NAMPA, Idaho — Hallie McMullen is a dog trainer for scent work, one of three field representatives for the sport for the American Kennel Club.
- McMullen began training police K9s in 1996
- She travels the country judging AKC Scent Work events
- Scent Work is great for dogs because it's an inclusive sport with minimal interaction with other dogs and gives them a job to do
- You can find Hallie's contact info and information about classes at her website scentsationalk9.dog
(Below is the transcript from the broadcast story)
Scent Work is one of the American Kennels Club's newest sports and Nampa's own Hallie McMullen is one of the AKC's three field representatives in the country.
It's a sport suitable for dogs of all shapes and sizes.
"Different dogs are going to have advantages in different searches," says McMullen.
Hallie began her career training police K9s in 1996.
She transitioned to sport in 2015 with her own dogs and after friends found interest, she started teaching classes and judging.
"You can see she caught odor right on the door. Where those cracks are, odor collects in those seams," McMullen observed.
While the dogs enjoy the activities, it also serves a purpose.
Some of these dogs and their humans were involved in detecting diseased cherry trees in Washington.
"They only knew the tree had the disease once the tree was mature and the fruit was mature and by that time it infected all the trees around it. We worked on the really early phase of the project where we would just bring in clean samples and dirty samples and just testing if this was something the dogs would physically be able to do," explained Erica Crowe and her dog Bodo.
The animals have different ways of letting their humans know that they've found the designated marker.
Whether that's what they were trained to do or what they naturally do is up to the trainer.
"Did you notice how when her dog finds it she puts her nose there and stays? That's what we call a hold indication," explained McMullen.
Bodo likes to pluck off the hides so his human trained him to lie down as his indication.
"I love scent work because it's a great place for your dog to build a relationship and engagement with the owner but it also gives them something to do," concluded McMullen.
"This is mentally stimulating for them and it's even better than the physical movement, I mean she just goes to sleep because she's worn out thinking about everything," said Debbie Gschwender about her dog, Rowan.
You can find Hallie's contact info and information about classes at her website scentsationalk9.dog.
