Desert Sniffing

The Sonoran Desert Scent Work Club (SDSWC) members welcome you to the Old Pueblo! Since 2020, we've been an American Kennel Club (AKC)-sanctioned organization, the first and only one in the Tucson area. We've held several trials, testing as many as 300 or more dogs and handler teams a day, all working toward their coveted titles. We've also offered educational workshops and seminars featuring some of the sport's preeminent experts. ​

Scent work is one of the newest AKC performance sports. It's based on law enforcement K-9 detection dog work, but instead of searching for bombs or drugs, our dogs search for odors we train them to find and alert us to. It is a fun sport for dog and handler, and it builds that partnership with our dogs.​

Any dog can participate - from Papillons to Pyrenees and all shapes and sizes in between. Any dog's sense of smell is vastly more sensitive than ours and their ability to process the world through their noses is nothing short of amazing. They like to sniff and, in this sport, get treats for doing it. What could be better? ​

Any human can participate - from young to old, small to tall, new dog owner to someone who's had and loved dogs for many decades. In many ways, in this sport the dog leads the way, which can be an entirely different way of interacting with your loyal and treasured companion.​You can go to the source to learn more about the sport by going to the source, the AKC Scent Work webpages.