Now I have to prepare for the next level. My dogs can relaibly pick up my scent from a line up of articles.

The next level requires that I give my dog a sample scent and make him go pick that up.

How do I train that using markers? Is there any thing like that in AKC obedience?

Please help.

here is the test

Scent discrimination. Judge's scent on piece of marked cloth, Neutral and decoy cloth to be provided by the show executive. The judge shall not place his cloth in the ring himself, but it shall be placed by a steward. A seperate similar piece to be used for each dog and the total number of seperate pieces of cloth from which the dog shall discriminate shall not exceed ten. If a dog fetches or found a wrong article this must be replaced by a fresh article. At Open air shows all scent cloths must be adequately weighted to prevent them being blown about. The method of scent shall be at the handlers’ discretion but shall not require the judge to place his hand on or lean towards the dog. A seperate similar piece of cloth approximately 6"x 6" but not more than 10x10 shall be available to be used for giving each dog the scent. Judges should use a scent decoy or decoys. 50 Points

If I am understanding correctly, the dog must correctly pick out the judge's article out of the pile after you giving him the scent? Or is the dog finding the article scented by you?

In AKC scent discrimination, you have a total of 10 articles - 5 leather and 5 metal. Of those 10, one leather and one metal are scented by the handler and the dog must retrieve the one scented by the handler and not the others scented by the steward/judge. This is done in two phases so there is only one handler scented article in the pile at a time (so 9 articles total).

There are two main ways that people tend to teach articles in AKC obedience - the tie down method and the "around the clock" method. In the tie down method, you take a board like this one: http://www.jjdog.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=jj&Category_Code=2CATUtilityArticleTrainingMatUTIATM and start with one article tied down and one article not tied down with the correct scent. This helps the dog learn which article scent is the correct one to pick up. You gradually build up to the full set of articles untied as the dog picks up the exercise. Because in AKC we have both leather and metal, you general start with one and then repeat with the second. I started with metal since leather has more "scents" to it. I also made my own board similar to the one above out of a piece of peg board.

The around the clock method was the brainchild of Janice Demello and she has a DVD about utilizing her method: http://jandemellobordercollie.com/Hob_Nob_border_collies/TRAINING_DVDs.html . A search of around the clock scent discrimination on the web will give you a description of the method. Lots of people swear by it but I have never done it so do not feel comfortable explaining it.

I did the tie down method and since Frost took to the exercises, it went pretty quickly. I actually skipped the whole tie down on the leather articles because she picked up the drill while doing metal.

If you need to have the dog discriminate the judge's scent, it is going to be a little more difficult. Just off the top of my head what I would do is work with someone and use the tie down method but would add the extra step of having the dog smell the judge's scent before going to the pile to pick out the right one. This means you will need someone with you while you train to give the "judge" scent - preferably you would vary the people as well so as not to get the dog used to one scent.

Good luck - it sounds like a lot of fun!

Actually the dog needs to find the judge's scent. There will be 10 fresh clean handkerchiefs and the judge will take two of them and wipe his hand and face with both of them at the same time, one of them will be returned to the lineup and the other will be given to me to use as a sample to give my dog. The dog will not be allowed to take sample scent from the judge's hand directly.

After scenting the kerchief given to me, the dog has to go to the lineup and pickup the kerchief that smells the same as the one I showed to him.

I too think the tie down would be the best in this scenario, BUT you would need "clean" retrieve items with neither your scent (could be quite confusing to the dog at first who has been trained to retrieve your scent) and clean of the "judges" scent (and the "judge" needs to be changed up as soon as the dog is getting the hang of retrieving that new scent).

From what I read, the retrieve items are/can be a piece of cloth... I would go buy a 20 pack of wash cloths (I'd say dumbbells but that could get expensive, however wooden dowels would be a GREAT tool as well...) and be VERY careful NOT to touch them. Have a partner (not the person to be the judge) be the wash cloth handler. Use tongs and a plastic bag when you must handle them at first until the dog gets it. I would scent three or four of the retrieve items with each "judge" scent so that you have clean, scented retrieve items for training and one extra for the dog to get the scent off of.

