Today we were off to Oxfordshire to join Heather Donnelly again, but this time we were filming scent work. Heather told us all about how to teach a passive indication and also how to pair the scent we want the dogs to find with food, so that they start to look for just the scent. This is the same type of training that search dogs do, whether they are searching for drugs, bombs or missing people.
The dogs that were training today were just pet dogs though, with wonderful owners who really understand how important mental stimulation is for our pet dogs, and who thoroughly enjoy spending a few hours teaching their canine companions to learn a new skill.
We're thinking of having a go at this with our office puppy Skyler, it would be great to teach her to find the scent of our lost keys!