Скачать или смотреть Scent Work Training - Snap Shot on Kong

New Target Scent - Kong

My dog Reenie already knows the scent detection game and can locate a variety of different imprinted scents. As Kong scent is used by some organisations, I have brought this odour into her scent library
The video shows a snap shot of the stages. Each stage would need lots of repetition

1. Feed your dog for seven days from a kong - must dogs have had plenty of positive association with the Kong smell and food in the past but ever so it’s important to do this step
2. Cut the top section off a kong - I have used ‘medium’
safety notice do not use a Kong that the top cuts off too be too small in comparison to your own dog. Be mindful if your dog is looking to grab it

Food motivated dog - nose hold on target odour

3. Hold a treat reward under the kong. Holding the kong with your finger . Say ‘yes’ and Lift up the king piece which delivers the food. Repeat , repeat, repeat until you can add a momentary pause before you lift the piece up, you will see your dog waiting (holding) still over the kong piece for the release of the food. Make sure you use your marker food ‘Yes’ before you lift the kong
4. Gradually release your finger and throw the food down next to the kong now after you have said ‘yes’ do this quickly using 15 reps each session.
5. This will take a few sessions gradually increasing the time your dog holds a still position
6. Add some handler movement to proof the exercise
7. You can now start to hide this piece, it can be visual/ slightly visual to start with, but not accessible for your dog to grab it. Bring in your search cue and a hand signal into the area I use ‘go find’ common cues are ‘search’ ‘seek’ ‘find’ ‘ find it’
8. Initially say ‘yes’ quite quickly on a short hold on the find and throwing food at the target hide
Gradually increase the time your dog holds their nose at the find of the target odour by micro seconds at a time . Start to conceal the hide but still allowing an air flow around it and do exterior searches too
Safety notice, when working always ensure the area is safe for your dog to search, free of sharps, the find is easily accessible under foot, no sharp branches, brambles etc
9. Over further sessions you can start to cut a small piece of Kong, half the size and work with that for a few sessions
10. Take your pieces smaller and smaller and when your dog is a super expert at finding kong scent you can increase the difficulty of hide placement, deeper, higher, inaccessible

Toy/play motivation

This is a great odour to start out your scent work journey with using the toy/ play reward

1. Add a piece of rope to your reward kong play toy. Firstly play tug and retrieve teaching the ‘drop’ or ‘out’ cue
2. Personally if I used this method I would go from step 4 when you throwing the food down at a distance, swop this for throwing the kong toy down for your dog to retrieve, have a short tug play, release and repeat using your search cue.
3. From there on the searches you can throw the toy at the location of the find
4. Don’t forget you can always combine with food reward on release of the king to as extra reward


My dog is more food motivated hence my training method, we will have a game of retrieve and tug at the end of our session though

Tip - boil Kong first to soften prior to cutting. A mini hacksaw is best or Stanley knife

Safety notice - use ‘cut’ safe gloves


Disclaimer - It is the owners responsibility to ensure safety of themselves and their dog when carrying out any dog

Scent Work Academy is based in the United Kingdom and is a dog training school dedicated to raising the awareness of scent training for companion dogs, emphasising on the many benefits it holds for every dog mentally and physically.

Mandy’s passion lies in developing the relationship between the owner and their dog via their dogs incredible superpower!

Established in 2017, the school thrives into 2025. Mandy Rigby, Founder and Lead instructor personally overseas and appraises on average over 4500 searches a year.

As a canine behaviourist she is attuned to the many innate canine behaviours shown by the individual dog when undertaking search tasks, which has been a huge asset on progressing her client’s dogs to be successful in the activity of Scentwork.

Launching her comprehensive yet simply set online course in 2024, Sniff It Out - Discover Scentwork and Unlock your Dog’s True Potential, Mandy’s mission has been to take her experience and passion to the wider geographic to enable everyone to offer their dogs more opportunities to develop their dog’s seeking system further within structured scentwork training.

To find out more visit www.scentworkacademy.co.uk