 Photo credit: @adventurepup_leilani, at Ranch Setting Are you disappointed that there are no sniff spots near where you live? Now you can do something about it! It turns out that it’s pretty easy to add sniff spots near you. We put together a list of easy things you can do to get sniff spots near you:
Share about Sniffspot in local Facebook groups Are you a member of any local Facebook community groups? This is THE best way to connect with prospective hosts. You can very easily make a post in your local Facebook group, something like this: *********************** Has anyone heard of Sniffspot? Sniffspot lets anyone help dogs and earn side income through offering their yard as a play area for reactive dogs. I really want more sniff spots in the area. Anyone interested in hosting? www.sniffspot.com/host *********************** Post an ad on CL Seriously, posting an ad on CL really works. We recommend posting ads in the Pets -> Community section and in the Gigs -> Event Gigs section. It’s most effective to post repeatedly, but make sure to wait 48 hours before posting again. Here is some text for what you can include in the ad: *********************** Did you know that many dogs can't go to dog parks because they are fearful or they get picked on by other dogs? Sniffspot is a project to provide private areas for dogs to play. Sniffspot needs more folks in the area that have yards or land that would be interested in helping reactive dogs by sharing their yards. In addition to helping reactive dogs, this is a good way to earn passive income. Sniffspot has some hosts earning $1000+ per month. You can learn more here: www.sniffspot.com/host *********************** Post on your local sub-Reddit This is a great way to reach people that are passionate about being involved in your community. If you go on Reddit, search for your local community and you will likely find sub-Reddits related to your community. If there are multiple relevant sub-Reddits we recommend posting in the sub-Reddit with the most subscribers. For instance, Seattle has multiple sub-Reddits (e.g. r/Seattle, r/SeaWA, r/SeattleWA), but r/Seattle has the most subscribers so that would be the best place to post. We recommend posting something like this: *********************** Has anyone heard of Sniffspot? Sniffspot lets anyone help dogs and earn side income through offering their yard as a play area for reactive dogs. I really want more sniff spots in the area. Anyone interested in hosting? www.sniffspot.com/host *********************** Post on Nextdoor Are you a member of Nextdoor? If not, it’s like Facebook, but super strict about locals only. It’s a great place to share the word about Sniffspot. You can post something like this: *********************** Has anyone heard of Sniffspot? Sniffspot lets anyone help dogs and earn side income through offering their yard as a play area for reactive dogs. I really want more sniff spots in the area. Anyone interested in hosting? www.sniffspot.com/host *********************** Share our posts on Facebook and Instagram Sharing posts is a super easy way to spread the word. Make sure to follow us on Facebook and Instagram and whenever you see a great post by us, share it! Flyer around your community Print some of our flyers and post them around your neighborhood and/or workplace. Here is our template. Great neighborhood places to post flyers are coffee shops, laundromats, community centers, apartment buildings and other local retail businesses. Review new sniff spots If you do see a sniff spot in your area, you can help the community by visiting it and writing a review. Even if the sniff spot isn’t a great fit for you, by reviewing it you will encourage more guests and more hosts to sign up in the area, which will bring on hosts that could be a great fit for you. You can visit any unreviewed sniff spot for FREE (read more here). Forward our newsletter to your friends You can help to spread the word by signing up for our newsletter and forward it to your friends. The newsletter sign up is in the footer of this page. *********************** I really hope that this can help you to get more sniff spots in your area. As always, feel free to reach out with any questions!
