Sunday, February 12, 2006

Scent Discrimination

I have started training Wyatt to scent discriminate. In this utility exercise, the dog finds the one dumbbell that you have just scented in a pile of leather and metal objects. The dogs does this twice, once with a metal and once with a leather object.

I am using the "around the clock" method. In this method you put one dumbbell down first. The dumbbell is scented with your scent and some cheese wiz. Then you put down one scented and one unscented dumbbell in certain pattern continuing until you have one scented and 10 or so unscented dumbbells.

It seems to be working. Wyatt gets the scented and cheese covered dumbbell every time. Now I will gradually decrease the amount of cheese until he is getting the one that I have scented with my hands (at least I hope so!)

I changed the method a bit and I am working with him off leash and not using any ear pinches as the video recommends.

See her web site for more info. Janice DeMello Obedience Videos

No comments: