Lollipup Posted April 5, 2011 Share Posted April 5, 2011 Working on scent detection for my course. But before I get into it, wouldn't mind having something useful for Lola to sniff out for me. Money came to mind first of course but this is one of the hardest ones to teach! Any ideas? What have your taught your dogs to find? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staranais Posted April 5, 2011 Share Posted April 5, 2011 Be a bit careful with what you pick. I had the bright idea of teaching my dog to sniff out & bring my keys on request. However, I've found that doing lots of finding/retrieving with one item can increase the value of that item to the dog - mine now loves the keys , likes to carry them around whenever she can get away with it & occasionally will leave them peculiar places, like out in the garden. Not useful when I need to leave the house in a hurry. Also, nothing that breaks! My dog will bring me my cellphone, but rarely in one piece. :p How about teaching her to find a specific dog toy or tennis ball by scent? That could be a cute trick. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leema Posted April 5, 2011 Share Posted April 5, 2011 Um, my dog is a pro at finding tennis balls? :p I never had to teach this - she just does it. Compulsively. My first thought would've been keys or wallet, but I don't like the idea of my dog taking those out into the garden for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nekhbet Posted April 5, 2011 Share Posted April 5, 2011 money has too many inconsistencies in the scent. A herb that is not too commonly used in the house can be the best. Bay leaves, oregano, rosemary etc in a little camera film tube with a hole punched in the top can work well. If you're using it in the toy it easily slips into a sock. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lollipup Posted April 5, 2011 Author Share Posted April 5, 2011 I was thinking panadol to sniff out. Would the scent be strong enough? She cant get to where I store it so it would be sending her to find it in a container. I don't know why I thought of that. Maybe because then I can say she is a drug sniffer dog :p Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dxenion Posted April 5, 2011 Share Posted April 5, 2011 How about your shoes. I presume your shoes are only worn by you and would therefore only have your scent on them, therefore making it easier to target. Shoes are forgiving, not damaged as easily as a mobile and it's a useful trick. At the start, the dog may bring every shoe it can find but then it's just a matter of shaping to only bring the ones with your scent. It's important not to forget the shaping. We trained our pup to put the shoes in the wardrobe (still trying to get the OH to do that!) and at the start, he was taking every shoe he could find to the wardrobe. After a few embarrasing occassions where I had to retrieve our guest's shoes from the wardrobe, we shaped him to only bring ours. Another useful object to find and retrieve would be the leash. Money is an easy scent target as it has a specific odour. The only thing to watch out for is that as per Staranais situation, the money can become a high value item and you may find yourself at a party having to explain why there are a pile of wallets by your feet! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lollipup Posted April 5, 2011 Author Share Posted April 5, 2011 How about your shoes. I presume your shoes are only worn by you and would therefore only have your scent on them, therefore making it easier to target. Shoes are forgiving, not damaged as easily as a mobile and it's a useful trick.At the start, the dog may bring every shoe it can find but then it's just a matter of shaping to only bring the ones with your scent. It's important not to forget the shaping. We trained our pup to put the shoes in the wardrobe (still trying to get the OH to do that!) and at the start, he was taking every shoe he could find to the wardrobe. After a few embarrasing occassions where I had to retrieve our guest's shoes from the wardrobe, we shaped him to only bring ours. Another useful object to find and retrieve would be the leash. Money is an easy scent target as it has a specific odour. The only thing to watch out for is that as per Staranais situation, the money can become a high value item and you may find yourself at a party having to explain why there are a pile of wallets by your feet! That would be fun, but as Nekhbet said and our trainer, money is the hardest to train as it has thousands of scents on it. This trainer is training dogs to sniff out money over $10k at the airport. Only $10k and over. Thats amazing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nekhbet Posted April 5, 2011 Share Posted April 5, 2011 shoes too have too many scents involved - so will your dog scent on the owners scent (which means the whole house is up for grabs) leather, fabric, suede, in insole fabric, the laces, the rubber? Paracetamol can be something but be careful, dogs heavily rewarded can tear apart cabinets/bags etc and even chew the items. Like I said herbs can be the most common things people use unless you can get your hands on some *ahem* different sumbstance O_o Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
megan_ Posted April 5, 2011 Share Posted April 5, 2011 I was thinking panadol to sniff out. Would the scent be strong enough? She cant get to where I store it so it would be sending her to find it in a container. I don't know why I thought of that. Maybe because then I can say she is a drug sniffer dog :p I'm pretty sure panadol is deadly to dogs, so I wouldn't encourage this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dxenion Posted April 5, 2011 Share Posted April 5, 2011 Agreed - shoes have alot of different scents on them however you can train to first target shoes and then secondly to shape for only those that have your scent in them. Dogs can be trained to detect and retrieve any number of different objects in the home, all of which are likely to have your scent on them - the dog is able to differentiate between them for the target item. It's a standard skill for assistance dogs. Agreed - money does carry alot of different scent but there is an underlining odour that is consistant and is detectable by humans. We have trained one of our dogs to detect money (notes only) so that he can indicate on or retrieve whatever has money in it - the most that has ever been in one spot is $225. The reason dogs are trained to only detect over $10K at airports is because everyone has money but the authorities are only after those carrying large sums of cash as it could be suspicious (ie drug deals etc). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lollipup Posted April 5, 2011 Author Share Posted April 5, 2011 (edited) Ok, so that rules out panadol. I guess I could just use a herb but I would prefer something more useful is all. ETA: Also I don't think for the assignment that I am allowed to use human scent but I could always train it later on for my own purposed. One trainer suggested cigars or tobacco because the scent is really strong. Edited April 5, 2011 by Lollipup Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kavik Posted April 5, 2011 Share Posted April 5, 2011 I agree a herb is a good choice - easy to get ahold of and you know it is only one target odour not a possible composite of odours (which is the problem with shoes). I used mint. