My preference is to teach dogs that they will be rewarded for finding and indicating on the designated scents, as opposed to starting searching for food or pairing with food because I know that food distractors will be a challenge in competition, and I don't want to have to turn around and discourage finding food if I'd previously encouraged it earlier in the learning process when another option exists.  This is not to say that it can't be successfully done, or that some dogs may benefit from pairing.  All dogs are individuals.

I also like to use a marker, either a word such as "yes" or a click noise, to identify when a dog is correct.  I find this extremely helpful because I can give my dog that information independently of what my body is doing, making it easier to teach my dog not to rely on my body position or movement to solve the scent problem.

It was only a few years ago that I got into training tricks.  Prior to that all the things I taught my dogs had a practical or sports application.  But I found that trick training can be a lot of fun!  One of my favourite tricks ended up being get in a closed suitcase, which I did with Tristan.

​Here's the final result:

You've probably heard of dogs that can detect drugs, or bedbugs, or missing people, but there are a wide variety of jobs dogs do that put their sense of smell to use, such as:

• Drug Detection - for illegal drugs, often hidden by people trying to avoid detection.
• Explosives - for explosives or traces of explosives in airports, luggage, or large buildings
• Currency Detection - for large quantities of hidden money being smuggled across the border or in criminal operations.

What is a pink dog?  Some people in scent detection refer to dogs that tend to fringe alert, or alert on scent further away from the source as "pink dogs".  This comes from the idea that as scent moves further away from its source, that it gets a little stale.  That scent molecules are the freshest right when they have evaporated from the liquid essential oil into a gas that gets carried on air currents.

One of the most common concerns people have is wanting their dog to come when called.  It makes sense that this is the case because our dogs have their own interests, and often the world has many fun interests to compete with our call.  To compete with that, we need a plan to first teach our dogs that coming to us when we call is an a great thing to do, and to then challenge them with achievable challenges to improve their ability to respond even when distracted.  

The biggest tip I can give you is to make coming to you amazing.  Make it fun and enjoyable for your dog, and do so repeatedly so that your dog develops a strong history of responding to you being a great deal for them.  This foundation creates an almost automatic response because your dog doesn't need to think about what comes next, they know it will great.  And that is what causes them to return even when there is something else they are interested in.  There are a variety of games that you can play with your dog to establish this foundation, and in private lessons I can help you choose and tailor games to your dog's specific preferences, but here are some common ones you can try.