Dog Health Questions: Dog Training? please help BEST ANSWER WILL BE CHOSEN!?

Hey so i was wondering about something I wanted to train my dog to do. I want to train him to be able to smell something and find it. (For example, smell a persons shirt and find them) I don't want him to do it professionally though. Does anyone know how to train a dog to do this or do you have training tips or somewhere where I can find out how to train him? Thanks!

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4 Core Basics of Dog Training

• Usually you want to pick one thing first. You can't have your dog finding everything by name (person, cell phone, etc).
  
  Unless you have a scent hound you might have a hard time asking your dog to find a person outside or after a few minutes of the person leaving (the scent will be all over by then and the dog may not be able to trace it).You'll train this using a technique called back-chaining. You'll start with your dog in close proximity to what you want them to find.
  
  So put a treat on the floor and say "find it". When your dog goes to get the treat praise him. Then hide it around the corner but in plain sight and do the same thing. Then hide it just a little, then more, etc. Give the dog hints like "over here" and point towards the object. This way you can ask the dog to search specific areas.
  
  You could do this as a game with your kids or friends if you want your dog to find them in your house. Do the same thing just have the person hold the treat instead.
  
  Good luck!


• First, you want to let your dog smell the object that you are going to hide. And then in his plain view, hide the object behind or under something. Tell him to go and find it. Once he is able to find it, praise him. Then, you should hide the object again in a slightly different spot than before, but don't let him see where you put it. Then tell him to go and find it again. It all takes practice, but it's not very difficult for a dog to pick up. To make it easier, you should go to a bait or hunting store and buy some synthetic animal urine (don't laugh, I'm serious) and put a bit of it on the object you are hiding. Your dog will able to find it easier.


• The easiest way is to talk to a person in your area who does canine search and rescue. Typically a person that the dog knows really well, like the owner, hides from the dog in plain site at first. The handler has the dog sniff an object from the owner like a dirty sock or wallet. The dog is given the go find command. He is praised as he drags the handler to the owner. Once the owner is found, the dog is praised petted played with and everyone is so happy. Most times food is not used but it might help in a dog who is not play motivated. As he gets better the courses get longer and other people that the dog doesn't know well hides from the dog. This kind of training is quite fun and very rewarding to do. Most search dogs are trained in this manner.


• That takes alot of time. First thing is ask your self if you can take hours and hours a day trying. I don't know how to train that specifically but I suggest you go to a petsmart or another location were pets are trained. And asked them my dog knows advanced obedience training and this took about a year. You should teach your dog basic obeidience before you try to get fancy.


• You say "something"...not "someone" Then you say find "them". It's 2 different things...2 types of training. If I were training to find "someTHING", I would use "scent boxes". If I wanted him to find "someONE", I would use 2 or more "decoys", and do it at feeding time (for motivation). Choose the correct path, he gets dinner....choose the wrong path...no dinner. Start 10 feet away....and then slowly lengthen the distance.
  
  Both of these examples are for quick progress in simple scenarios. S&R training is a LOT more involved. A WHOLE LOT more than I'm willing to type. These are condensed explanations.


• Get a book about it. Here are a couple I found on Amazon:
  
  http://www.amazon.com/K9-Scent-Detection…
  
  http://www.amazon.com/Scent-Scenting-Dog…
  
  http://www.amazon.com/Try-Tracking-Puppy…


• Give him the scent, and let him sniff it for 5 seconds. From there reduce the time. Obv. over a long period of time. Take the item and hid it, givin a command like find etc and at first, point in the direction until dog learns. We taught Abbie this with her toys so it works. Well, for us lol.


• Try playing a hide and seek game with him and he'll learn.