Coronadans Mary Berube and Ellie Ovrom are two of the founding members and current president and vice president, respectively, of the Scent Work Club of San Diego for dogs. Scent work is all about dogs using their innate sense of smell, and in the world of dog sports, is modeled after the professional training of dogs and their handlers for scent detection (think search and rescue dogs, TSA canines, etc.).<\/p>\n
Berube was first introduced to scent work through the sport of tracking with her Australian Shepherd, Cora. \u201cCora is a very active dog and a lot of times a dog that\u2019s got a high drive like her, and a high working ethic (she\u2019ll stay up and work all day) needs to do something,\u201d she explained. \u201cI took a class at a local club where, because you can reward the dog during the competition for something they do for fun, smelling things, we kept it up and I used it as a regular training exercise. And it turned out that she was pretty good at it.\u201d<\/p>\n
With tracking, a dog is given the scent of an individual who creates a trail some amount of time before the trial starts (30 minutes before for novice levels, and up to three hours before for the higher levels). \u201cThe dog is trying to find that person\u2019s glove at the end of the trail they\u2019ve made, and passing a Tracking Dog Excellent (TDX) track is a big deal,\u201d said Berube.<\/p>\n
Tracks can be up to 1,000 yards long and are made over variable surfaces, sometimes with multiple dropped articles that the dog has to find along the trail as well. Cora has completed two American Kennel Club (AKC) TDX titles in San Diego.<\/p>\n
Scent work, on the other hand, really digs into the identification of specific odors (generally plant-based scents). Berube explained how she and Cora got started training through the use of a specific set of cues that included two sets of bowls and colanders, with a scent placed between one stacked set of bowls and not the other. As she explained, \u201cThat first time, when they stick their nose down there, you want to give them treats, you\u2019re cueing them to associate it with a reward.\u201d<\/p>\n
The blank bowl set, however, doesn\u2019t pay off. \u201cThey recognize then that it\u2019s not just sticking their nose in a bowl, it\u2019s the scent that differentiates them,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd then you just add more. And the dogs realize that the particular concentration of something that is similar also starts to pay off. So it\u2019s not just one scent, it\u2019s something bigger in their brains that recognizes, \u2018Oh, these are distilled, strong smells that I can also find and be rewarded for.\u2019 So it\u2019s very interesting in that way, that they make that logical step in their brains on their own.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ovrom has a similar story of her introduction to the sport with her Drentsche Patrijshond, Iris. \u201cI was a little bit involved in dog sports in general with my older dog, who\u2019s a mixed breed, but when I got Iris, she came from a breeder that hunts with their dogs,\u201d she mentioned. \u201cI\u2019m not an active hunter, but I wanted to find a way to capitalize on those instincts that she has to use her nose to search and find things and fulfill her in that way. So I stumbled into scent work with her and she loved it. I loved doing it with her, and the rest is history.\u201d<\/p>\n
Iris is also one of just 150 Drentsche Patrijshonds in the United States and became the first of her breed to achieve a scent title through the AKC. \u201cThat\u2019s a fun mantle, but more so, what\u2019s exciting to me about that is that since we\u2019ve started, four other Drents have started at scent work,\u201d Ovrom said. \u201cOur biggest accomplishment is being able to inspire others who have this awesome breed and can do these awesome things to get out there and showcase how cool they are.\u201d<\/p>\n
Both Cora and Iris are currently working towards their Scent Work Detective Class titles, which is the highest level currently recognized for scent work by the AKC.<\/p>\n
Scent work became an official AKC competition sport in 2017, and interest in it has continued to grow since then. \u201cIn large part because it can be done by almost all dogs of all ages, it\u2019s become one of the most popular dog sports around,\u201d Berube said. \u201cDogs can be blind or three-legged. As long as they still have the olfactory sense, they can play.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSome sports have different breeds that will dominate. With agility sports, you see a lot of Border Collies, etc., but the amazing thing about scent work is that it has all of these benefits for all of these different types of dogs and breeds, people, and everything,\u201d Ovrom agreed. \u201cIt\u2019s fun to meet all of these different people and different dogs, and everyone involved clearly does it because their dog loves it first and, to me, that lends itself to a really fun community of people that are in it for the right reasons and want to do the right thing for their dog.\u201d<\/p>\n
The current board members of the Scent Work Club of San Diego met through participating in various competitions and trials in the region, where they recognized that there was a growing demand for scent work activities and no local organization that was dedicated to the sport.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe all just came together and thought that maybe we could do this, get it off the ground, and we hope it will grow beyond us one day,\u201d Ovrom said. \u201cIt\u2019s starting to do that already. We\u2019ve gotten a ton of really great feedback, and we just crossed the hundred-member mark in the club. It just emphasizes that there was and continues to be a need for this, that people love doing this with their dogs and want to get more involved.\u201d<\/p>\n
