COMPETITIVE OBEDIENCE TRAINING (Part 15) by Sandy Wadhams
Started by
obedienceuk
on
28 Oct 2026 21:29
TO CONTINUE from last month we now have the dog working over neutral cloths fixed on tiles, finding our cloth, which is LAID onto a tile. I cannot over emphasise the importance of the handler NEVER touching the neutral or decoy cloths and that includes washing them. Even though you may have taken precautions i.e. rubber gloves etc, it is a good idea to ask a friend to wash and prepare your neutral and decoy cloths. Handler ONLY touches their cloths, that includes washing them. If at any time you accidentally touch a neutral, throw that cloth away! If you keep your neutral/decoy cloths in polythene bags it is a good idea to have them contained in at least two bags just as a safety precaution. Far better to keep cloths in tins or jars. Place your neutrals out with tongs (I use aluminium ones) and your decoys with tongs. So you have tongs for the neutral cloths and another set of tongs for the decoy cloths. I am talking here of when you are laying out scent for yourself. Naturally you can just place out your own cloth.
Now we are ready to introduce decoys into the scent area. You will remember when we just started teaching the dog scent on immovable objects we had some of those articles decoyed. When we started progressing to cloths we had no decoys. Start off with one decoyed cloth the opposite gender to yourself and simply have the decoy fixed onto a tile amongst the neutrals. Send your dog out to find your cloth. Next time add a female as well as a male decoy. Next time use say, two different female decoys, next time, two difference male decoys, next time two male and a female decoy etc. Sometimes have two decoys from the same person. Collect your decoys in jars or bags from friends or at a club. The scent will be retained on those cloths for many many months.
Years ago, I was walking Perry in the fields when he suddenly came chasing back to me wagging his tails and holding something in his mouth. "Look what Ive got Mum - aren't I clever''. Well, he had a very soggy emery board, which I had dropped in the field months ago. After all the ravages of the elements is still retained my scent and he'd found it in the long wet grass! Did any of you watch the recent QED programme on TV! In Rotterdam the Police have devised a method on scent off an object belonging to a criminal found at a scene of the crime, storing the scent and training dogs to take that scent and identify the owner in an identification parade. Which the dogs did every time without any hesitation. The Police also have a library of different known criminals scent, which they keep for THREE years and use to identify a suspect. How about that ten!
Back to our B Scent. If you obtain decoys and use them at a later it is also a good idea to practice scent with "fresh" decoys. By that I mean when you "scent" your cloth so should the decoy "scent" his.
So sometimes you need a person with you to act as decoy steward. Sometimes have the decoys rubbed up well so that scent is really hot. Sometimes lightly rubbed up so that the scent is weaker.
To teach the dog scent patterns, I think, is really important. Watching scent at the shows, in particular - Test C, I am amazed at the number of dogs that just dash out straight to the right one, retrieve it and come straight back, without even putting their nose down. Has the owner, I wonder taught the dog where the correct cloth is - Maybe - who knows! What I do know is, those dogs are often confused and fail scent when the pattern is complicated over a large area, or when the correct cloth is not at the top of the line. I like to teach my dogs to works patterns over decoys. I like to see the dog put his nose down and DISCRIMINATE I like to know that my dog understands what I want him to do. Because I then have every CONFIDENCE in him when he is sent out todo scent when under pressure.
Start pattern training with a simple straight vertical line. Place your cloth at the top, send the dog from fairly near the first cloth, he will proba-bly run out and put his nose down near the top of the line. Next time, stand near to the first cloth and send your dog out without putting your cloth down. As soon as he has left your side, place your doth first one in and then step back from the scent area. He will then start at the top and tuur and work his way back DOWN the line to the first one in. You have now taught him to work from the first cloth in to the last cloth in the line. Now we must teach him to work a horizontal line from left to right and right to left.
This is best explained by the diagram.
(See attachment)
Once the dog can work a straight line and from right top left etc., you can then use most scent patterns. I usually work my way through the alphabet and is generally covers the scent patterns I have come across in the ring.
Some dogs of course air scent and do not put their noses down at all. I always remember watching Anne Goodyers OB CH SEALIGHT ZACK. He would run out to the scent area and run round and round the area not putting his nose down at all, suddenly he would dive in, pick up the right cloth and return. However should the wind or air current change direction suddenly, an air scented dog can then often pick up the wrong cloth. So, if you can teach your dog to put his nose down and discriminate each cloth as already explained, he is less likely to make mistakes. Next month I will discuss C Scent.
