Scenting on the Wind: Scent Work for Hunting Dogs

by Susan Bulanda

This book gives us a detailed account of how dogs work and how we might properly train and harness their abilities to serve our needs.

96 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2002

About the author

Certified Animal Behavior Consultant, (IAABC), Adjunct Professor, Search and Rescue Dog Trainer, Search Manager, Author, Lecturer, Keynote Speaker

Reviews

[Tina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Scenting on the Wind: Scentwork for Hunting Dogs
by Susan Bulanda

I found this book interesting as it shared the step-by-step training methods for hunting dogs; but even more interesting is the explanations on scenting conditions, weather conditions and grid patterns that also impact the hunting experience. The hunter needs to learn along with the hunting dog as they are a team. There are penciled illustrations that give examples on a certain topic which would be helpful for any learning hunter. There are numerous pictures of hunting dogs throughout the book that are helpful as well. I am not a hunter and don’t plan to be, however, the information in this book is very informative even for a non-hunter.

~I received a copy of this book from the publisher/author (no monetary gain were exchanged), this is my honest review~I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255~

[ThDogs · Rating 2 out of 5]

If this book had started on page 42, I would have given this five stars. Alas, out of 82 pages, 41 of them is generic dog training content that is very much a product of its time.

I knew this is an old book going into it so usually that wouldn't impact a rating but in this case the introduction of the book made a big fuss that the book's content will not be about training dogs, but will instead be about understanding scent and using the wind to our benefit in training. Great!

It then spent the next 40 pages talking about training dogs.

It was stock standard old stuff, be the alpha, growl at your dog, yell No. The author did also talk about the clicker retrieve, how to choose a dog, breeds....so on and so forth. A lot of content taking up space in what is meant to be a small reference book that you can slip into a pocket. Think of how much better it would slip into your pocket without the 42 pages of junk!

Page 42 onwards was exactly what I expected and wanted. Quick reference diagrams of assorted search patterns in response to different wind conditions. A de-brief of how scent behaves depending on temperature and the surround environment. A range of grid patterns. All stuff I have seen before in many other tracking books, but the appeal in this case was the small pocket size of the reference material.

The illustrations and charts were really quite well done.

Just a shame about the first half of the book.