Dog Training

[+BlackBuck]

Has anyone tried to train there dog to sniff out caches?I figure if you can gety them to find tupperware youll be in buisness.Any thoughts?

[+JMBella]

Bella is pretty good a sniffing out tupperware. Still working on ammo cans.

[+flask]

oooh, ooh! my dog is good with ammo cans, but not so good with rubbermaid. he is also not good in the field where a)there are a lot of Distractions, and b)he does not necessarily know that he should be looking for an ammo can.

 

i guess the best way to get him good at it would be to take him on ALL my hunts, and reward him anytime a container gets found.

 

at home he just likes to play find the ammo can because it's a fun game. he's not so good when i NEED the information.

 

because dogs are not invited to many locations, and because a hunt with my doge involves an extra person, it's not practical to take him very often. i feel that i can't devote enough attention to responsible dog handling while really hunting, so unless someone comes along to help with the dog, he stays home.

 

he's big and goofy and pretty obedient, but i'm of the school of thought where you really have to give an off-leash dog most of your attention. i am not capable of doing that when there is a box to be found.

[+boxermom]

My boxer has not figured out the find art of tupperware hunting. We are working on it. Boxers are just not known for their good nose. Any hints on how to train her?

[+flask]

do you play sniff-it-find-it with her? it's a good dog game. have your dog sniff the thing you want her to find. then have her stay and hide it where she can see you hiding it. tell her to "find it". praise her when she does.

 

when she gets the idea, you can start hiding it where she can't see. it took my dog about five minutes to catch on.

 

now he can find an ammo can anywhere in the house, whether i've had him sniff it or not. it's a good game.

[+aisledog]

My english springer spanial bitch, Abby, thinks that "Find the cache" means "wag your tail"

[+Stunod]

My dogs can't find caches, but they do find burrs, mud, dead smelly things, etc...

[+Fritz_Monroe]

My dog has only been caching with me 2 times. Both times it was very cold, about 20 degrees. Both times she found the creek. Had to cut both of those trips short.

 

I'm not a very good dog trainer, but I would think that tupperware would have a very distinctive smell to a dog. Might be able to work on the "they put food in those things" Just make sure you keep leftovers in nothing but tupperware. Start feeding the dog out of it, store her treats in them. Make tupperware a HUGE part of her life.

 

F_M

[+woo2]

My english springer spanial bitch, Abby, thinks

 

Careful! This isn't a dog forum... that's potty mouth!

[+Bad Influences]

Shadow hasn't been out with us much due to his surgery and age, but he doesn't care about caches, he wants to find the girl dog who left that pretty scent before us.

 

The wolfdogs seem semi interested, but not enough to tell us where the cache is. Tok found a few, he stuck his nose in a hole and figured it wasn't for him, and walked away. He never thought to say "hey guys, this one's for you."

Tok has been to every cache with us, and the most interesting thing he can find to do while we're sitting around logging our find is to pee on a tree, or two, or ten.

Tikanni thinks everything is for her, including the log books, pens, Tok's tail, our trekking poles, and my feet. But as far as a big metal box or plastic container, she doesn't seem to care much. She's only been on 3 caches with us thus far, so she may catch on more.

 

It's tough to get them to sniff and find since they can't ever be off-leash. I'm thinking something more eager to work with you and much younger to start, like a golden puppy, lab, or shephard, even a well-train border collie may work out very well as pro-cachers if you cache with them as often as you can.

[+Lolita]

My dog pal Mayday is getting pretty good at it. She's just started going with me in the past few months, and at first she had no idea why I stalled our walk or hike and starting turning in circles. She'd sit there and stare at me with that slightly puzzled and worried look. ( is this walk over already???) Now, as soon as we grab the gear, she's hyped. Her nose wiggles back and forth, she settles in for the drive. As soon as we start slowing down and I pick up my GPSr she gets up, ready to go. She jumps in the front seat, looking very seriously from side to side, as if she's helping decide where to park and discover the trailhead. She's helped me find a couple of caches and probably could have helped me with more if I would pay more attention to her clues. She walked me right up to a cache a couple of weeks ago, we weren't even out geocaching on this walk but there was an archived cache on the property that she and I found it instantly. She's such a great dog I give her credit every chance I get...so thanks for the chance !

[+Markwell]

Where's Kodak's4?

 

Using scent dogs to locate the cache

Caching with pet where I referenced an older thread. Still searching...

 

Ah, here it is: 4-Legged Geocaching Partners and Kodak's4.

[+GPSKitty]

Awwww, now I really need a pooch. My cat wouldn't be any help. Although... once I started paying attention to her cues, she has alerted me to plumbing leaks (most cats are fascinated by dripping water) and any type of flying or crawling insect that finds its way into the house. Now, if I could train her to cache-find, she would be a true GPSKitty.

 

GPSKitty

[+bigredmed]

Having bought a few ammo cans, they all smell like solvent, but as they get out into the woods a while, it dissipates. I wonder if you could train a dog to react to caches like bomb sniffing dogs react to the smells of explosives? I also wonder if there in enough of a generic human smell left on a cache to make this scent trainable?

 

My lab chow is a little old for training, but she sure uses her nose a lot when hunting in our back yard.

[+Shaggy of Mysteries Inc]

Check out this cache Campsite by the creek This dog has been helping cachers since October 15, 2003 . I don't think he was trained to find this cache, but I sure would like to borrow him for a day of cache hunting.

 

Edit : forgot to mention the cache was hidden by Tucker the search dog. You don't suppose he marked the cache for his friend to find.......eeeeewwwww.

 

~Shaggy~

Edited March 7, 2004 by Shaggy of Mysteries Inc

[+Sparrowhawk]

It would seem to me that there would be several ways of training a dog to find caches.

 

One would be to have their dog food dish be an ammo can and the water bowl be tupperware. (yeah, it's funny, but it can be practical).

 

When you are doing something that the dog loves and is a lot of fun, make sure an ammo can is associated with it somehow. Like playing fetch with a ball, drop the ball in an ammo can and get the dog to get all excited about the ammo can before you will toss the ball again.

 

Be interesting to see if this kind of thing works.