Our story so far: After years of listening to vigorous discussion about ways people would like to see AKC Scent Work grow but not seeing any real action to effect change, Dave Schneider contacted me in February of 2025. He suggested we create a survey for participants to identify the elements that the community most wanted to change in order to bring the community together in advocacy. We developed an online survey using the JotForm platform, and, after considerable back-and-forth, including review by a few competitors, judges and trial officials, we opened it on March 5, 2025. We announced the survey on the Friends of AKC Scent Work Facebook group and in the WeSmellBetter Facebook group and asked people to share it among their clubs and training partners. The survey consisted of 17 “choose a single option” questions for anyone, three questions directed solely at judges, and one open-ended question, “If you get the attention of the AKC Scent Work Department about any ONE thing, what would it be?” There were 1082 responses before we closed the survey on March 11. We provided survey results, including the “raw” comments, to anyone who had provided their email and requested them during survey completion, and also published those raw results on this blog.
Dave and I took the next few weeks to try to compile the responses to the single open-ended question. At least half the respondents answered that question, most with very thoughtful and interesting comments. We categorized and summarized those as best we could.
We then composed a letter from the two of us, providing the information from the survey and asking that the AKC create a working group that would include not just AKC staff but also volunteers from the Scent Work community. The working group would look at the current state of the sport, the AKC’s business goals and the desires of the community to identify an evolutionary path for Scent Work.
On May 14, we emailed the letter to Caroline Murphy, the Director of Performance Events at the AKC, and copied Judith Powell (AKC Field Director for Scent Work), Gina DiNardo (AKC President & CEO) and Carol Fisher (Secretary of the AKC’s Herding, Earthdog, Coursing and Scent Work Committee). In addition to the letter, we included graphics showing the survey results, the categorized comments, and a chart describing how we thought the working group might operate. Caroline responded a few days later to say thank you for our thoughts, which are always welcome.
For The Record, here are the materials we sent to the AKC on May 14.
AKC Scent Work Exhibitor Survey (pie chart depiction of survey responses)
AKC Survey — Qualitative comment summary
Functionality of Proposed Working Group chart:
