Are you an official with a Scent Work competition organization or have you considered applying to be one? Do you realize just how crucial you really are to whether a trial is a success, or a complete and total failure?! Are you aware that competitors, trial hosts and organizations have lists of things they WISHED officials would do, and not do? In this episode, we will discuss all of that, to help YOU be the best official you can be...and not end up on the "do not hire" or "do not trial under" list. 

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Scent Work University is an online dog training platform focused on all things Scent Work. SWU courses and webinars are not only for those who are interested in competiton, but also for those dog owners who are simply looking for something fun and engaging to do with their dogs. Check out Scent Work University today!

Interested in another dog sport, or looking for help getting your dog to learn some manners? Dog Sport University is sister online dog training platform, give it a peek and see what it has to offer you and your dog.

PODCAST TRANSCRIPT

Welcome to the Scent Work University All About Scent Work Podcast. In this podcast, we'll be talking about all things Scent Work. We'll be giving you behind-the-scenes look as far as what your instructor or trial officials may be going through. We'll be giving you training tips, and we'll just be discussing everything that goes along with doing Scent Work with your dog, whether you're interested in competition or not.

In this episode, we're going to be talking about what it would mean to be an ideal official at a Scent Work trial. In other words, what you would be able to do if you were officiating your trial to ensure everything went well. All right, let's get started.

Before we get started, I just want to take a really quick moment to introduce myself. My name is Dianna Santos. I am the Owner and Lead Instructor for both Scent Work University and Dog Sport University. These are online dog training platforms that are designed to connect outstanding trainers with as many dog owners as possible.

Both SWU and DSU are designed to provide quality, convenience, and flexibility. We hope that you'll check them out to see if there are any online programs that may be suitable for both you and your dog. Without further ado, let's dive into the podcast.

When it comes to Scent Work trials, there are many people who are responsible and can contribute to the overall success or failure of that trial. One of the most important elements of a Scent Work trial are the actual people who are working as officials at that trial. Now, depending on the organization you're competing with, there can be a variety of different officials, or there may just be one. It really depends on the organization.

But across the board, there are some things that almost every single competitor can say, "Uh, it's going to be that kind of official." It just ruins the entire experience. In our prior podcast, we were talking about what officials would consider an ideal competitor to be. In this podcast, I want to flip that on its head, and to talk about what competitors would consider an ideal official.

Likewise, I also want to do this from a standpoint of an organization overall, so that everyone can kind of have a better understanding of what it is that officials should be expected to do, what they're expected not to do, and what the thinking is behind it, not only from a competitor perspective, but from an organization perspective as well.

Now again, this podcast is not meant to demoralize anyone or to make anyone feel lesser than, or anything like that. This is simply supposed to be something that we can sit back, listen to, and analyze, "Am I approaching this the right way? Am I doing what I need to do?" Also, if you are an official, something you should always ask yourself is, "Do I enjoy officiating? Am I doing it for the right reasons?" If the answers to either of those questions is, "No," then you ar