years ago pepper did tracker training.. nothing exciting really .. I would get a few identical sterile ( boil washed) cloths and using sterile tongs lay them all out then Id place one with my scent out without her seeing and then hold my hands to her nose let her sniff then send her out to seek..
she would find my cloth get a reward.. then Id have a cloth with my scent and a cloth with a friends scent let her sniff my friends hands then send her out to seek her cloth not mine which was also there, we then progressed to bits of clothing and with pepper on a long line seeking the owner out, theyd be hiding somewhere.
she did really well at this as did liath, if fact liath really excelled herself taking up advanced obedience age 9 and picked up the judges cloth every time ignoring my cloth.
this tracking has come in so handy over the years on the croft. OH has used pepper to track deer. we used her to find lost hens on several occasions for different folk. she once was called upon to help look for a neighbour who had gone out fishing on his quad it had broken down and he was missing. It was dark he was in his 80s. He made his own way home safely and wondered what all the fuss was about! when OHs collie went missing a year or two ago I took pepper along to go hunting for him and that very day he appeared bedraggled back home by himself.
Its not rocket science, the dogs love it and pick it up really easily. take small steps and build them up.
peppers litter brother was a sniffer dog for the army. they really do have the best noses.
