Scent Hurdles is a relay sport where dogs race over a set of four hurdles to a short stand where dumbells lay on a different numbered section. The dogs must sniff out and pick up the dumbell with their handler's scent on it, then race back so the next dog can run. As each dumbell is removed by a dog, a "dummy" is placed in its slot so that every dog has four dumbells to choose from when they get to the stand.

Scent Hurdles is played by a team of four dogs, with alternates. The course is made up of four hurdles, placed 10 feet apart with the last hurdle 12 feet away from the stand on which the dumbells are placed. The height of the hurdles is determined by the shoulder height of the shortest dog on the team. Some competitions have separate height class regulations where all dogs competing on a team must be within the same height range.

Each dog wears a racing jacket that has a number corresponding to the number on the dumbell they are supposed to retrieve and section of the stand on which it is placed so they can be judged on picking up the correct dumbell. The "dummy" replacements are all marked with an "X." Picking up an incorrect dumbell or dropping it before returning to the end of the course is an error and can be an automatic loss of the heat in some competitions. The faster a team of dogs can correctly pick up their dumbells, the better chance they have at winning their heat.

Scent Hurdles is a fun sport from which the more widely known sport of Flyball was developed. Any breed can be seen competing on a scent hurdle team. In some areas, there is even a special Senior class of racing for older dogs to compete! In Senior class racing, the height of the hurdle is placed very low to the ground to minimize the stress of jumping.


Written by Night Howl (#85243)