Category: Performance Events ¤
  Author: Rosemary Burtch ¤
   Title: Teaching Scent Articles ¤

The scent articles were the easiest thing to teach in the world!!  

You start with the premise that the dog knows how to scent - he is surrounded
by it, so we are not teaching him to scent, only to pick out a particular
scent.  The steps are small and you go slowly so the dog is never wrong.  You
do not have the dog retrieve until you are sure he is scenting.  That's the
beauty of clicker training - isolating skills to teach them thouroughly and
then combining later.

Lay out all but one of your articles on the ground, widely spaced, maybe 10"
apart.  Holding an article in your hand with a treat on top of it (piece of
cheese or weenie) let your dog see you put it down.  Keep your hand under it.
 When he goes for the treat, click and let him eat it, then immediately put
another treat right under his nose and run out of the pile, drawing him away
with the second treat (no click).

Do this several times a session.  You should be able to stop keeping your
hand under the article and only pointing to it when necessary.  He should
start to turn away from the pile on his own after he eats the treat on the
article and hears the click.  Keep drawing him away from the pile with the
second treat.  What we are building here is a quick find and a quick return.
 There is NO RETRIEVE at this point and you start by standing right at the
pile.

After about 15 sessions, he should have the idea of finding the treat.  If he
is able to find the treat on his own (you aren't pointing or aiding him in
any way), go to the next step. Stand a few steps away and let him go to the
pile, (no cue word yet) Click when he finds the treat, and run backwards
giving another treat when he gets to you (no click).  Build up distance to
send him and get him back.  Don't be discouraged if it takes longer.  15 is
just an average. With Guy (gsd 2years old), it seemed that nothing was
happening until about the 14th session, then, over about 4 or 5 more, he
really got it.

 When he was really anxious and eager to search, and I could tell that he was
in fact "scenting", I got close to the pile again and when he found the
correct article, I told him to "bring", encouraging him to pick it up (BTW,
we had done retrieves with both leather and metal articles so their taste was
not new to him and he knew he could pick them up), clicking still when he
found the correct article.  I wasn't too concerned that he actually bring it
to me, only that he picked it up. It took several sessions for him to realize
that he should pick up the article but it became clear that he did understand
it because he started retrieving it without any cue from me.

Then, we went back to the beginning with the *other* kind of article.  That
went real fast.  Then, we backed up again and I started fading the treat,
making it smaller and finally just smearing weenie scent on it.  He was now
retrieving the articles.

Next step was to fade the clicker.  The first time I didn't click his correct
pickup, he slowed way down.  I should have gone back several steps before
doing this (I did it at full distance).  What I would do now would be to
withhold the click only a moment, for instance after the pickup just as he
started the return, and then wait longer and longer, until he only got the
click when he returned.  I did end up doing that, but the first steps were
way too big and I went too fast.

What I have ended up with is a dog who thoroughly understands that the object
is to find the scented article quickly and return with it quickly.  There was
never any pressure or correction.  And, he never picks up the wrong article
and I am only using my own (probably treat scented) scent.

Hope this helps.

Rosemary & the GSD's
Reina UD, OTCH Blitz UDX, Guy HCT
Albuquerque  NM
RoseBurtch@aol.com