08/11/2026
Day 1 of scent work with Miss Buffy. Introduced an AKC test scent and paired it with a little treat. If she looked at the tin, investigated it or just got close to it I gave her a treat. I want her to start to associate finding the scent with a reward. To begin I'm using food but I'll switch to a toy later. In the beginning there's a lot of cross contamination and food excitement confusion so it's a bit sloppy and the toy is more refined. I also screwed up and used a verbal marker. We don't do that because the dog then looks at the handler or the treat pouch once they hear the marker rather than the scent. I forgot, it's been years. Tonight I'll switch to a box so I can remove myself and the marker. We all screw up dog training. Most of us are lousy teachers, trying to teach in a foreign language and muscle memory can be a bitch to work around. Dog's fill in or expertise gaps with so much precision it makes us look like we trained them rather than they learned in spite of our clumsy interference. I don't know if we'll do anything proffessional with scent training, maybe, I think she will be great at it and I'm interested in partnering with her for conservation work. We'll see. If not we'll just play hide and seek like I did with my first hound. If you're interested in learning about hobby scent work and working your own dog, let us know.