0 Comments
 It’s our favorite time of the year at Sniffspot. The rain is falling and the holiday lights are twinkling in the darkness. We all want to spread the holiday cheer to our dogs, so we thought would would put together a list of amazing gifts for reactive dogs (or really any dog). The specific focus here is on enrichment toys that can reduce anxiety and fear in reactive dogs (as we wrote about in our previous post). We did some research to find the most amazing gifts for reactive dogs by 1) asking reactive dog owners in the area, and 2) asking a local trainer for input to make sure these are the highest quality options for you (see the end of the article for more information on the trainer that reviewed this article). Also: we don’t use referral links or have any relationship with any of the products we are recommending. 1. Tail Teaser Give your dog the gift of endless excitement and sure-fire exhaustion by giving them a tail teaser. Our pup never gets tired of chasing the tail! Here is one example, but you can also Google to find many more!  2. Pickpocket Great for a quiet rainy afternoon, this simple gift will entertain and engage your pup’s brain while they sniff and forage for treats! Check out the source here.  3. Turtle Treat Dispenser Great for the expert level treat getter! Our pup is an expert level treat finder and dominates every toy we give her to hide treats. This turtle toy stands up to her efforts for hours! You can find it on Amazon (and other places I am sure!)  4. Kong This is as classic as it gets. Time tested, get your dog the simple game that never gets old. You can buy these most anywhere, but here is one example on Chewy.  5. Pet Treat Tower Not satisfied with a simple Kong for your pup, go high tech with the Pet Treat Tower from JW. You can even adjust the difficulty level for your dog! You can find them on Amazon here.  6. Squirrel Puzzle Dog Toy If on a scale from 1 to 10 your dog’s prey drive is an 11, this would be a great toy for them. Let them hunt squirrels all day long with no squirrels harmed. Check it out on Chewy here.  7. Snuffle mat And last but not least, we love the snuffle mat. Not only does it have a great name, it also gets your pup sniffing and searching for treats. Another great gift for rainy afternoons! Support a small producer and order on Etsy (or you can Google for it anywhere!)  *********************
This is the trainer that reviewed this article: Erica Wells Erica is a Certified Nose Work Instructor (CNWI) through the National Association of Canine Scent Work. She teaches Agility and K9 Nose work classes, both sports she participates and competes in with her rescued Brittany Spaniel, Mimi and newest monster, Gator. ********************* About Sniffspot Sniffspot is like Airbnb, but for off leash dog spaces. Anyone can earn money from sharing their yard as an off leash dog space. Anyone can find the perfect nearby off leash space for their pup to play in. You can learn more about how it works at www.sniffspot.com. You can learn more about hosting here. Follow us on Instagram and Facebook!  By: Erica Wells
Erica is a Certified Nose Work Instructor (CNWI) through the National Association of Canine Scent Work. She teaches Agility and K9 Nose work classes, both sports she participates and competes in with her rescued Brittany Spaniel, Mimi and newest monster, Gator. -- I am passionate about dogs using their noses. The dog olfactory system fills the majority of their brain and their sense of smell is light years beyond our own. We are only just scratching the surface learning about the magic of what dogs can smell and what they can teach us through the use of their powerful nose! My introduction to the sport of K9 Nosework began when my newly adopted Brittany puppy was about 5 months old. She was a VERY busy puppy, far busier than any dog I had ever owned and the first puppy I’d had in about 20 years! While she got plenty of exercise and we did plenty of training, something was missing. I saw a flyer somewhere about a workshop coming to town about “the new sport of k9 Nosework” for dogs of all ages-so I went! It was transformative. Suddenly, my crazy puppy had an outlet using her nose for good and not evil! The only issue was that she wasn’t very food motivated, I mean, she really didn’t care about food at all, BUT she was already a crazy ball dog so we used her ball. She hunted for stinky treats in boxes and got rewarded with her ball. 10 minutes of playing the game and she was actually able to settle, it gave her an outlet and made our training sessions for the “boring stuff” more productive when we trained after doing a bit of Nosework. I was amazed at how well the game worked and wanted to find out more-so when the National Association of Canine Scentwork (NACSW, www.nacsw.net) had their first instructor training course outside of California I signed on and the rest is history. Ive been teaching K9 Nosework for 8.5 years now and loving every minute of it. The sport has grown and grown with multiple venues signing on including United Kennel Club (UKC) and American Kennel Club (AKC) but many folks in my classes just want something to do with their dog, they don’t compete and don’t plan to compete but those dogs’ noses are just as sharp and as amazing as any competition dog. In NACSW the venue I do most of my trialing in we use the target odors of Birch, Anise and Clove. The dogs hunt for these odors on vehicles, interiors, container searches (think card board boxes, backpacks, luggage, tupperware-almost anything goes) and the dog’s job is to “alert” the handler that they have found their target odor. Some dogs do this by looking at the handler, lying down, sitting, a light paw or a nose freeze. There are MANY different alerts but the one thing all the dogs have in common is they stop sniffing! It’s our job to know if they are telling us they have “FOUND IT”. One of the things I love about Nosework whether it is the dog hunting for cookies in boxes or competing at the