Monday, January 19, 2009

25C Scents to Avoid when Training Allergy Alerts

There are many scents to avoid using when training allergy scent alerts as they are disagreeable to your dog, especially in full or concentrated form.

Some common sense ones: vinegar, rubbing alcohol, pine, lemon juice, citronella. In fact anything that has a citrus-like component. 

Earl Grey Tea, which I started both my dogs on, is aversive to Jessie. She wasn't her eager self to do scent training (often lagging to start a training session, avoiding the correct container to indicate, sniffing the ground after she got her treat and often would even turn her face away from it while indicating). She seemed to be slow to pair the indication behavior with the scent. It turns out the burgamot that makes it different from plain black tea, is citrus-based.

Watch your dog's signals to see if they find the scent aversive.