Beginning Utility Scent Article training with JoAnne Brettschneider

This is a student that is getting ready to show for the first time ever in Novice A. She is beginning her Utility training, and I wanted to show others how quick it is to teach Articles with a dog that is willing. The process is about letting the dog figure out that there is only one article that is right, and the others are wrong. It is then up to the dog to figure out why one is the only one that we reward, and we ignore the others. In this process, the dog relies on his nose to try to figure it out, and in about 5 minutes, the dog is beginning to sniff. The leash is held short, as with a loose leash, the handler may inadvertently tug the dog away from the wrong one, and in this process there are no corrections, not even an uh-uh, as we don’t want to discourage the dog from sniffing the wrong ones. To correct on this, even mildly will only serve to confuse the dog. So we just keep referring to the correct one. The dog must be a willing retriever and be able to retrieve