It was April 2020 and my kids & I were heading to the park to fly a kite. On our way, the sky opened up and rained down nature’s respiratory droplets upon our faces. For a moment, I longed for the eventual return to close conversation with a friend and the enthusiastic, unintentional ejection of spittle from one’s pursed lips to another’s undefended face. To be clear, I’m not in to human mucosal mists, but that cold, uninvited rain felt downright baptismal. Maybe a bit of good old friendly spit might be transformative, too, after who knows how much time we’ll have spent treating each other’s spit like acid rain. I wonder what we’ll all feel like after this pandemic has micturated all over humanity and lingered a little too long shaking it off. Will we anxiously ponder what microscopic threat may permeate our social fiber next? Will we believe ourselves to be more fragile than ever before? These are imminently more important questions than anything that lies within the boundaries of the scenting universe – or are they?
Van Jones put it well when addressing college students: “We don’t want to make you safe, we want to make you strong. We’re not going to pave the jungle, we’re going to hand you a pair of boots and encourage you to experience adversity.” “We’re not going to take all the weights out of the gym, that’s the whole point of the gym.”
Strength. Adversity. Adaptation. Growth. Failure. Triumph. Life is not about avoiding pain and suffering. Life is about transforming pain and suffering into experience and confidence, beauty and creativity, wisdom and peace.
Whoa! Where’s the scent work talk, man.
I think we are talking scent work! The path to enlightenment may very well reek of essential oil molecules – and not the kind you waste blasting towards your ceiling in a fancy, light up diffuser. We’re not talking about thieves blend or whatever. We’re talking about the odor that’s out there to be warped through space at the speed of sniff, into your dog’s nostrils, and taken for a ride through the Jacobson’s Organ, then very specifically – in time and space – shot out the nostril of choice like a coin machine sorts the change from your Hawaii jar.
Building a scent work partnership with your dog may be one of the most transformative experiences two beings can undergo. It’s important stuff. The kind of stuff the Stoics would have devoted their lives to – and maybe they did, some of them ate dog food on occasion. I can just imagine Zeno seeking the wisdom of the scenting partnership, sneaking around placing hides on the acropolis for Hades and Cerberus to scent out in 3D (because three heads).
Wether you’ve come to the scent work casino to play slots (picking off known numbers of trash can hides in postage stamp search areas) or to sit down at the poker table (blending observation, skill, and luck to tackle complex challenges), your goal should be to understand your dog and be the best partner you can be. My goal is to help you build a reverence for the language your dog communicates in, to love that language in its most complex forms, and to build yourself into the skilled partner your dog wants and deserves.
I promise to push myself to observe, report, explore, exhort, and every once in a while, flounder and flop about with abandon. I’m unafraid and unfulfilled. Look out scent universe, I’m about to flip the telescope upside down and spin it around. I want to discover the known like Kepler discovered planetary orbits; I want to bite the apple, like Eve in the garden, then reimagine that apple as reconstituted into a helium filled balloon a la Grant Achatz; I want to face Spock as a foe, like Kirk did in Amok Time. I want eternal seeking and mystery – and maybe some super cool twists like scent vision or canine human mind-melding, or a peanut butter chocolate ice cream tree that grows indoors and requires only the music of Randy Newman for sustenance (with an occasional spritzing of Harry Nilsson).
I welcome the risk of failure as a fair price to pay for the prize of discovery; and not just epic discovery of the kind that changes humanity, but self-discovery, the kind that changes how you feel, think, act, and what you seek going forward. I worry not about the silly failures: looking foolish, making mistakes, wasting some time, starting over, stepping out of the mainstream, pushing some buttons. As long as I journey forward with kindness as my paddle and respect as my compass, I can land my knowledge-seeking kayak on any shore, knowing that I mean no harm as I explore about, seeking to net positive gains in the ledger of life.
Enough already; ground control to Lieutenant Dan, let’s hit 88 miles per hour and go boldly to a galaxy far far away… Feel the rhythm! Feel the rhyme! Get on up, it’s bobsled – er, scent work – time!
