How do you train to search for a specific scent?

[Romy]

As in, dogs that are bomb dogs, or drug dogs, or truffle hounds? I talked to my uncle a little about it, he said that when they are searching for an object that is not walking around leaving a scent trail, the handler is responsible for directing the dog in a pre determined search pattern to places where it is likely to encounter those scents.

So, how do you train them to go for those specific scents?

I would love to use Charlie for some recreational searching, he has strong drive to track. He honestly uses his nose more than eyes. When we play fetch, he doesn't watch where the ball goes. He air scents it as it's flying through the air, runs to the general area which he searches with nose and finds it. It doesn't matter if he is looking right at the ball, his nose will follow the path it rolled leading to it before he will grab it and retrieve.

Any good articles? Tips? I'm a complete newbie at this stuff.

 

[corgipower]

Start off by scenting the toy to smell like whatever you're teaching them to find (pick one scent for the beginning).

Play with them with the scented toy. Then do various exercises that teach the dog how to indicate - a scratch, a sit, a down, etc.

Then start with simple searches - a row of 6 boxes, for example. Hide the scented toy in one of them and have him find it. The first few searches, let the dog see you hide the toy so he knows he needs to find it.

Build up to more difficult searches and a variety of conditions. Practice high finds, low finds, directed and sweep searches. Learn to read the dog and be able to tell when he's on scent. Keep him moving ~ staying at one spot too long could cause him to indicate even if nothing's there.

Add more odors - once they get the idea, it gets pretty easy to teach new odors. Proof him against odors he might indicate that he shouldn't (unscented tennis balls, food, for example).

And the favorite reminder to anyone working a detection dog:
Trust Your Dog

 

[Promethean]

I began by teaching indications. First with obvious objects on a plain grass and pavement. At this point the dog is just indicating based on visual information. Once that was solid, I added a second item with the scent. After that I let the dog work it out the difference as to which was getting the correct signal indicating a forthcoming reward. Increasing the number of items, initially all the same but the one of interest, then moving to various scents. Finally, I make a solution and use a dropper to spot the pavement/grass and finally I make ever greater demands by diluting the solution.

 

[Athebeau]

I don't know about your area, but we have a local tracking group. My Sister did tracking with one of her old Newf's, just for the fun of it. Talk to different trainers and see if anyone in your area does tracking and join their group, from what I hear it's lots of fun.

 

[Vintage Boxers]

Scent Imprinting

Basically present the smell, and reward for the dog smelling it...

With harry and the cadaver scent, we introduced him to it and gave it a "name".
So it is now "MELON"...he smelled it...GOOD MELON and reward....anytime he went to the scent...GOOD MELON...

When we go out and work we say HARRY..."Where's your MELON"....and off he goes...when he shows interest and FINDS the melon, it is a HUGE HUGE HUGE reward for him! He sees it as a fun game...it is work, but it is a game.

Once your dog is imprinted on the smell you want him to find then you ask for an appropriate response. Harry was just started to FIND it...now he is learning a SIT indication..he can bark and SHOW me, but then he has to sit so that i can "confirm" his find. He is getting it!

I would recommend hooking up with an experienced tracking or search "person" or "team". It has been AMAZING to see harry take to this and i can't thank our SAR person for all she is doing and has done!

S

 

[smkie]

WE used anise oil to scent the training bumpers at the kennel.

 

[Romy]

Thank you so much everybody! All of this is extremely helpful! Charlie will be thrilled with his new game.

I do work with SAR people a lot, so they can give me tips. They always start out by explaining "wind problems" and super complicated stuff and it makes my brain hurt, and they only have experience teaching searching for humans which is very straightforward, in teaching to scent. Hide a human, and they find them lol.

It's interesting that they do specific training for cadaver search. I asked my friend about it once and she said it is a myth that you have to train them to find cadavers once they know how to find humans, because the dogs generalize that to all humans dead and alive. I suppose if your dog wasn't a SAR dog, and you wanted it to find dead people then specific cadaver training would be useful. Willow's first on duty find ever was on an evidence search. She found a 10 year old jaw fragment from a missing girl. It boggles my mind that human bones still have enough human smell to the dogs after 10 years in the ground that they will indicate.

There is a local club that does strictly tracking, but I don't know that I want to get involved with that group. The members do weird stuff, like smoke around the dogs and it does affect their performance compared to the SAR dogs when they are both out on evidence searches.

Maybe my uncle can help me fine tune, lol. Then again he doesn't like to work outside of work.

Thank you again for all the help!

 

[Vintage Boxers]

Well i will disagree that cadaver dogs have to be taught to find live...and such...

I in fact do NOT want harry to find live people..he loves people so much he would get "TOO happy".

And most of the people i have been meeting here have dogs that cadaver search ONLY, as they don't want to crosstrain and confuse the dog.

Harry doesn't alert on dead animals and doesn't "find" live people, but show him "the melon" OMG....he will go NUTS


Interesting...GOOD LUCK!!!

S

 

[Romy]

Well i will disagree that cadaver dogs have to be taught to find live...and such...

I in fact do NOT want harry to find live people..he loves people so much he would get "TOO happy".

And most of the people i have been meeting here have dogs that cadaver search ONLY, as they don't want to crosstrain and confuse the dog.

Harry doesn't alert on dead animals and doesn't "find" live people, but show him "the melon" OMG....he will go NUTS


Interesting...GOOD LUCK!!!

S

Oh, I didn't mean that you have to train live to train cadaver. Just that once a dog is trained for live humans, they generalize to dead people as well. If you want a dog to strictly be a cadaver dog, then yes that definitely makes sense to use...remains...for training.

There are some search groups that train them separately, under the belief that a dog taught to find live will not indicate remains, but that has not been the experience in the local group, and in fact they do not train them separately. My aunt's GSD was only trained for live, and she is also very successful at underwater cadaver search.

 

[germanshepardguy]

pretty cool