Dog training diaries Ep.1 - Scent work

One of the most exciting training we are doing with Nelson lately is scent work. First of all, I chose this type of training, because this way I can make Nelson tired even inside the house if needed. It requires a lot of thinking from the dog and uses their natural behaviour. As dog owners surely know, tired dog is a good dog.

To start the training, you should be familiar with the shaping method in clicker training. It is a more advanced
technique. If you are doing it the first time, you should ask for the help of someone with more experience (I hired a trainer for private lessons). The point of shaping is that the dog has to offer the behaviour we want to
see, so we can reinforce it with treats and games. Durig the process we reward any movement in the right way, but after every step we always want a little more, and at the end the dog has to do the full exercise we had in mind
Shaping is of course not for everyone, there are other options.

With regard to what we can see on the video:

• I use chamomile tea as the chosen scent
• The weights are for support the jar with the tea, so Nelson can't knock it over. Scratching, biting, and licking the jar are not desirable behaviours
• The expectation is that Nelson goes there after the command 'Find it', sniffs in the jar and lays down, indicating the scent is there
• Seeing the desired behaviour, I click, treat, and praise