09/10/2026
Kath and I work predominantly with gun dog breeds who live in pet homes. Both of us own gun dogs who are first and foremost pets, and secondly working dogs. We are aware of the challenges that gun dogs can present, one of the primary issues that our customers complain about is that their dogs go deaf when on scent. So this is something we train for and give practical skills to our customers so they can manage these challenging situations.
We generally practice building the skills of recalling and stopping on scent by working up from practicing the skill on food scent and actual food, then we may use toys and things like rabbit balls that make the area smell exciting, building up to eventually real, exciting scent. ( we had been training our own dogs using cold game this day so we used this to scent up an area)
The biggest mistake we see people make, is actively avoiding working around scent, or attempting to avoid it due to the challenges it presents. Which is wise if you don’t have any control around scent, but it is something that cannot be ignored forever. If we don’t train for a scenario we will never have a responsive dog once they hit scent. In these types of situations food generally falls short of reinforcing/strengthening the behaviour, so we can employ the premack principle. Essentially, you listen to me and you get access to the good stuff AKA scent! Recall to me or stop when you hear the stop whistle, and you can be released to sniff, and we can work together as a team. Finding a trainer who understands the breed you have and is able demonstrate that they can control their dogs in the situations you are personally struggling with is important. If they do not understand the challenges working dogs can present around wild life and scent and are unable to demonstrate a good level of control with their own dogs the likelihood is you won’t get results yourself.
Startrite Dog Training
