# AKC Utility Dog Scent Articles



## Terrasita Cuffie (Jun 8, 2008)

If you were, going to train it, how would you go about it. You have a pile of leather and metal articles. You rub your scent all over one. The judge places that one in the pile. Handler sends the dog to retrieve the article with the handler's scent. You have to do it twice--1 metal. 1 leather.


T


----------



## Ingrid Rosenquist (Mar 27, 2006)

Terrasita Cuffie said:


> If you were, going to train it, how would you go about it. You have a pile of leather and metal articles. You rub your scent all over one. The judge places that one in the pile. Handler sends the dog to retrieve the article with the handler's scent. You have to do it twice--1 metal. 1 leather.


I am currently working my one girl in Utility. One leg down and two to go 

There are two main ways that people tend to teach articles in AKC obedience - the tie down method and the "around the clock" method. In the tie down method, you take a board like this one: http://www.jjdog.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Sc...ainingMatUTIATM and start with one article tied down and one article not tied down with the correct scent. This helps the dog learn which article scent is the correct one to pick up. You gradually build up to the full set of articles untied as the dog picks up the exercise. Because we have both leather and metal, people generally start with either metal or leather and then repeat with the second. I started with metal since leather has more "scents" to it. I also made my own board similar to the one above out of a piece of peg board.

The around the clock method was the brainchild of Janice Demello and she has a DVD about utilizing her method: http://jandemellobordercollie.com/Hob_Nob_border_collies/TRAINING_DVDs.html . A search of around the clock scent discrimination on the web will give you a description of the method. Lots of people swear by it but I have never done it so do not feel comfortable explaining it. 

I did the tie down method and since Frost took to the exercises, it went pretty quickly. I actually skipped the whole tie down on the leather articles because she picked up the drill while doing metal. 

The beginning of this video shows my using the board with Frost:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AA5maYYhZaY

This is a video from approximately 10 months later. She was being a bit of a twit that day during the scent descrimination but you can see the progression:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zermiD9bBvc


----------



## Thomas Barriano (Mar 27, 2006)

Terrasita Cuffie said:


> If you were, going to train it, how would you go about it. You have a pile of leather and metal articles. You rub your scent all over one. The judge places that one in the pile. Handler sends the dog to retrieve the article with the handler's scent. You have to do it twice--1 metal. 1 leather.
> 
> 
> T


I'd train it like the Mondio Ring Little Wood. Take an old metal crate door. Bolt or zip tie a bunch of dowels on it and then scent up another dowel and place it on the crate door. The dog can only pick up the one with your scent. Of course this would be after you've done a lot of retrieves and then hide and retrieve with the single dowel already.


----------



## Bob Scott (Mar 30, 2006)

I don't put anything else down till the dog learns the turn and retrieve for something the dog sees me toss. Then I (put out) tie down only one and toss the one to be retrieved feet away from the tied down one. Get closer until one to be retrieved is very close to the tied down article. As the dog gets solid on that, add more articles. 
I have no problem handling the "unscented" articles as long as they have been aired out for 24 hrs. The dog learns it's the article with the hot scent that needs to be retrieved. I just hang the 'unscented articles out in the open air over night.
I teach the turn/sit/send or the turn and send as a separate behavior from the scent articles then chain them together.
It should only be taught with the sit added if the dog has really straight sits. A crooked sit only looses more points.
Teaching hand directions helps also.


----------



## Bob Scott (Mar 30, 2006)

I want to add that I use a clean article to scent with each retrieve in a given session. The dog will have it's own scent on the article it brings back.
Even if he sniffs or touches the tied down articles it's "my" scent only that I want him retrieving.


----------



## Kadi Thingvall (Jan 22, 2007)

I put an article on my website a number of years ago about how I teach scent discrimination. Whether it's for AKC, FR, or MR I do them all pretty much the same. http://www.dantero.com/retrieve.php I've actually found that it works better than the tie down method, at least for my dogs and my training style, and the dogs pick it up really fast.


----------



## Bob Scott (Mar 30, 2006)

Kadi Thingvall said:


> I put an article on my website a number of years ago about how I teach scent discrimination. Whether it's for AKC, FR, or MR I do them all pretty much the same. http://www.dantero.com/retrieve.php I've actually found that it works better than the tie down method, at least for my dogs and my training style, and the dogs pick it up really fast.



Nice article
I've been really fortunate with my present dog Thunder because he's a natural at scent work. 
Classic example of tossing a stick in a pile of sticks and he's never even tried to bring back anything but the one I tossed. 
AKC articles are a pushover for him. It's just the anal formality of AKC that kills me. :lol:


----------