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nekhbet Posted April 5, 2011 Share Posted April 5, 2011 you can always train onto other odours later, you just need something for the moment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jigsaw Posted April 5, 2011 Share Posted April 5, 2011 Tea bags are good and come in different flavors! My dog loves to search my shopping bags for the docket. She'll even ignore the meat in the bags to find the docket now! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ozjen Posted April 5, 2011 Share Posted April 5, 2011 When I start teaching scent work to my dogs I start with their toys and items that interest them. I then procede to use a variety of items of mine like carkeys, clothing etc. To get more variety I also use different flavoured teabags and put some herbs in small sealed envelopes, all so I have one to give the scent and one to hide. Also if you are doing tracking and are short on tracklayers when training you could use lightly scented water from a spray bottle or water pistol to leave a trail. This could again be your flavoured teas or herbs infused in the water. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tigger000 Posted April 6, 2011 Share Posted April 6, 2011 (edited) You can train them to sniff out whatever you choose! I am just about to finish a course also and i am doing scent detection. I have taught my dalmation to detect tea. But you can choose whatever you want! I was under the same impression you are...that you should choose a strong scent....but thats the way us humans think. dogs have such great scent (depending on the breed), that you dont have to choose something that smells really strong. As long as it smells different to the non-targets you are using, you will be fine :p And as nekhbet said, you want to choose a target scent that is unlikely to have lots of other scents on it. for example, clothing would have all different kinds of scents (the fabric, body odour, deodorant, perfume etc), same as shoes, socks and as others have mentioned - money. A lot of people in my course are using herbs, coffee or tea as their scents. I have tea-towels in my non-target boxes and a few tea-bags in the target box. Edited April 6, 2011 by tigger000 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fuzzy82 Posted April 6, 2011 Share Posted April 6, 2011 Maybe a bit off topic, but how do go from training with a treat to detecting a particular scent? I have just started nosework with my dogs with their favourite treat, but I want to eventually get them to detect a different scent, say aniseed. And why is it recommended that start with treats or toys, rather than starting with the scent you want them to detect right from the start? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tigger000 Posted April 6, 2011 Share Posted April 6, 2011 Maybe a bit off topic, but how do go from training with a treat to detecting a particular scent? I have just started nosework with my dogs with their favourite treat, but I want to eventually get them to detect a different scent, say aniseed.And why is it recommended that start with treats or toys, rather than starting with the scent you want them to detect right from the start? I guess it depends on what works for you. I didnt start with treats/toys....i started with the scent i wanted my dog to detect. I had the tea in the box without the lid on. Each time he sniffed the tea, i bridged and rewarded him. Once he was doing this pretty good i introduced the cue. I then started hiding the tea in my room, in the house and finally outside, gradually making it harder for him to find it. Once he was pretty awesome at finding the tea, i then worked on the indication i wanted him to give (scratching the box). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yesmaam Posted April 7, 2011 Share Posted April 7, 2011 **That would be fun, but as Nekhbet said and our trainer, money is the hardest to train as it has thousands of scents on it. This trainer is training dogs to sniff out money over $10k at the airport. Only $10k and over. Thats amazing.*** It's a little more complicated than that. Having a thousand different scents on money is not the issue. Trying to teach the dog to not hit on amounts less than 10K in a target rich environment like the airport is even harder. Example: Dog sits on 3K in a wallet.......... Shot gun, what do you do next???? Praise off???? You can't really correct the dog as smaller amounts of cash are still target odour.......... Then the dogs is receiving feedback and reward for finding smaller amounts and so the seeds are sown for the dog to ping smaller amounts....... This would be the more common occurrence in a place such as the airport. Example: dog sits on passenger. Intel was red hot for large amounts exceeding 10k. Handler blind subs. Referral examination only reveals 1k in wallet. And again the seeds are sown for the dog to sit on smaller than 10k amounts. It's more a case of those handlers being a presence than a capability in regards to 'cash detection dogs' in my opinion. The other drama is that those dogs are also trained on drugs so what would happen if the dog finds 1g of C on a passenger in a wallet with 2k cash??? Do you thrown in for finding the C??? you bet you do.... And again you have also just rewarded the dog for finding a lesser amount of cash....... Hope this has got you all thinking a little outside the square :-) Happy training. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yesmaam Posted April 7, 2011 Share Posted April 7, 2011 Maybe a bit off topic, but how do go from training with a treat to detecting a particular scent? I have just started nosework with my dogs with their favourite treat, but I want to eventually get them to detect a different scent, say aniseed.And why is it recommended that start with treats or toys, rather than starting with the scent you want them to detect right from the start? Why not combine the two when imprinting the scent?? Ie: scented toy next to target odour - example: scent up some toys (rolled up towels) with tea bags for example in a sealed tub for 3mths. Use these scented toys along with live tea bags for your imprinting...... It speeds up the scent association process 10 fold because as you are playing with the dog he is taking in scent from the scented toy...... Toys (or as we say, dummies) are only present in the intial phases of our training ie: odour recognition. Once the dog is responding consistantly to few different presentaions the toy can be removed leaving only target odour. It's a bit of a visual thing to begin with but it soon phases out. Expect a stand off or two the first time the toys are removed and remember you may need to help the dog learn by touching his butt so he sits.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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