Foundations of Scent Work Training

323 Videos

17 Hours, 13 Minutes of Content

Most people teaching scent work have a sport background. Kevin Sheldahl comes from three decades of operational law enforcement K9 work — narcotics, explosives, human remains, corrections, and wildlife detection. That experience is the foundation of this course.

This is a primer on detection training that applies whether you're building a competition nose work dog, a working K9, or just want a deeper understanding of how your dog thinks and searches. Kevin doesn't teach theory for the sake of theory. Everything here has a practical application.

The seminar was filmed at Leerburg over three days with 11 dogs — from a 4-month-old puppy to fully trained police narcotics dogs. Four cameras. Over 150 hours of editing. This course is jam-packed with little gold nuggets of information and wisdom, you don't even realize how good it is until you've seen it. What you get is an honest look at how detection foundations are built, dog by dog, decision by decision.

Kevin's experience and bias come from a practical working dog application, but our attendees and their variety of dogs challenged him to expand his perspective on a variety of scent sports and canine enrichment activities. This makes the Foundations to Detection course good for all dog owners and trainers to learn something useful that they can apply to their own training and relationship with their dog.

You'll come away understanding:

• How odor association actually works and how to build it correctly from the start
• Why dopamine and anticipation are your biggest training tools — and how to use them
• What a proper indication looks like and how to develop it without creating problems down the road
• How reinforcement schedules affect drive, reliability, and long-term performance
• The Clever Hans effect and why handler influence is one of the most overlooked variables in detection work
• How to read the dog in front of you and adjust your approach accordingly

This course is built for civilian scent work handlers, competitive sport trainers, and law enforcement handlers starting fresh with a new dog. No prior experience required — but experienced trainers will find plenty here worth revisiting.

Kevin is currently preparing to run his 73rd six-week basic handler school. He has trained law enforcement, corrections, and military teams across the United States for over 30 years. This is what he teaches. This is how he teaches it.

We filmed 11 dogs that ranged in age from 4 months up to fully trained police narcotic dogs.

The training footage was filmed at leerburg with 4 cameras. 

Number of Hours to film Seminar:  24 hours

Number of Hours of Edit and Assemble Course: 151 Hours

Our Outline

Foundation of Scent Work Training

The beginning of developing a detection canine regardless of discipline

1. WHAT ARE THE GOALS OF DETECTION TRAINING FOUNDATIONS?
   • Indication
   • Alert
   • Find
   • Odor recognition
2. UNDERSTANDING REINFORCEMENT
   • Rewards are reinforcement
   • Reinforcement is not dependent on rewards!
   • Classical Conditioning
   • Instrumental Learning
3. METHODS FOR ASSOCIATING ODORS DURING FOUNDATION DEVELOPMENT
   • Primary Rewards
     • Pairing/reinforcement sources
     • Markers
     • Handler Involvement
   • Secondary rewards
     • Slight of hand
     • Markers
     • Handler involvement
     • Food vs. Object?
4. UNDERSTANDING THE CLEVER HANS EFFECTS/AND SPECIAL CANINE ATTRIBUTES
   • Who was Clever Hans?
   • Monkey Stuff
   • Of wolves and dogs
   • Effects on training/deployment outcomes
5. EQUIPMENT POSSIBILITIES
   • Gadgets and detection training
   • Various boxes/containers for odor introduction
   • Boxes for movement and odor recognition
   • Vertical Boards for indication development
   • Vertical Boards for odor recognition
   • Leashes, harnesses, collars, etc.
6. GETTING STARTED
   • Before we start
   • Which approach for which dog?
   • Priorities based on deployment/competitions?
   • Training the dog in front of us
7. SUCCESIVE APPROXIMATION
   • Expectations
   • Mood/motivation, frustration
   • Understanding your specific goals for the training scenario
8. INDICATIONS/BREAKING IT DOWN
   • What works
   • What we expect in training and in the field
   • How to get there
   • Understanding flushing behavior vs. Obedience
     • Why is this important in foundations
9. BEGINNINGS OF SEARCHING
   • White Boxes and their use
   • Vertical Boards and their use
10. INTRODUCING A RITUAL
    • Anticipation & dopamine
    • Communication
    • Harnessing social behaviors
11. REINFORCEMENT SCHEDULES
    • Now and in the future
    • Why bother?
12. PROBLEM SOLVING
    • Indication development common behaviors
    • Odor association
13. PREPARING FOR THE NEXT STEPS IN DETECTION
    • Although the subject of future workshops it is best to set. Up for success!
    • Exercises to facilitate transitions
      • Reinforcement
      • Patterns
      • Generalization
    • Understanding your dogs hunting abilities and intrinsic behavior or lack thereof

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Read Kevin Sheldahl’s Resume

Kevin Sheldahl has been involved in detection training since the mid-1980s. Over the years, he has trained teams in:

Narcotics detection

Explosives detection

Corrections/contraband detection

Wildlife detection

Human remains detection

During his career as a Deputy with a large Southwest Sheriff’s Department, Kevin handled multiple types of detection dogs and worked with K9 teams in real-world law enforcement environments.

Although retired from full-time law enforcement, Kevin remains deeply involved in training K9 teams across many disciplines and is qualified as a Teaching Judge.

He is also active in dog sports and is currently an American Schutzhund Judge, where he evaluates scent work for titles and certifications.

Kevin is preparing to begin his 73rd Six Week Basic Handler Training course (each course has 10 to 20 new dog handlers) in  law enforcement. He regularly teaches seminars and workshops on detection training, tracking, and patrol work.