Scentwork provides horses with an opportunity to use one of their most highly developed senses while making active choices during training. It can be used to create engaging training sessions that encourage curiosity, focus and independent problem-solving.
This unique 12-week online training programme, taught by equine trainer and behaviourist Trudi Dempsey and certified equine trainer Christa Culbert, will teach you how to introduce and develop equine scentwork using positive reinforcement-based training.
You will learn to:
• Understand how horses use their sense of smell and how scent detection works
• Recognise equine body language and signs of pain, fear, stress and anxiety during training
• Build systematic food searches and introduce a target odour using positive reinforcement
• Train a clear and reliable indication behaviour
• Progress from simple scent discrimination to multi-container searches
• Plan, record and adapt training using observation and training data
• Adapt scentwork exercises to suit the individual horse, their experience, emotional state and training needs
• Teach owners and handlers how to train equine scentwork, and plan and deliver effective, welfare-centred scentwork classes.
For equine professionals, this programme provides a structured specialist skill that can be incorporated into existing training, enrichment and behaviour work, or developed into scentwork sessions and classes for clients.
The course is also suitable for horse owners and anyone with an interest in equine training who would like to explore scentwork with their own horse, develop their training skills, or add a new approach to their training toolbox.
This course runs for 12 weeks and is accredited by UK Rural Skills.
To achieve accreditation your theory and training assignments will be assessed with a minimum pass mark of 75%.
All course material will be available for 45 days after the course has finished.
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