Training Dog to Sniff Out Cache

[+DanOCan]

I'd like to train my dog to sniff out your typical cache containers such as ammo cans and LnLs. I have this vision of the dog poking around through the leaves and/or snow and finally pointing out the location for me.

 

Anyone ever had success trying this?

[+Ant89]

Sort of. When caching with my dog, she will sniff around like any dog. somtimes paying more attention to one spot, which is usually where the cache is.

[+Lil Devil]

I've talked to a cacher who trains dogs for search and rescue. He said that while his dogs don't search for containers, they will sniff out where humans have been before, and that usually leads them to the cache.

[+Team_LPD]

Never happen. No way one cache is going to smell like the next one, no matter what the container.

[+sundogranch]

I only cache in rural areas and I always watch my dogs- they've led me to caches before. They aren't trained for caching but they are going to sniff out where other people have been- I don't expect them to stand at attention tail straight back paw in the air pointing to a FTF but I always keep on eye on what they're doing and sometimes that helps.

[+Fox_Trot]

i thought of a neat idea....geocaching for dogs. They sell at dog stores things like duck/quail scent. Imagine taking something like that and putting it all over the cache itself. Make a different kind of cache called "dog cache" what you all think?

[Luckless]

i thought of a neat idea....geocaching for dogs. They sell at dog stores things like duck/quail scent. Imagine taking something like that and putting it all over the cache itself. Make a different kind of cache called "dog cache" what you all think?

 

Bad idea Fox trot

a wild animal will try to tear cache apart to get at the scent

 

I've seen dogs who just naturally seemed to find the cache. Funny to watch these dog go right to it. Maybe they've been hunting caches long enough with their owners to know what they are looking for.

[+smstext]

a mouldy smell of a container that has been damp, its a smell i notice regularly. but i think cachers would have more success training the dogs to follow a humans scent providing someone has visited it recently or placed it recently.

[+Fox_Trot]

i thought of a neat idea....geocaching for dogs. They sell at dog stores things like duck/quail scent. Imagine taking something like that and putting it all over the cache itself. Make a different kind of cache called "dog cache" what you all think?

 

Bad idea Fox trot

a wild animal will try to tear cache apart to get at the scent

 

I've seen dogs who just naturally seemed to find the cache. Funny to watch these dog go right to it. Maybe they've been hunting caches long enough with their owners to know what they are looking for.

 

right on, but i thought id be a neat concept, thats all

[+DeRock & The Psychic Cacher]

right on, but i thought id be a neat concept, thats all

 

Don't give up hope yet. This might help: Training Your Dog to Sniff Out Caches

 

Good luck,

 

Deane

AKA: DeRock & the Psychic Cacher - Grattan MI

[+flask]

dogs can smell "thing out of place". you can train them to find container types pretty accurately. ammocan is easy for them. plastics not so much but still possible.

 

i was having very good success training a pound mutt to find caches and then one day he got spooked by the opening "whoosh" of an ammocan and never wanted to play again.

[+9Key]

My black lab Sam will go to where to where humans have been, which helps me clue in. He was a big help this last weekend on a tough 7 stage multi. He single handedly (single pawed?) found the 6th stage. He used his nose to nudge the redirector. No training there, I think he just smelled human scent on it. Good boy!

[+Manville Possum]

I have a Dachsund that can find ammo cans. He is used to hunting and firearms, so I'm quite sure it is the ammo that was in the can before that he is smelling. He likes to sign the log by wizzing on the can.

[+Bergie Bunch]

We have a friend who has trained his Golden Retreiver to find tupperware. He started off feeding him out of it, then started placing less and less food in it, until it was empty, then started hiding the empty container and giving him a treat for finding it, no he finds them quite well. I t is really amazing to see, when I have been with him, I would say 95% accurate.

[+jellis]

My Lily who was struck by a car last year use to have a sense, not smell for caches. But I know of someone who is deaf and she was getting a dog trained to alert her of danger and sounds. The trainer asked her if she wanted the dog also trained to find caches ( finding manmade or objects handled by humans). So yes it can be done.

[+flask]

sniff-it find-it is a great game to play with any dog who likes to smell things. it's easy to transfer that game onto caching.

 

they don't know anything about logbooks, but as far as they're concerned, it's lots of fun activities rolled into one! YOU may be caching; your dog is playing sniff-it find-it.