How to train a scent hound?

Start Small Before you get involved in scent training, your dog should know basic commands, including come, sit, and stay. You should also familiarize your dog with the scent of the game you’ll be hunting. You can use scent oil on dummies or dead birds to introduce your dog to the game you’ll be hunting later. Know How Your Dog Follows a Scent, your dog could latch onto a scent and follow it to the source in a number of different ways, and it’s important to know what it looks like when your dog is on the trail so you know when to encourage him and when to keep quiet. Regardless of where your dog holds his nose to follow the trail, he should have a cool, damp nose to be able to pick up the scent and follow it. Encourage, but Don’t Distract, Your Dog After you release your dog to find the trail with the cue word, you should encourage him to find the trail. Create a Strong Scent to Set Your Dog Up for Success When you begin to train your dog, you should make the trail as pungent as possible to teach your dog to rely on his nose and build up his confidence. Avoid things that could impair your dog’s ability to hold the scent before heading out to the field. Practice Makes Perfect Training your dog to follow a scent takes time and patience. You can begin teaching your young dog with training sessions in the field, but it can take years of real hunting experience before your dog becomes a masterful scent-tracking companion. Stage Smart Trails A large part of training and keeping your hunting dog in shape involves setting up training trails for your dog to follow. To help your dog focus on the ground trail, make trails that travel in the same direction as the wind. Celebrate Success One of the most important elements of a training session is making sure your dog enjoys his work. Make sure you praise your dog enthusiastically when he returns to you with the bird or follows the trail to completion.

To train a scent hound, you can follow these steps in your home. The first step in teaching your dog Scent Work from home is finding the necessary supplies. Almost everything you’ll need can be bought on Amazon or found around your house. In a room far away from where you’re working with your dog, wear disposable gloves as you apply two drops of essential oil to each cotton swab. Introduce Your Dog to Identifying the Scent by holding the tin in one hand and treat in the other, about a foot apart from each other. When your dog finally stops smelling or licking your hand with the treat and investigates the hand with the tin, say “Yes” and reward him by bringing the food to the hand with the tin. You must feed the dog at the source of the odor. Teach Your Dog to Find the Scent by putting the tin holding the scented cotton swab into the plastic container and repeat the same system, holding the box in your hand and waiting for the dog to indicate that he recognizes the scent. Once this is easily accomplished, place the box on the ground, between your feet, and repeat the above process. Finally, you can place the box on the floor while your dog is in another room, and then bring him into the room and see if he can find it.

You have done your basic ground work with the young dog teaching him his name, to come when called to load in your vehicle, and things of that nature. Spend time with your dogs in non-hunting situations where you interact with them and become the true pack leader that you should be. Now then your dog is handling well, and seems to have an active interest in putting its nose on the ground and investigating new smells. Starting very young with a hot dog drug along the ground on a very short run he will be thrilled with his first successful trail adventure and enjoy his snack. After this it moves on to harder tasks, and even the simple game of hide and seek where you hide from him and he has to trail you up can be a very good exercise. Don’t make it too hard in the beginning, remember that just like young people, puppies attention spans are very limited. I don’t get too serious about scent training until the pup has reached 6 months of age or in some cases with a larger slower maturing strain I may wait several more months. As you observe the growth of the puppy you can also observe their behavioral changes and when they are physically and mentally ready for more challenges, then move ahead.

Start small, Select something safe and appropriate for your dog to seek, such as a high-value food treat, a toy, with or without a food treat inside. Start the game in a room without any distractions from other toys, pets or people. First, throw your chosen treat or toy a small distance along the floor, so it’s really easy to spot, and tell your dog to ‘seek’. When your dog finds the toy or treat, give them plenty of praise. The key to scent training for dogs is starting small, and setting them up for success. This means hiding the toy or treat in easy-to-find places, such as under a plastic flower pot on the floor, or just behind a chair. Allow your dog to watch as you hide the treat, then ask them to seek. Once your dog has got the hang of seeking for a treat or toy, you can start to add in other items or challenges. If your dog loves toys, they probably know the difference between their ball and their frisbee, a fun scent game for them would be to hide both toys and ask them to ‘seek frisbee’ or ‘seek ball’. Spend as long as you need at each step before moving on to the next.

Show your dog that you have a piece of food/treat in your hand Say ‘find it!’ and then throw the piece of food/treat across the floor When your dog finds the piece of food, say a clear ‘yes!’ so they know they’ve followed through on the action that you wanted from them. If you’d like to challenge your dog further, you can make the ‘find it’ game more advanced by telling your dog to stay while you hide the treat/s behind pieces of furniture. You can also place your dog in a room, hide all of the treats in a different room and then open the door for your dog and say ‘find it’. To harness your dog’s drive to find their ball, you can: ask them to sit and stay or clip them on their lead while they are sat/on lead, throw the ball and wait for it to land release your dog from their sit/lead and ask them to ‘find it!’ reward and praise them heavily when they find the ball – they may not find this straight away, but give them praise when they get close to it, even if the first few times you have to point it out. With your dog either sitting or on lead, you can show your dog their favourite toy and hide it in front of them, so they know where you’re putting it. Once you’ve hidden it somewhere that’s easy for them to get to, you can release them from their sit/lead and ask them to ‘find it!’ After a few attempts at this, your dog will begin to understand the game.