"Teaching Your Dog to Search"

"When introducing Scent Work skills to your dog, you’ll want to begin with whatever search item is of the highest value to your dog. For most, this will be treats but others prefer a toy or ball. The more success your dog has at the beginning, the better they will understand the criteria of the game, and the stronger their drive to search for hidden things will be when the searches become more complicated. Here’s how to get started.

Step 1: Start with a high-value item in front of your dog and let them get it. Right now, the goal is just for your dog to have fun and start to make the connection that when they see the item, they should go get it.

Step 2: After a couple of reputations, your dog will understand the goal of the game is to get the treat. When your dog is moving towards the treat, introduce the verbal cue of your choice, such as “find” or “search.”

Step 3: When you practice, move the treat slightly further from your dog and give them the verbal cue to search. When your dog gets the treat, give lots of praise and let them eat the treat or play with the toy.

Step 4: After your dog is successful in finding the treat at a further but obvious distance, you can start to hide it. With your hides, start slowly by putting a treat behind a pillow or the leg of a chair. Give your dog their search cue and praise them when they get it. The goal is to increase the difficulty of the search slowly and incrementally over a series of practice sessions but not stump them.

Step 5: When your dog is successfully finding the treats you’ve hidden in easy spots in the room they are in, it’s time to introduce the idea of the “blind.” Leave your dog in one area of your home and put a treat in a more obvious location in another room. Call or get your dog and give your verbal search cue, and when your dog successfully finds it, give lots of praise.

Step 6: Begin to increase the difficulty of where you hide the treat. Instead of having it out in the open, start putting the treat behind furniture, under pillows, or in other hidden areas that your dog can access. Bring your dog into the other room and give your verbal search cue, and again give plenty of praise."1

1-from the AKC website How to Train For and Take the Virtual Scent Work Test – American Kennel Club (akc.org)