Congratulations Paddington!

Paddington and Mrs Thomas have been working incredibly hard to earn Paddington’s Level One in scent detection! To pass the assessment, Paddington had to search various areas, large and small, indoors and out. Even navigating vehicles. He learned to handle tricky variables like wind, rain, indoor heating, and competing smells.

Under Miss Henderson's professional training, we started with a large red ‘Kong’ toy, progressively shrinking the target until he could find even the tiniest hidden pieces. While Paddington was already a pro at searching and retrieving (a ‘positive indication’), we trained him to use a ‘passive indication.’ This means once he finds the scent, he points his nose at it and stands perfectly still. Miss Henderson assessed Paddington and presented him with a certificate and rosette.

It’s no wonder he’s so good at it; dogs have up to 300 million scent receptors, making their sense of smell 10,000 to 100,000 times better than ours! Their cold, wet noses help detect heat and chemical changes, and they can even move their nostrils independently to pinpoint exactly which direction a scent is coming from. 

Well done Paddington!