How To Train Your Dog To Use His Nose

How To Train Your Dog To Use His Nose

This tutorial is part of The Ultimate List Of Dog Trick Ideas which contains 99 other tricks like this!

Encouraging your dog to use his nose is a learning process for both of you. This trick is a good way to teach scenting to find a toy which also looks great to an audience

  1. For this trick you will need three beakers or flowerpots and your dogs retrieve toy. Put the toy under one of them and line them up in front of your dog.
  2. Now swap the containers around a few times and then ask your dog to find the toy, by using the command word for the trick, he will sniff all three of the containers before finding the right one with his nose.
  3. When he finds the right pot tell him that he can take the toy and as he either touches the pot using his paw or nose reinforce and offer him a reward from your hand.
  4. Practice this until your dog simply touches the correct pot and looks directly to you.

Top tip; containers should have small holes in the enable the scent to escape.

Dog trainers love this trick because it teaches focus and control to a dog.

Jean Cote
 

Jean Cote is an animal lover and the founder of Success Dogs. For more than a decade, he has served as a coach to thousands of dog owners around the world to better train, communicate and forge a stronger bond with their dog using positive and force-free training methods.

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