The Teacup Dog or the Tumbler Dog
How many of us have those cool, vacuum sealed tumblers with metal straws and pastel colors? I have 4 of them, and that’s 4 more than I’ve ever had in my life prior to a year or two ago. What I’ve experienced, is that these tumblers love to tip over or be tipped over. Double-walled stainless steel has a certain ring to it when it bounces off the concrete. Of the 4 tumblers I own, all of them have dents and scratches. None of them have broken, none of them have ceased to keep my tea warm or my water ice cold.
I’ve never owned a teacup. I like tea. I have mugs. But, those paper thin, glossy, expensive-looking teacups – I’d sooner drink my hot tea from a shoe. Maybe it’d have the earthy flavor of an oolong.
How many teacups could I – or unseen forces – tip over and resume using? We don’t have to answer this. It’s embarrassing to beverage conveyances everywhere. My daughter doesn’t even play with the very real, very nice looking tea set we got her from a garage sale. Her intuition must tell her it’d be like playing with snowflakes, except, the sky won’t make her more tea sets once she breaks hers.
Tumblers are strong, teacups are fragile. Tumblers can go out into the world, unsupervised, and experience the dangers of being a limbless vessel with limited capacity for thought (limited, I say, as anecdotal evidence may point to a Tumbler or two autogenously avoiding tipping over at times when I most needed hydration), and be merely superficially injured. Teacups must never leave the caring hands of an omniscient protector, lest they suffer the slightest insult and shatter to pieces, unable to resume the life of a teacup and unfit to begin any other life other than perhaps that of collage fodder.
As scent work teams, we can be teacups or tumblers. Sometimes, as with the current dilemma facing the human species, it’s wise to form your arm into a handle and imagine yourself as more teacup than tumbler; but, the sooner you can fortify yourself against the elements with double-walled stainless steel, the better. When you fear less, you do more.
In preparation for your team’s Cinderella-like transformation from teacup to tumbler, here are some things to consider:
Teacups like to order takeout, stay in and watch netflix, and basically do that which they did the weekend before, and the weekend before that… Tumblers like to try that new restaurant with experimental dishes like potato puree with essence of Llama sweat.
Teacups invest in TIPS and municipal bonds, Tumblers are into Bitcoins and anything Elon Musk tweets about (a digital currency represented by a Shiba Inu?!… no. Just no).
Teacups must be teacups in order to survive. We’ve all heard of the teacup Barry Bonds hit for his record breaking 73rd single season home run in 2001, right? Crickets should be all you are hearing. That teacup would have shattered from the breeze before it even hit the bat. Nobody tossed a tumbler to Barry Bonds, either, but they could have. They could have. And that tumbler would have a cool dent to show off at parties. Tumblers don’t really have a sense of what they were made to do, and they’re cool with that. Teacups can never forget their limitations; one trip from extreme cold to extreme heat, and, well, the Rolling Stones tried to warn you, teacups, they tried (hint: sha oobie sh_____).
Teacups have to pick their mates carefully; no match.com meet cutes, no being set up on a date with that alt rocker your cousin knows who just moved to town from LA. Maybe, the only fit for a teacup is a gentle soul like Bob Ross, or Bob Vila, or Ross Vila (I think we’d break existence if such a gentle, artistic, yet surprisingly handy soul were ever created – and that beard, it defies description… but, if I must, it’d probably look like Yanni tripped and fell onto Kenny Loggins face). Tumblers can be matched with anyone from Chuck Norris to Chuck Manson (Charles, if you don’t want to be friendly), or even a woodchuck. The thing is, Tumblers just don’t care, and if they had hands, they’d be waving them in the air for emphasis.
Hold a teacup and you’re left with a pinky dangling in the air like a tiny british prairie dog scoping out some Earl Grey across the hilly terrain of your knuckles. What a waste of a digit. Tumblers want a hand that’s all in, no room for dangly dedos. Teacups are like public hot tubs for birds. There’s nothing between your 186 degree green tea and a bird’s dirty bottom. A tumbler locks that shit up, some with fancy lids using magnets and technology from the future. If you’re gonna put it in your mouth, a tumbler reckons you want delicious sips of bird free tea.