Read up on the tie down method and use that to help the dog get the point... I would NOT use your wife as a "judge" as she could then be your helper to handle the retrieve items and the "clean" items, but your children or your neighbor would be good options as judges...

Good luck! Sounds like a fun exercise that I might steal to train my own dogs.

I have trained so far with the clicker. I will first want to explore how to teach the dog the concept of "scent matching" with the clicker. i.e. choose the article with the scent similar to the sample shown to him. Once he gets that concept, then it will be fairly easy.

I will have to try the tie down method only if the clicker fails.

Ofcourse the clicker will not fail, the human pressing the clicker will :P


I think my question should have been how to teach "scent matching" with clicker.

Same thing, just mark for the correct choice.

Depending on the dog, you could back this all the way up to marking for attention. But I'd put money on your dogs not needing to go all the way back to the beginning...

Backed way up, with one single scented object on the ground, purposely let the dog smell the second scented object in your hand (you could even mark for that...) and send the dog to retrieve the object on the ground (again, depending on the dog, marking for the go out, the pick up, the bring back and eventually the give, but depending on the dogs training the retrieve may be so established that it is a finished behavior and not need all these steps...)

Once the dog is retrieving the scented object on the ground after sniffing the object in hand, you could add a second, clean object to the ground (and here is where the tie down could help as the wrong object cannot even be retrieved if the dog tried...) and mark for: giving attention to the correct object, picking up the correct object, retrieving the correct object (most dogs by this point will only need the mark (ETA: I should say a bridge, not mark here) for the correct pick up once or twice and then thereafter for a correct choice AND full retrieve.) When the dog is reliably retrieving the correct object with only two options at least 85% of the time, start using a third and fourth (slowly) always marking for the correct retrieve.

Eventually, the dog will have to use their own judgement on which to pick up. If you are always marking (ETA: Again, this would be a bridge) the correct one (and for training you should know which one it is) then YOU are TELLING the dog which to pick, and the dog is not thinking for himself. The dog must at some point have to choose. Using a tie down board does not have to be exclusive of marker training, it just sets the dog up to have to think, but if they make the wrong decision, they cannot retrieve the wrong one.

I would even mark the dog after sniffing the right one and then CHOOSING to go to the correct one if the dog is showing difficulty in grasping the concept. The tie down board is just there to clear up confusion.

I love this stuff!

ETA: I changed some of my wording to bridge because a mark is terminal and ends the exercise. Marking in the middle of an exercise, after the exercise is a finished one, would end the behavior midway through. Using a bridge to tell the dog that they are making the right choice, but the behavior is not done yet would be more appropriate... Most experienced marker trainers would know this without the clarification, but for those just getting into it I want to make the distinction...

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Jessica

For my scent, I did not use the board. I always marked/rewarded the dog for smelling (pushing their noses into the cloth with my scent and keeping it there) the piece of cloth with my scent. I did not teach the retrieve till they could reliably indicate my scented cloth. I have a command for just pointing my scent "Indicate" The retrieve was added later.

Thanks Jessica for your detailed post. I will follow your instructions and see how it goes. I think it will be a bit challenging for my dogs in the beginning but I have a few months before our next show:P .

here is a video of a dog doing the exact thing I am talking about. Plus she is super cute.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v77_dBrOCjQ&feature=related

She is cute!

Sounds like you did essentially the same thing for the handler scented retrieve. Just do it all over again (and it will go faster this time!) but using a "judges" scent. The hardest part, in my opinion, will be the handling of the "judges" scent in a way, at first, that will keep your scent off of all the samples and the clean distraction objects.

Eventually your scent can be there as a distraction, but that would come way down the line and there needs to be two very different cues for the handler-scented retrieve and the stranger-scented retrieve and ONLY when the dog totally "gets" it.

I always use surgical tongs and gloves when teaching scent work. After each training session, I wash the cloths with detergent , hot water and dry it under the hot sun. I store it back in plastic bag with out touch it. I pick it from the clothes line using tongs.

here is a video of us doing scent training

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=An5A20m21ik

You've totally got this!

They both look great and it is clear that you will have no problem training this.

And I love the little howl Rommi gives on the second attempt. So cute!

They really do look great