Scent Detection Help

Hey everyone! Hoping that I'm putting this in the right spot. Wondering if anyone can give me any advice on working with Scent Training with Ronin. I have found him to be very restless at home despite all the exercise and training we have been doing daily, so I figured that he needed a bit more mental workouts than I had thought.

I have gotten 4 bins with covers and I have been putting a piece of smelly meat in a baggy in the bins, the lid only rest on the top, not secured for now, and I put him in another part of the house, go hide the food in the bin, and then do a search. I give him the scent of it first, before I tell him to search as well. He's very smart. Sometimes he will have a hard time, but that's also because we only just started this on Friday really.

I'm just doing this on my own with no one teaching me and kind of getting information off the internet. I am in contact with someone who does scent training, but she away until tomorrow and she isn't doing any new classes any time soon, so I'm trying to get a head start. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated!

We line up a few bins, no lids at first.

Food is only in the one with the scent.

Dog is brought to first bin, shown with indication from handler to sniff bin with out food.

Go down the line and encourage them to sniff the bin, keep leash semi close but not tight.

Once you get to the food bin, let dog eat all the treats and then continue to drop treats from above while the dog is still eating the jackpot. It encourages them to stay at scent.

Lure dog off with treat or a release word, never pull dog off scent.

In time, you can add lids and then ask for an indication at the scent before being released to the jackpot.

Two of my good friends are scent detection judges and a few are excellent level competitors and this is how we train it.

That's great help! Thanks!

No problem, are there any trainers in your area?

I use to trial and train under S.D.D.A but have in the last year or so trained and trialed under the C.S.S.D.F.