Lest you think I’m a man of extremes, there’s always the mug. Sure, you might lose some tea out the top if you’re jamming out to Jamiroquai with a full pour of your morning Jade Cloud green. You might even drop said mug and shatter your favorite pithy saying (“What do we want? We want to buy a vowel! When do we want it? NW!). But, a good tea mug is a definite upgrade from a tea cup, just look around your house and see all the places where tea mugs are hanging out – a tea cup would never be caught perched atop the dog crate, or cooling off on the vanity counter, or hiding amongst the winter gloves in the entryway. If teacups are the Australopithecus of containers, mugs are more or less the Homo Habilis. No offense to all you Lucy fans out there.
Understand the Essence of Tumbler Dogs:
A Tumbler dog is made to undergo stress. Growth comes from stress. Homeostasis is a natural state, both biologically and mentally. In order to grow, homeostasis must be challenged. Tumbler dogs welcome challenge.
Any old kind of stress will not do. Firecrackers and blood-curdling screams will stress a dog out, but, it’ll be more likely harmful than helpful. Understanding the language your dog communicates through will help you to know what his positive stressors will be. Just like a Tumbler can be used as a baseball, your Tumbler dog can work at cross purposes with his nature, BUT, he’d much rather work as intended by genetics, breed, personality, etc., just as your Tumbler would much rather keep your tea hot than sail 310 feet over the Green Monster. A positive stressor for a Labrador may be doing scent work adjacent to some busy tennis courts. By understanding your dog, you will build his stress tolerance for those rare times when truly stress-inducing situations occur, like when a howling ambulance shooting bees out its exhaust screeches its way into the middle of your search area.
Respect the Hidden Complexity of the Tumbler Dog:
The presence of simplicity is not the absence of complexity. Sure, a Tumbler is just a container and a lid. But, explain to me how double-walled stainless steel and vacuum seal technology keeps my drink so much warmer/colder than ever before in human history?! Respect your Tumbler dog and the mysterious technology that powers his awesome searching ability.
Design Your Tumbler Dog:
Reinforcement: The basics of high value reinforcement apply, but why not add that double wall of stainless steel reinforcement?! Pretty much all dogs love to chase, let your dog chase his reward. Have an energetic dog? You don’t have to do everything you read on the interwebs! Play it cool if your dog is already running on overdrive. Maybe, just keep your reward clearly on offer while you search – and make sure not to hold it hostage; let your dog think there might be a chance he could get that reward from you, but don’t actually let him get it. No matter your dog’s energy level, he needs to use searching and finding as the bridge to that reinforcer. And you need to make the reinforcer valuable enough to inspire effort from your dog!
Precision: A good tumbler has a precise fitting lid. Be precise with your dog, but not controlling. Make sure your dog is clear about his role as a decision maker and make sure he’s clear about what constitutes progress and completion of the task.
Dent & Scratch Resistance: Don’t overlook the need for proofing. From reward delivery expectations, to variability of hide count and placement, to on/off leash handling, you need to proof your dog’s decision making abilities to be sure he can handle the unexpected challenges of real world searching.
High End or No Name Branding: Everybody knows Yeti is a high end Tumbler. Some team out there is the Yeti of scent work, with all the polish and perfection and results of a top tier brand. That’s awesome. I have a Yeti, and it’s nice. I expect the coldest icy cold water – even after hours in a hot car – with ice cubes still bobbing around like little icebergs on a sunny day in the arctic. I want my tea to scald my lips after sitting in a snowbank all afternoon. I wonder if the magnetic slider on the lid is working as it should – and even if it is, I wonder why it doesn’t work better, I mean, it’s a Yeti for cryin’ out loud. I demand a lot from my Yeti.
Any other brand that’s not a Yeti automatically has underdog status and elicits pleasant surprise. I’m excited when my no name tumbler with a team logo on the side that will not be named (*cough* Vikings) has even one sickly looking ice sliver in it after sitting in the car. Hooray, I’ve found a way for the Vikings to win! I marvel at the durability of my Zak mug (who knew such a grammar challenged tumbler had such perfect structure and avoided any run-on liquids escaping from the lid). An underdog tumbler gets used and gets appreciated. Focus on building a dog you are excited to work with, a dog you know will surpass your expectations. Instead of placing demands on your dog, let your dog work for you, just like your favorite Tumbler.
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