To teach your dog C scent should be relatively easy. PROVIDING you have methodically gone through the stages of training scent as described in my previous articles and PROVIDING you have taught your dog to TAKE the scent I made a point of explaining HOW important it is to teach your dog to take scent. Initially the dog is required to find your scent, in C he is required to find the Judges scent. I NEVER TRAIN C scent, but I ALWAYS train B scent over decoys. However with some dogs, to prepare them for C scent, its a good idea to take the dog to your local club and take him up to a club member ask them to give something with their scent on i.e. glasses case, key ring, gloves etc (not an article that has their dog scent on). Then OFFER this article to your dog saying to him "smell this, smell this", then throw the article on the floor and tell your dog to fetch it. He has now taken a strangers scent and retrieved that scent. I used to do this once a week with Perry and Kim, but I never practised a B scent on that day. When I'm asking my dog to find my scent i.e. a B scent I give him my scent off MY HANDS telling him to "smell find".
When I want my dog to find the judges scent i.e. a C scent I offer him the scent from the Judges CLOTH.
It's very important that the dog is not forced to take the scent. Many times I've seen handlers wrap the scent cloth tightly round the dogs nose so he can hardly breath (he probably holds his breath). Sometimes the handlers appear to "pump" their dogs chest etc. All of this is unnecessary. Simply hold the cloth slightly AWAY from the dog and INVITE him to take the scent, saying "smell this". Then loosely fold the cloth over his nose making sure there is a good air pocket between the dogs nose and the cloth and repeat the command "smell find". On other words this is the scent - "smell it'' (take it), now find this scent. Its agood idea to give the dog scent from BOTH sides of the cloth. If a dog hasn't been taught to take the scent he is offered I don't see how one can expect him to find that scent. Its as SIMPLE as that! So make sure you train B scent over decoys and sometimes as a separate exercise teach your dog to take a stranger scent. You should if you've followed carefully all the stages of scent training have a confident C scenting dog.
Some years iigo at Kinross ticket show I remember a funny incident that occurred during the scent exercise. It was the dog ticket class, Peny as usual had been naughty - all that way to Scotland for him to show me how clever he was - we didn't get as far as the scent exercise - he'd done eight positions in OC! However my travelling companion was doing well - so I was standing by the ring watching the scent test. The venue was the old Kinross Car Auction Rooms. The scent had been laid in a horizon-line along a wall. The wall had at intervals sup-port pillars. The dogs were sent out so they worked the cloths from the left. Judges cloth being last but one. One of the dogs went out and started working the cloths. He suddenly darted up to one of the wall pillars and started digging! He'd found a mouldy old bun -
he gobbled this up with great speed and delight and then proceeded to execute a perfect scent much to the amusement to his handler and spectators! Mind you he still lost 10 marks for eating in the ring!
I always believe my dog is correct in scent EVEN if he brings the "wrong' cloth in. There is ALWAYS a good reason for this so called failure. The lay out of the scent pattern, in relation to the wind direction, can often confuse a dog. Or the clever dog who "listens" to where the steward stops and places the cloth. Perry was really good at this. At Hastings Ticket show one year, (which was an indoor venue), the steward had shoes with heels that made a clicking noise when she walked. The pattern a Y - all the cloths white except the Judges cloth which was brown. Judges cloth was top right of the Y Out went the steward with the Judges cloth - "click, click, click". Then out went Peny straight to the top right and brought back the last white neutral. He'd listened to the steward as she'd walked out. He didn't even bother to discriminate he just retrieved what HE THOUGHT was the top cloth! He didn't even see the Judges brown cloth! The little dear! It used to take me four hours to get home from Hastings!
There are many reasons for a dog fail-ing scent. Some we are aware of, some not. The way the dog is forced to take the scent, can be one. The contamination of the neutral cloths with the Judges scent. The decoy and Judge both smokers, the dog not liking the Judges scent, the scent pattern defeating the dog, the excited dog who dashes without thinking - these are all reasons for the dog failing. Whatever the reason for the failure - DON'T DON'T change your method of scent training. Providing YOU KNOW you have trained your dog methodically, just ignore the failure and the next day go back to your nonnal B scent over decoys and keep it SIMPLE!