{"podcast":{"title":"Alert! Scent Work","slug":"alert-scent-work-7421909","podcast_index_feed_id":7421909,"rss_url":"https://feeds.captivate.fm/alert-scent-work/","website_url":"https://www.alertscentwork.com","image_url":"https://artwork.captivate.fm/62de190b-1822-41ed-a3d2-c1c9e35f9f02/IIIgDeQvT2zt8bjwAH51D97V.jpg","author":"Alert! Scent Work","episode_count":26,"summary":"Alert! Scent Work is a podcast for everyone who's fallen down the scent work rabbit hole — and loves it there. Scot sits down with judges, competitors, and community builders from AKC, NACSW, ASCA, UKC, and beyond for the conversations you've always wanted to have but never had time for on trial day. We talk nose work and scent work training philosophy, competition mindset, and the perspectives that shape how we think about this dog sport. We celebrate the wins, laugh at the disasters, and dig into origin stories — because how did any of us end up here, completely obsessed with watching our dogs use their noses? Whether you're trialing every weekend or just discovering K9 nose work and scent work for the first time, this show is about the whole scent work life — the sport, the dogs, and the community that makes it all worth it.","last_synced_at":"2026-07-07T00:22:25.148447+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/alert-scent-work-7421909"},"episode":{"title":"Ana Cilursu | Seeing Searches the Way Your Dog Does","slug":"ana-cilursu-seeing-searches-the-way-your-dog-does","published_at":"2026-03-09T12:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/alert-scent-work-7421909/ana-cilursu-seeing-searches-the-way-your-dog-does","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/alert-scent-work-7421909","url":"https://www.alertscentwork.com","audio_url":"https://episodes.captivate.fm/episode/fea12464-fa47-4a82-945b-26491cb70682.mp3","summary":"Many competitors have seen Ana's AKC trial debrief videos — breaking down hide placement, odor movement, and what teams were experiencing in the search area. In this episode, the judge, trainer, and competitor talks about the lessons she has learned from years of watching teams search. Before scent work, Ana had a career in medicine and medical education. She views judging as education — through the hides she sets, the briefings she gives, and the debriefs she shares publicly after every trial. In my observation, that medical background shows up in how she approaches the sport — doctors are always learning, digesting new material, and teaching it to others at the same time. You can see that in how deeply Ana understands odor theory and how dogs work. And if you've ever wondered what the dogs would say about us in the parking lot after a trial — Ana has some thoughts on that too. What we talk about: Ana's origin story — this is a familiar story about how scent work wasn't even the thing until it was the thing The recurring themes she sees across her debriefs — what handlers consistently struggle with and what the best teams do differently Close proximity hides and convergence — why handlers miss them and what to do about it Why handlers over-handle under pressure — and what the dog thinks about it The twenty-plus picnic table search — what Ana was testing and why competitors over-focused on the objects instead of the odor How dogs perceive a search area versus how handlers perceive it — and why that difference matters Ana's distractor philosophy — why she uses food distractors, what she tests with them, and why gummy bears tripped up more dogs than bacon Why the boundaries define where hides are placed but not where odor goes — and how to help your dog collect informati…","meta_description":"Many competitors have seen Ana's AKC trial debrief videos — breaking down hide placement, odor movement, and what teams were experiencing in the search ar…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":3106,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/alert-scent-work-7421909/episodes/ana-cilursu-seeing-searches-the-way-your-dog-does/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/alert-scent-work-7421909/ana-cilursu-seeing-searches-the-way-your-dog-does.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}