Many competitors have seen Ana's AKC trial debrief videos — breaking down hide placement, odor movement, and what teams were experiencing in the search area. In this episode, the judge, trainer, and competitor talks about the lessons she has learned from years of watching teams search.

Before scent work, Ana had a career in medicine and medical education. She views judging as education — through the hides she sets, the briefings she gives, and the debriefs she shares publicly after every trial. In my observation, that medical background shows up in how she approaches the sport — doctors are always learning, digesting new material, and teaching it to others at the same time. You can see that in how deeply Ana understands odor theory and how dogs work.

And if you've ever wondered what the dogs would say about us in the parking lot after a trial — Ana has some thoughts on that too.

What we talk about:

1. Ana's origin story — this is a familiar story about how scent work wasn't even the thing until it was the thing
2. The recurring themes she sees across her debriefs — what handlers consistently struggle with and what the best teams do differently
3. Close proximity hides and convergence — why handlers miss them and what to do about it
4. Why handlers over-handle under pressure — and what the dog thinks about it
5. The twenty-plus picnic table search — what Ana was testing and why competitors over-focused on the objects instead of the odor
6. How dogs perceive a search area versus how handlers perceive it — and why that difference matters
7. Ana's distractor philosophy — why she uses food distractors, what she tests with them, and why gummy bears tripped up more dogs than bacon
8. Why the boundaries define where hides are placed but not where odor goes — and how to help your dog collect information outside the search area
9. Retiring Axel from competition — and why making that call was the right thing for their team
10. Seven questions with Ana — what she loves to see teams celebrate, her signature distractor, the best compliment she ever received, and what Axel and VI would say about her as a handler

Find Ana: YouTube: Ana Cilursu for her AKC trial debrief videos:

Training: Rots-n-Nots Nosework

Staten Island Companion Dog Training Club — nose work instructor

Alert! Scent Work is a podcast for competitors — the parking lot conversations you'd never get to have at a trial, with the judges and community members you wish you had more time with.

Listen to the podcast and find everything here:

https://www.AlertScentWork.com

Follow along: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AlertScentWork

Subscribe to the newsletter: https://www.alertscentwork.com/newsletter/ #ScentWork

One of the first AKC Scent Work judges and an AKC Scent Work Expert Judge, Sandra Tung is also a trainer and high-level competitor who has been in the sport since before AKC even had a scent work program.

Much of our conversation revolves around the job of the handler in scent work — which Sandra reinforces with t-shirt-worthy sayings like "be a hot date to your dog," "pay a dog a CEO salary for flipping burgers," and "your dog is the subject matter expert, and you are the manager."

If you've ever watched a Sandra Tung student at a trial, you already know these sayings. Her reputation precedes her. We also dig into how to balance honoring your dog's choices with being a good partner, her lazy trainer philosophy for building drive and confidence, and what she actually looks for when she's judging a team — whether they Q or not.

What we talk about:

1. Sandra's origin story — from her first Shiba Inu and rally obedience to becoming one of AKC's first scent work judges
2. Why the dog is the subject matter expert and the handler is the manager — and what that actually means in a search
3. Be a hot date — what it means, where it came from, and why it matters more than finding the perfect high-value treat *The difference between a good team and a top team — and why it almost always comes down to the handler
4. How to read whether your dog is in a productive area versus an unproductive one
5. Why odor doesn't care about boundaries — and what Sandra tells her students about letting their dogs go outside the search area
6. Her lazy trainer philosophy — training with purpose, keeping sessions short, and why simple hides in new environments will take you further than complicated puzzles
7. How running Shiba Inus made her a better handler and trainer
8. Teaching dogs to move on from a hide on their own — and why she didn't realize that was a skill until dog number five
9. Memory systems for remembering where you found your hides at higher levels
10. What Sandra looks for when she places hides — and why she loves testing teams on things they don't expect
11. Seven questions with Sandra — her dog's favorite reward, advice for her beginner scent work self, how she bounces back from a tough trial day, and the best compliment she ever received at a trial

Find Sandra:

AKC Judges Directory — search Sandra Tung to bring her to your trial

Alert! Scent Work is a podcast for competitors — the parking lot conversations you'd never get to have at a trial, with the judges and community members you wish you had more time with.

Listen to the podcast and find everything here:

https://www.AlertScentWork.com

Follow along: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AlertScentWork

Subscribe to the newsletter: https://www.alertscentwork.com/newsletter/ #scentwork

Vicky Lovejoy was there at the very beginning — before formal trials existed, before organizations formed, when a group of enthusiasts in the Los Angeles area were just figuring out what this sport could be alongside founders Ron Gaunt, Amy Herot, and Jill Marie O'Brien.

She has been competing and judging across AKC, NACSW, UKC, NASDA, and more ever since. In this episode, Vicky brings a perspective on scent work that very few people can offer — she has seen it from just about every angle, as a competitor, a judge, a trainer, and someone who was there when the sport was invented. Her dogs, by the way, all have an aviation theme. Beryl Markham, the pilot. Amelia Earhart's Lockheed Vega. Bessie the Fire Horse. Gaston — said with a French accent. And Phoenix, the outlier.

