Can anyone tell me how you go about training your dog to pick up a scented piece of material? Long story but we one of our dogs is a pointer cross of some description and she needs a lot of mental stimulation, so my OH in his wisdom has managed to get her training on basic commands down to a tee, but we're trying to think of some other fun things to do with them all. He was the one who thought of the sending away to find the scented hankie. Any ideas?

Have you tried just playing 'Hide and Seek' with a favourite toy ? Start by putting the toy in a very easy place and then build it up gradually, so that eventually you can hide the toy in any room and the dog will search happily for it. Once your dog is finding the toy then you can try a hanky - not all dogs like holding material in their mouths tho', so you may have to practice just getting the dog to hold it first :)

Daisy

mmmmm..... might be a bit difficult hiding a toy in this madhouse as I've got 5 other dogs too and I'm sure they'd steal it or even show her where it is hidden LOL. We'll try it outside with her and see how she gets on. She has no problems holding material as Tessa can often be found running round the house with the sock she's just killed proudly showing it to us LOL

I find that, to do that sort of training with the dogs, I need to shut the other one in a separate room :)

Daisy

i start by dropping a toy or notted sock behind me in the long grass & then make a game of seeking back,then progress to hiding it around the house.

why not train her to track....always good for wearing them out LOL! :)