do with it?
  • Blind searches
  • Transferring scent
  • Hot and cold: starting active and passive differently
  • Perfecting a retrieve
  • Using scent in behaviour modification
  • Building a 6 week scent class
  • Scent work workshops
  • Competitive scent work
All this in the typical SoCS style that you've grown to know and love... what are you waiting for?


Your Instructor


Nando & Dean
Nando & Dean

Nando and Dean make up the team that run The School of Canine Science, an education provider that teaches, trains and mentors dog trainers to reach their potential in a competitive industry.

All of our courses, either in person or online are firmly rooted in science and evidence with strong practical hand on elements.

Nando : has been working as a dog trainer and instructor for 14 years. Best known for his accessible style, impressive YouTube tutorials, big personality and awe-inspiring ability to train the tricky dogs that many people claim are un-trainable. Nando has appeared on multiple mainstream TV shows, presented around the world, authored books, hosted his own international radio show, receivied more than 20 million views on YouTube and has a Facebook following of over 26,000. Nando loves all areas of dog training but his true passion lies in scent detection.

Dean : is a dog trainer with less than three years formal experience yet in that time he has managed to propel himself into the forefront of the industry with his intense theoretical knowledge and an masterful eye for precision. After completing a Masters Degree in Business and working for 16 years in the Technology Industry Dean is obsessed with systems, processes and measurement – leading to an eye for detail and an aptitude for clean, efficient training. Dean has worked behind the scenes on TV shows animal training but is probably best known for tricks & tutorials with his dog Sidney.


Course Curriculum


  Introduction
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  Week 0 - Preparation
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  Week 1- What is Scent / Coin Indication
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  Week 2 - Oxidisation / 5 hide search
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  Week 3 - Contamination / ROR Kong indication
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  Week 4 - Permeation / Active Intro
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  Week 5 - Physiology & Boxes & Active Set Up
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  Week 6 - The Brain & Sniffing Frequency
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  Week 7 - Vibration Theory / 54321
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  Week 8 - Aged finds & Behaviour of scent
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  Week 9 - Dopamine & Multiple finds
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  Week 10 - Toxicity & Distraction prep
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  Week 11 - Toxicity of Napier & Gun Oil Introduction
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  Week 12 - Satiation & Proofing the indication
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  Week 13- Breed differences & Distraction odours
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  Week 14 - Handler errors & Blind Searches
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  Week 15 - Pheromones & Containers and Line Ups
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  Week 16- Social scenting 1 & Generalising the indication and search in a line up
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  Week 17 Social scenting 2 & Active discrimination
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  Week 18- Behaviour modification
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  Week 19 - Mixtures and cocktails
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  Week 20 - Medical Detection Dogs & Patterns
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  Week 21 - Police interview & Inaccessible hides
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  Week 22 - Classes & Vehicles
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  Week 23 - Competitions & Blanks
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  Week 24 - Revision & Awkward Hides
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  Week 25 - Revision & Suspended Hides
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  Week 26 - Troubleshooting
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Frequently Asked Questions


When does the course start and finish?
The course is available for purchase NOW. The course is set out in modules to cover 26 weeks of education. Each week contains a GEEK OUT containing essential science and theory. This is followed up with a SKILL UP which contains practical exercises for you and your dog and a DRILL IT showing us with our dogs.
How long do I have access to the course?
How does lifetime access sound? After enrolling, you have unlimited access to this course for as long as you like - across any and all devices you own.

Get started now!