highest level (in some venues) dogs who are reactive can still play the game. It is a wonderful way to enrich a reactive dogs life-even if you are just heading out to a sniff spot-why not bring a long some containers and hide some treats or toys for your pup to find or just bring hands full of kibble and spread the love around for him like a canine treasure hunt! Their noses are amazing and they LOVE to use them. My elderly reactive dog who was also a terrible car dog loved to play the Nosework game at home. He did learn the target odor birch but mostly he just wanted to find food, wherever he could!! Most Nosework classes will accommodate dog reactive dogs because dogs work solo. Each dog has a turn in a Nosework class and no other dogs are present. They are either beyond a barrier, crated in another area or in cars when it is not their turn. I've had some dogs who are even people reactive in my classes. We can make almost anything work so that every dog has an opportunity to experience the fun of Nosework. After teaching for so many years I've also seen something magical happen in dogs whose confidence was lacking and exhibited shyness or fear in the early classes. As their owners worked with them, they started to open up. It is truly a joyful experience to see a dog who when first came in to the search area would not even get near the open box full of cookies to a dog that sometimes even in a few weeks time was happily running about the room HUNTING for their treasure. It has literally brought me to tears on more than one occasion. My little “parma-foster” now almost 10 year old Mimi led me in to Nosework and then to the wonderful world of truffle hunting which I LOVE because it gets me outdoors on trails in the quiet wet winters of the PNW. She also led me to my second Brittany, Gator, now 2, who is using his nose on counters, in competition, in the truffle forest AND in a bird field in hunt tests and field trials and I may even learn to fire a shotgun! That is something I NEVER thought I would be doing. Never say never. Your dog’s nose really is the path to many a splendid thing! You can find me on facebook at k9snifftimeseattle.com, @k9snifftimeseattle on instagram and teaching classes through: www.dogsdayoutseattle.com www.fourpawsports.com www.truffledogcompany.com Happy Hunting! ********************* About Sniffspot Sniffspot is like Airbnb, but for off leash dog spaces. Anyone can earn money from sharing their yard as an off leash dog space. Anyone can find the perfect nearby off leash space for their pup to play in. You can learn more about how it works at www.sniffspot.com. You can learn more about hosting here. Follow us on Instagram and Facebook! Reviews are a super important part of attracting sniff spot guests. The First Review Program offers guests a rebate on their visit price if they write the first review on a sniff spot. So if hosts do not have any reviews and a guest visits that sniff spot and writes a review, they can claim a rebate on their visit.
Here is how it works: 1) Find a sniff spot with no reviews, 2) Book the sniff spot like you normally would, 3) Once you submit your review, simply email support@sniffspot.com with your account email and provide the link to the listing you reviewed, 4) We will issue you a refund for that visit on your payment card. There is no cap on how many visits you can claim for this program. You could visit sniff spot for free every day if you wanted! Note: you need to claim your refund within the same calendar month as your visit for it to be valid. By: Danette Johnston
Owner - Dog's Day Out, Ballard, WA Certified Professional Dog Trainer (CPDT-KA) Licensed AKC CGC Evaluator NW Coordinator, Doggone Safe Whether you are looking to bring a new dog into your home or you just want your dog to hang out with your friends or family members’ dog, being able to read the dogs’ body language is imperative for success when introducing dogs. Be sure to give yourself an education on canine body language before proceeding with dog introductions! I have two ways I generally recommend having dogs meet each other: 1. TANDEM/PARALLEL WALK- For non-leash reactive dogs. Equipment needed: Dogs on regular leashes (no flexi-leads) and harnesses (no neck collars).
2. TANDEM PLAY – I use this when one of the dogs is too leash reactive to be able to do a parallel walk, even at a distance. We often use this with shelter dogs who we want to let play with other dogs but are so leash reactive that it would take months working on the leash reactivity before allowing them to get the much-needed play with other dogs. Reactivity on leash is not necessarily indicative of off leash behavior. Equipment needed: A large, preferably neutral yard such as a Sniffspot or large room with some sort of barrier in the middle, dogs on leashes and harnesses, and possibly muzzles and long lines (see below).
TOOLS TO USE – if we are unsure of how one or both of the dogs will react, I will often use long lines and basket muzzles. A long line gives the dog freedom of movement with no leash tension but a “handle” for the humans to grab if needed. It is crucial that a dog be conditioned to a muzzle before using during introductions. I do NOT want to slap a muzzle on a dog and then toss him in with other dogs. Use a basket muzzle (not cloth) so the dog can get treats through it, drink, pant and play. A fantastic and comprehensive resource for muzzle training is the Muzzle Up Project website. ********************* About Sniffspot Sniffspot is like Airbnb, but for off leash dog spaces. Anyone can earn money from sharing their yard as an off leash dog space. Anyone can find the perfect nearby off leash space for their pup to play in. You can learn more about how it works at www.sniffspot.com. You can learn more about hosting here. Follow us on Instagram and Facebook! |
RSS Feed
|
|
Make money and meet dogs with your yard. Learn more about hosting with Sniffspot.
|
About Sniffspot |
support@sniffspot.com
|
© Sniffspot, Inc.
|