No big introduction here, I'll just flip through the Tao Te Ching as I did in an earlier post (click here for that post) and play a little with its relevance to scent work: Passage 22 Yield and overcome; Bend and be straight; Empty and be full; Wear out and be new; Have little and... Continue Reading →

I recently judged an Elite trial in Eden Prairie, MN on a hot weekend at an arts school. When I judge I make every effort to record some of what I see and hear during the search on the competitor's score sheet. I find that when you are the competitor, you will often totally misremember... Continue Reading →

Jocko Willink dedicated podcast (Jocko podcast) episodes 251-256 to an obscure training text written by a general from the WWII and Korean War era, Bruce C. Clarke. The book, Guidelines For The Leader And The Commander, is at once comfortingly familiar and surprisingly demanding. You might imagine an army training manual to be all about... Continue Reading →

On a recent morning I was chatting with a student after a fun and enlightening sniffing session. We began our talk by wondering about what the dog experienced during the session and how our choices to connect with the dog in the gray areas (when scent work behavior patterns fade into less recognizable expressions) using... Continue Reading →

I've been wanting to write a post inspired by one of Susan Cain's beautiful books, Quiet, and Bittersweet for a long time now. Fresh off of a two day judging assignment for Elite and NW2 I'm being pulled towards Bittersweet. So, here we go. Heating Up and Really Cooking One of the searches I judged... Continue Reading →

Spoiler alert: I can't tell you who Sue McMahon is. I can tell you she is my mom. I can tell you she is retiring in a few days from a 32 year career as a Special Ed Para at Mississippi Elementary. I can tell you other things about her, but I can't tell you... Continue Reading →

I locked eyes with a wolf in the wild once. It was August 2020. We rented a cabin in northern Minnesota on Caribou Lake right on the edge of the Chippewa National Forest. It was 1am and I had just leashed the dogs up for their final pee of the night. I generally don't think... Continue Reading →

On an episode from the Warrior Kid podcast, the host, Jocko Willink answers a question from a kid who wants to learn how to do Jiu Jitsu without "tapping out" - the act of physically tapping your opponent to signal an end to the match. Jocko uses the question to guide listeners through the reasoning... Continue Reading →

***Disclaimer - This post was written a while ago. I'm currently using the term "human" or "search partner" rather than "handler" to describe any human partnering with a searching dog. This is partly because handler seems to give a person authority that has not originated from and grown through an understanding of the dog. Also,... Continue Reading →