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Scent work

7 replies

Nogardenersworld · 31/01/2021 15:36

My dog looooves sniffing out treats
So I hide them in blankets and boxes, throw them in long grass, use treats that don’t smell very strong (to me) and just try to make it more difficult
But she’s still v fast

Just wondering if anyone else does any scent work activities I could steal?

Or if anyone’s taught their dog to search for non food related things?
She’s a sight hound so not really bred for this, but she likes it so I’d love to work with her on it

OP posts:
PollyRoulson · 31/01/2021 16:11

Scentwork is fab. All dogs are into scent work I do it professionally and for fun all my dogs love it.

A great way to get started on scenting for objects rather than just food is using a kong.

I could go into the science but trust me!

Get two of the red kongs - it has to be the red kongs . All red kongs use the same ink and all red kongs smell the same.

For a week feed your dog their meal or a treat from one of the red kongs.

Cut the other Kong up into little pieces. You do not have to cut up the whole kong just one end. So pieces very small.

After a week try hiding 5 bits of the cut up kong in to short wooden fence or brick wall only about 1m length. Tuck the pieces of kong out of sight.

With your dog tap the fence and let them sniff - watch their body language as they come onto the kong pieces, reward and mark when they are on the kong pieces.

If you want to work on an impressive indication eg when the dogs stand really still with their nose on the scent you will teach this separately from the searching.

To do this get a pound coin and put it on the floor in front of your dog. They will put their head down to look at it . Immediately drop treats from above onto the coin (or near the coin) The idea is to have your dogs nose just above the coin. Your dog will learn that if I look at the coin I will get treats. Gradually your dog will keep their head still in this position just to get the treats. SO easy to train just reward if they are nose down to coin.

Then you can pair the scent to the indication yell if you want info on this I can go on a bit with scent work Smile

Alternatively another way to introduce scent to a dog is to have it in a glass jar - you can use cloves or gun oil for this. When the dog is having their food pop the jar down next to them. Do nothing say nothing dont encourage them to look at it, they will be aware of the scent. Do this for a week of two and then you can hide the scent again in a small area to start with and watch their body language reward when they scent it.

Scent work is soooo easy to train, soooo rewarding for the dogs you are building on their natural behaviours and all dogs can do it.

Other tricks you can do is to get your dog to search for items eg your car keys. Do the same again put the keys next to them when they eat for a week or so and off you go with a dog that will always find your keys for you.

PollyRoulson · 31/01/2021 16:13

Ohh with the red kong keep the pieces in a clean glass lidded container. Glass is a good container as it has little contanmination scent, plastic etc has loads and will alter the scent of the kong.

LittleBoPeep95 · 31/01/2021 16:17

I use my dogs ball! I hide it somewhere in the house or garden and he sniffs it out. Sometimes it takes a good 15 minutes for him to find it but he always does, he never gives up 🤣 he absolutely loves it, it's his favourite game. At first, hide it in easy places where you know ddog will find it, and give lots of praise when they do. Then you can gradually hide it in trickier places. My dog sleeps for ages afterwards.

Have fun!

BrownOwlknowsbest · 31/01/2021 16:22

I taught my rescue crossbreed (lab cross pointer cross dad was good at scaling walls) to search for and bring me an old leather purse. She was good at playing fetch, so I started by throwing the purse and saying 'find it' rather than fetch and rewarding her with praise (she wasn't at all food orientated) when she did. From there we moved on to her sitting while I hid the purse and she watched. Under the table or the edge of the rug to start with and then as she got better at looking, out of sight. Next step was to leave her sitting in one room and going next door to hide the purse. Eventually I could hide it anywhere in the bungalow and come back and tell her to find it. She enjoyed the game so much that she would go and fetch the purse and bring it to me when she wanted to play.

tabulahrasa · 31/01/2021 16:54

Toys are good to do it with, and things that are smelly like teabags - starting off like you probably did with treats, easy and in plain sight and move on....I start off by showing then it so they can smell it.

Once they’re hunting out stuff like that you can just move on to pretty much anything because they’ve got that they’re looking for get it us you’ve shown them.

Sitdowncupoftea · 31/01/2021 17:57

If your out on walks you could get your dog to find a member of your family. My dogs love tracking someone.

Nogardenersworld · 02/02/2021 19:00

Thanks everyone
Some great things to try
Have been working on pointing and started with the kong but I’m not sure she quite gets why I want her to hunt for something that she can’t even eat, when she knows I have treats right here Grin

We’ll figure it out though haha

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