Dog Training Aids

Dog Training Aids

If the hearing of a dog is amazing then you can only describe the ability to use the sense of smell as incredible. Dogs can be taught to find people buried many feet under snow or collapsed buildings. They can detect gas leaks, sniff out drugs or explosives and can even sense when a cow is in season!

When a dog is on the scent his nose is very moist and the molecules forming the scent are dissolved into this mucus and transferred by the nerve receptors to the brain. How many time more powerful than our smell is often asked. Some professionals believe it could be as much as 10 million times better than our sense of smell.

Some people then ask, how can a dog get lost, it should always be possible for it to find the way home? The answer can be find if you compare the life of the wolf in the open countryside and the built up environment most dogs live in. The number of different smells being piled one on top of another in an urban environment makes it much more difficult to follow familiar scents. In the open countryside there are plenty of different smells but not the confusion caused by humans.

Dogs sense of smell can be affected by a number of different things such as illness; distemper, hepatitis, diabetes; by infections or obstructions in the nose and by ageing.

How can the sense of smell cause problems for us and our dog?

Dogs are attracted to smells we find obnoxious. My Golden Retriever loves to roll in any foul smelling substances she can find... and comes back looking as pleased as punch!
Smelling food on the table or in the kitchen might prove too tempting for your dog to resist. A compliment to the cook I would suggest.
Talking about the kitchen, rubbish bins often located there are sources of great smells for dogs to go and investigate. This can not always be sensible as some foods and objects in the rubbish might be dangerous for the dog.
Poison left around for rats and slugs might be very interesting but dangerous for the dog.

How can we use the sense of smell to improve our training
?

The use of food and the dog's ability to smell and find it.
Use strong smelling treats in training.
Treats kept in pocket and then your hand going into the pocket will keep your dogs attention.

Most owners now about treats being used as a training aid. The finding of ways to use treats to encourage the behaviours we want is what we need to consider.

Roy Dickinson of http://www.totrainmydog.com, is a dog trainer of many years as well a writer. He'll help you find those little tips and tricks to make your dog training easier. You'll find many of these tips and other information on his website about Dog Behaviour