How are dogs trained to sniff out certain substances?

Question

How are dogs trained to sniff out certain substances

Answer 1

From puppies they are raised to associate certain scents with rewards like play time and praise (though usually not food because then the dog learns to search for food). They do this by watching when every the puppy sniffs the target they reward them. The puppy starts to associate the smell with rewards and then will start to search for that smell. The puppies are trained daily for the next 6+ months.

Then the trainer starts hiding the smells and giving a command to go search. At first this command means nothing to the puppy because they haven't yet associated it with being told to search but when it recognizes the scent and goes to it they get excited and get their reward.

Next the trainer usually trains the puppy to give a signal like a bark or to lay down when it finds the source of the scent. This is easily done by commanding the dog to bark or lay down before they get their reward and after finding the scent.

Not all dogs can be trained to be scent dogs however even if they are specifically bred for that purpose like blood hounds. The puppy needs to be subordinate because then they are easier to train and love working towards pleasing the handler. The dog has to also be easily trained. So to raise the likely hood of producing a trained scent dog they usually start off with training 2-4 puppies. Usually after 2 weeks to 1 month of training with the puppy the trainer will be able to know which puppies are doing the best in the training and then they focus on those puppies and the others may stop the training.

Answer 2

Hello,
How does a dog get the neighborhood news? Through its nose! Of all a dog's senses, its sense of smell is the most highly developed. Dogs have about 25 times more olfactory (smell) receptors than humans do. These receptors occur in special sniffing cells deep in a dog's snout and are what allow a dog to "out-smell" humans.

I have listed a couple of great sites for dog training below,

Best to you,
Sam
Sam

Answer 3

They have a sample of the substance and reward the dog with a treat when they find it in a game of 3 Card Monty.