Scent training... how to get started?

[SOS]

My whippet puppy is coming up to 6 months old. She has been an absolute dream and is, slightly surprisingly, incredibly trainable and thrives on doing her ‘work’ I.e 10 minute trick training twice a day. She already has a long list of established tricks, one of which is ‘find my keys’. She can now locate my work keys anywhere in the house even if they are out of sight and seems to really use her nose to find them and does good, methodical sweeping of an area. She absolutely adores this game.

It’s got me thinking about doing some scent training with her when older. I know she’s not a typical scenting breed but her mind and drive for learning are on our side. There’s a lot of information online but anyone have any recommendations or hints themselves? I appreciate she may be too young for such work but wanted some thoughts and opinions!

 

[Karran]

In lockdown 1.0 I started UK sniffer dogs training with Miss Collie. We only gave up as I ended up back at work and then focused on basic training and garden flyball/agility but I have lifetime access to the videos.
They were nicely presented in stages and any questions were quickly picked up by email. We only started the beginner Bronze level but they do a silver and gold level too.

 

[Lintel]

Look up Shield K9 Dog training, he is very informative and explains tracking training easily, we had a good bash at it however the "cannot be arsed" attitude our GSD has to life in general meant that progress was SLOW... and realistically I wasn't aiming to achieve much other than a bit of fun, needless to say he didn't find it fun and would have rather slept!

 

[FinnishLapphund]

As I recall, Levrier did some scent work training with her Lurcher Millie, also mentioning that Millie isn't the typical scenting breed. Sadly due to what happened on another thread, it seems she's either asked for her account to be closed, or she was banned, either way, she's not here anymore so you can't ask her.

I just checked, typed only the words Millie scent work, in the HHO search box, and pressed the Search button, and I did find a few posts/replies she had posted about the subject: https://forums.horseandhound.co.uk/search/1943209/?q=Millie+scent+work&o=relevance

Some videos seems to have been removed, but if you click on some of the search results, perhaps you might still find it interesting to read what she said about doing it with a Lurcher. Or some other interesting info on the subject.

 

[Moobli]

There are many different ways to train but if you already have her finding keys, I would build on that ... hide the keys in harder places to find, outside in the garden, then in a field etc, then train her to find something else with your scent (or a scent of your choice) such as a mobile phone. I do that with my two and they love it.

If you are wanting something a little bit more formal then I would recommend either https://scentworkuk.com/ Loads of resources on their page. I did a course with a local dog trainer with my old dog and it was very enjoyable.

Or

https://scentwork.com/ who also run courses as well as online learning etc.

 

[SOS]

Thanks for all the advice and sorry for the delay I didn’t see the answers until now. I’m going to have a look at all the options and see what we can do. I find it really enjoyable doing this “work” with her and seeing her use her nose and she loves it so could be great fun!