How Nose Work Helped SweetPea Discover His Bravery

At Gentle Touch Pet Training, we’re honored to witness countless stories of transformation—but few have touched our hearts quite like SweetPea’s. When he first arrived, SweetPea was a four–year–old Shih Tzu who had endured far more than his small size suggested. Reactive, uncertain, and struggling with his health, he faced the world with fear instead of confidence. His family loved him deeply but felt overwhelmed and unsure how to help. What happened next was nothing short of remarkable.

"SweetPea Also known as “The Pea!”

Born April 8, 2011-Passed July 9, 2025 

Our little SweetPea, a Shih Tzu came to us as a 4 year old. He was adorable, REACTIVE,  lacking in manners and of ill health. Although loved, he had not been well taken care of by his  previous owners. For us the biggest problem and one we had no idea how to handle was his  REACTIVENESS. Thus started our journey to find answers to this problem. 

We tried so many things; pack walks, a trainer, muzzles, special leashes. Nothing was making a  difference so we made the decision to never walk him or leave him alone with anyone and  never have any other pets. 

Then came a miracle. We moved to Arroyo Grande and luckily our new vet had a pet  behaviorist on staff. During our appointment with her, she noticed SweetPea sniffing and  pawing at the rug. Turned out there was a tiny speck of a treat under the rug and he wanted it.  At that moment everything changed because the vet recommended we take SweetPea to  Gentle Touch for nose work saying it was a way he could get exercise with out being around  other dogs. Little did we know it would be so much more. 

Right away we enrolled SweetPea in the beginner nose work class at Gentle Touch and when  our teacher explained what we were going to do, we wondered how in the world could  SweetPea ever learn this. Turned out SweetPea already knew how to do Nose work, It was us  who needed to learn.Then after two six week courses we had a new beginning with SweetPea  because he loved nose work and so did we. 

SweetPea passed his ORT’s early on and soon was asked to be the White dog at a trial which  he performed very well. Then with a little more training he trialed and got his level 1. Then later  he trialed again and got his level 2.

We were so proud of him! Sometime after that his health issues made being at trials too difficult but that didn’t stop his  love of nose work. He eagerly looked forward to Thursday ongoing class with Teah and we  looked forward to seeing him work. He was quite the character and had this funny goose step  gait as he searched. Many times he alerted on hides left behind by the previous class. The look  he gave when not receiving his treat immediately said there is a hide here and I’m not leaving  till I get it. 

Over the years nose work gave SweetPea the confidence he never had and the more he did it the better a dog he became. We are so glad to have had the opportunity to take Sweet pea to  nose work. It gave us so much. Rest in Peace little SweetPea. 

Rhonda & Russ Townsley  "