Starting Scent Training

I am starting to do a little scent training with Molly. It's one of the optional behaviors in the LEvel Book and I thought it would be fun to try. The first step is having her find a treat under a piece of cloth. It's to help her start learning that I want her to use her nose.

She just gets this right away. The directions recommend clicking and treating 10 times with the treat on the cloth before moving on to having the treat under the edge of the cloth. Then it is 10x click and treat for that before doing the treat actually under the cloth.

With Molly I did a couple times on then a couple times under the edge then right into it all the way under the cloth. I could tell she understood and just getting a treat off cloth seemed to bore her.

She had no problem with this whether I used a piece of Frolic or a shrimp. We repeated several times and she got in the habit of delivering the piece of cloth after she got the treat.

So just for fun, I went and got two identical cloths from the kitchen. I put them down on the floor and put a treat only under one of them. Molly sniffed both then picked up the cloth with the treat under it to find the treat.

The only problem Molly has is that she is so set on the treat that sometimes she picks up both cloth and treat and has trouble finding where the treat went. But it's really cute and she is still getting the point--finding the treat from under the cloth. She then delivers that cloth, leaving hte other alone.

I'm really proud!