The club was started at the beginning of 2024, and the board members have been busy with AKC certifications and getting set up as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. As a club affiliated with AKC, which has regional representation, the Scent Work Club of San Diego is now open to members across both San Diego and Riverside counties. \u201cWe were able to open membership back up in December once we were able to build things out more, and now we have at least six AKC judges, at least four veterinarians, ten or so search and rescue members\u2026 it\u2019s very broad and a very learned group,\u201d Berube noted.<\/p>\n
In addition to regular monthly meetings, the club hosts scent work trial events around San Diego (their first AKC-licensed trials are starting in the fall), both in person and online seminars with demonstrations from scent work judges and professionals who can explain how scent clouds work and teach handlers how let your dog work independently, and monthly drop-in events that allow for the dogs to practice their scent work in a multitude of locations.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe host them at parks, people\u2019s houses, at Saint Bartholomew\u2019s Church, which was really fun, a house in Point Loma, which is a really unique place,\u201d she listed. \u201cYou\u2019re supposed to do it in a variety of locations because your dog needs to keep learning how to work through anything.\u201d Berube laughed, recalling one drop-in that was in Poway, where goats had been in the area, and Cora searched only for the goats.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are benefits to going back to the same location over and over again, but if you\u2019ve seen the same rooms and fields twelve times, it becomes less of a challenge,\u201d Ovrom added. \u201cSo we\u2019re excited to try out some of these new venues and see how they go and how people like them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Berube further explained that this has been one of the important aspects in getting their status as a nonprofit and AKC club finalized. \u201cWe want to make sure that we have a name in the community, especially for securing these locations for our needs.\u201d The group is always looking for new locations for their drop-ins and encourages anyone who may be open to sharing their space to contact them for more information about their space requirements (https:\/\/scentworksd.org\/contact-us<\/a>).<\/p>\n One requirement for members is to participate in some form of scentwork-related volunteerism in the community as well, whether it\u2019s volunteering to help at one of the club\u2019s events or for another group. \u201cYou could be helping our charitable functions like with hospitality at the recent presentation we hosted, or you could be doing something for Search and Rescue, such as volunteering at the gate at a drop-in. It doesn\u2019t take a whole lot,\u201d Berube commented. She\u2019s been a volunteer for groups like the San Diego County Sheriff\u2019s Department\u2019s Search and Rescue Unit where she\u2019s been the \u201cmissing\u201d person for the dogs to search out and find.<\/p>\n Ovrom has helped the TSA K9 program as a volunteer, which came about through a coincidental TSA interaction while traveling. \u201cI was just an average person in the line, but for some reason one of the TSA trainers picked me out of the lineup and asked if I would be willing to drop a reward ball for the dog when I go through,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd of course, I started talking to the trainer,\u201d Ovrom laughed. \u201cBut that\u2019s how I got in contact with the training director for the TSA K9 program, and they told me they are always looking for volunteers to come be \u2018decoys\u2019 to carry a target odor for the dogs so the dogs will get rewarded for finding something.\u201d<\/p>\n Membership in the club is open to anyone interested in becoming more involved with scent work and advancing their skills to the next level. \u201cThe challenge for us is that we don\u2019t have the structure to offer classes at this time, so a lot of what we\u2019re doing with the Scent Work Club specifically is catered to folks who have a little bit of a background in scent work,\u201d Ovrom noted.<\/p>\n \u201cThat said, we\u2019re happy to involve people of all skill levels and all backgrounds as much as we can, and try to help them out and point them towards introductory resources in their area,\u201d she continued. \u201cSo while we may not offer intro classes, we\u2019re happy to help people find that resource, and when they fall in love with it as they inevitably will, we\u2019re here for taking those skills to the next level.\u201d<\/p>\n For now, however, the board is continuing to focus on helping the community grow and to offer more opportunities for dogs to participate in scent work.<\/p>\n \u201cWe want to continue to see it grow beyond the core group of us that started it,\u201d Ovrom said. \u201cWe want to do something for the community and give people the opportunity to take this in whatever direction the community wants it to go in, and I\u2019m excited to see it continue to evolve over the next couple of years.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a good sport that is accessible, helps the animals, and is about respecting this sense dogs have that you can only understand by watching them,\u201d Berube added, noting how tight-knit the community is and how each dog brings something new and interesting to the sport.<\/p>\n Ovrom agreed, also mentioning how easy it is to see how much the dogs enjoy the activity as well. \u201cWith Iris, it\u2019s really clear to me that the search aspect, itself, is rewarding for her,\u201d she said. \u201cYou can just tell by her body language, her focus, and how she just keeps working no matter how challenging it is. The act of searching itself is rewarding for her. That\u2019s fun for me to watch and be a part of, and to help facilitate those kinds of opportunities to do something that she truly enjoys.\u201d<\/p>\n