What we talk about:

1. Vicky's origin story — from a shepherd with elbow dysplasia to being one of the first people to compete in what would become organized scent work
2. What hooked her — and why she describes the sport as the dog teaching us rather than the other way around
3. How breed and individual tendencies shape how dogs search — including why her shepherds would catalog hides and check the perimeter before committing, and why herding dogs often go to the back of the search area first
4. How judging has influenced how she competes — and a story about forcing a false alert at the end of a long trial day that she still thinks about
5. What makes a search fun — not just technically challenging, but genuinely enjoyable for dog and handler together
6. How she thinks about setting hides and what she hopes competitors take away from her searches
7. The parking lot conversation after a low Q rate — and how to turn post-search analysis into something productive instead of just venting
8. Cherish the engagement — what she means by that and why the bond you build through scent work is unlike anything else
9. Seven questions with Vicky — her dog's favorite rewards, including touch games and a boing, her signature distractor, advice for her beginner self, and what she wishes more competitors understood about judges

Find Vicky:

Scent Work University: https://www.scentworku.com/collections/meet-vicky-lovejoy

AKC Judges Directory — search Victoria Lovejoy to bring her to your trial Based in Eastern Washington — travels nationally

Alert! Scent Work is a podcast for competitors — the parking lot conversations you'd never get to have at a trial, with the judges and community members you wish you had more time with.

Listen to the podcast and find everything here:

https://www.AlertScentWork.com

Follow along: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AlertScentWork

Subscribe to the newsletter: https://www.alertscentwork.com/newsletter/

For some, scent work is more than a sport and winning ribbons. It’s a shared process that can change both dog and human.

Lisa Quibell is a competitor, trainer, and judge with UKC and C-WAGS. Lisa shares how scent work challenged her not just as a handler and a trainer, but as a human, and how working with very different dogs has shaped the way she competes and judges.

We talk about scent work as a confidence builder for dogs who struggle in the world and for handlers who are still finding their footing. Lisa explores what it really means to let the dog lead, how to recognize when not to interrupt, and why giving dogs real decision-making power changes the search for both dog and handler.

We also dig into something most competitors wrestle with: how to celebrate and reward after a search that didn’t go your way, and why the reward is still about the relationship, even when the search doesn’t end with a Q.

In this episode, I talk with Jill Kovacevich about the idea that changed how I see scent work forever: pathways to odor. From clear, direct routes to faint odor tendrils that never quite connect to the source, Jill explains how dogs collect information long before they reach source, and why searching is a process, not a moment.

We also dig into NACSW judging versus certifying roles, how judges determine a "yes" vs a "no" in a search, and the challenge of wearing multiple hats at a trial without letting those roles bleed into your own searches.

AKC scent work judge and competitor Patrice Dodd talks about why scent work is one of the few places in life where she can be fully present, and why handler attention may be the most important skill in the sport. She also reflects on the challenges and pressure she feels as a judge, balancing fairness, difficulty, and the desire for competitors to succeed.

Patrice shares why giving your dog just a few extra seconds can change an entire search, how handlers often interrupt problem-solving without realizing it, and what she notices from the judge’s side when teams succeed. We also explore her dog’s tendency to blast through thresholds, and how learning to work with that reality led to better strategy and less frustration.

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Season 1 is wrapped. Thank you for listening and sharing at trials!

The judge lineup for season 2 will be announced next week on my email list and Facebook.

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From the moment she got the phone call inviting her to judge AKC Master Nationals, to arriving at the Roberts Center, Mary talks about what was running through her mind, how the event was structured, and what it feels like to carry that kind of responsibility, judging the top AKC Scent Work teams at the first Scent Work Master Nationals.

We talk about how she approached designing her Master Interior and buried searches, what she observed from the teams over the three days, insights into the scoring system, and what she would make sure to practice if she were entering AKC Master Nationals as a competitor.

At AKC Master National, Penny Scott-Fox brought every part of her scent work experience with her.

She talks about the AKC Master National through three lenses: what it was like to compete, how she viewed the hide sets and scoring system as a judge, and what she thinks could be improved for future events from an organizer’s perspective.

Penny also talks about the strategy that kept her from getting caught up in the leaderboard, how she approached the event as a marathon rather than a sprint, and how the new scoring system completely changed her handling plan.

It’s a thoughtful look at the first-ever Master National from someone who’s helped shape the sport since its beginning.

One mistake most of us have made happened in her very first run, and it dropped her to 118th place for that element. But by day three, Leigh Gelotte and Rhubarb were the first-ever AKC Master National Scent Work Champions. Leigh takes us inside the event, describing the search areas, the pressure, and the strategy that turned a shaky start into being the first-ever national champions.