Elementary scent work

[kateincornwall]

It had been suggested that I start scent work with Reuben, his nose is phenomenal , like most Labs . So , I set up the plant pots , one tiny little piece if kibble under one them, he was indoors . I then brought him and out and said Find it , pointing at the row , two flippin seconds ! Repeated it with a minute piece of ham , result ! He loved it , so now we will try hiding things in the stones of the pond wall and see what he thinks to that xx

 

[kateincornwall]

Next the hard part , to try and encourage him not to eat the find , but to indicate that he has found it , hummm

 

[Selina27]

Can't wait to hear how he progresses x

 

[Shaz82]

I tried something I found online about scenting but adapted it a bit (in other words not doing it quite properly), putting things under pots, as you say, is a bit too easy for labs.

Put a rolled sock in a tub with some cloves so it absorbs the smell over a few days.
That is the scented item which you can now hide and get them to find, make it harder over time by putting it in a plastic bag.
I get Maisy to indicate by dropping the sock and sitting before she gets a treat, she still picks it up though to start with, not a good idea if it was a bag of coke etc. so - although not planning to hide bags of coke about - I'm not sure how to stop her picking it up. When we play find, fetch and retrieve she is of course picking it up and bringing it to me so it's a bit tricky to change that mindset but we are getting there.

When Maisy is on a scent she sounds like a pair of bellows, snuffling and huffing

 

[Atemas]

When Maisy is on a scent she sounds like a pair of bellows, snuffling and huffing

Red is starting to do this - the desire to follow a scent and sniff is huge

 

[Boogie]

Can't wait to hear how he progresses x

Get a tin.

Wrap oregano in two or three pieces of paper towel. Put small soft toys in the tin overnight. (It has to be metal, not plastic as plastic leaks scent). Then use the toys for hiding. Reward finding them with food.

Tatze and I used to go to scent work classes pre-Covid. We happened to start again when there’s a vaccine.

You can start hiding the toys in more and more challenging places (higher up, in bags etc etc) once they get the idea.

This is our tin and toys -



Have fun!

 

[Cath]

I have made squares and put cat nip in them, bags. I hide them in the house in winter or if it is raining or out in the garden in the summer. I use to send both dogs out together, but had to stop that. Fred would find it and Annie would just take it off him and then bring it to me. So now they go out one at a time, but they both enjoy doing it. I keep them in an old ice cream box when we are not playing this game, thats the cat nip bags not the dogs

 

[Shaz82]

Get a tin.

Wrap oregano in two or three pieces of paper towel.

I can't not read this without seeing oregano origami

 

[MrChew]

A plastic drain cover with a cap is great as it has lots of holes for the scent but they can't actually get to the scent- handy is using treats. I picked them up for a few dollars at the hardware shop.

 

[snowbunny]

If you want an active indication (the dog sits or lies down etc) when he finds the scent, you have to train that bit first then back-chain it into the search behaviour