Scenting with the Scent Sticks

Lily has trained with a scent stick.  She has learned to "Place" her nose for extended time on the canister at the end of the stick.  She has learned to "Place" her nose for extended time on a moving scent stick.  With the scent stick extended, Lily will go to wherever the canister is and rest her nose (or sometimes her chin) on it.  Lily thinks thats what the Scent Stick Game is.

But when I have 2 scent sticks and only one has a tea bag in it, she still thinks that the game is to target one with her nose and keep her nose glued to it until the click.

This confusion reminds me of Nad's confusion when learning to play the Scent Pots.  He thought the game was "Chin" and couldn't get beyond it to the scent.

Even with Lily's strong background in using her nose to discriminate.  Even with her strong understanding of the "Find the Smell" game, I'm having to teach this "new" Scent Stick Game from the beginning.

IF, when initially introducing the scent stick to Lily, it had already contained the tea bag, then scent would be an integral part of the equipment.  Now, however, I am asking her to interact ONLY with the canister containing the scent.  I will, in essence, be chaining scent discrimination to the presentation of this equipment.

Jen states the purpose of scent stick use as follows:

We still use the scent sticks in our odor training. We like them because they help to quickly shape adaptation skills in dogs. Moving a scent stick up & down, side to side, under and back, etc., during target sessions allows rapid acquisition of 'anywhere, anyhow' skills. If a dog is limited to presentation of odor in only one location in the early stages of pinpointing and nose-to-odor distance training (the floor, waist high wall ports, etc.), or only in pants pockets on the body, for example, the dog will often default to what has the most reinforcement history, esp when stressed, confused, or unclear. You want the dog learning to follow its nose to any location of odor/scent concentration. This helps prevent 'fly-by' nose work because you are only reinforcing the best nose target behaviors at all heights and presentations in this early history.

"LET ME EXPLAIN IT AGAIN!"

• 2 identical scent sticks
• new Earl Grey tea bag in one canister
• Session 1:  using the Target stick only, present in hand
• holding stick very close to the canister
• canister resting on my lap
• canister remains stationary
• I do turn it over from time to time during the session
• treats in full view on the stair beside me
• Session 2:  using 2 sticks, one the Target the other the Dummy, present in hand
• holding sticks very close to the canisters
• canisters resting on my lap
• treats in full view on the stair beside me
• whenever Lily indicates a false positive, I remove the Dummy from the game and complete the remainder of the session with the Target only

SAMPLE SUMMARY & DIFFERENCES	only 1 hole in canisters; hole on the side opposite the stick			building the chain "place" training scent discrimination
INTENSITY (# of holes	1			1
CONTAINER TYPE	film canister			film canister
PRESENTATION (hand/surface/wheel)	scent stick			scent stick
# of CONTAINERS	2	1	1	2 sometimes	2 most of the time	2
# of SCENT OPTIONS	1	1	1	1	1	1
REPS	5	10	10	10	10	10
% SUCCESS	0	100	100	50	80	100
COMMENTS	*1	*2	*3	*4	*5	*6
TARGET in #	stick	hand	hand	hand/lap	hand/lap	hand/lap
EASE OF FIND 1 Very easy     2 Easy   3 Normal 4 Difficult     5 Very difficult	5 Lily thinks we are playing the "other" game	1 replaced scent with new tea bag	1 same as previous; single target in hand	4,5 2 options, then 1 2 options, then 1 still thinks the game is "place"	4	2 The game is on!
TIME	after breakfast	same	same	30 minutes later	same	same

*5

Lily "placed" on the dummy the first 2 attempts.  I removed the dummy and she indicated the target twice.  Then I added the dummy to my lap but did not change the position of the target throughout the rest of the session.

*6

I kept the canisters in the same position as *5 for the first 5 reps, then reversed them for the final 5 reps.  She targeted the scent the entire time.