First post

Duece was exposed to cadaver scent when he was about 4 months old.

We had some scent in a pill bottle in a zip-locked bag that I teased him with a few times but wouldn't let him have it, all the while repeating the search command. Then I would ram it into a snow bank while he watched. When my hand came back empty he checked out the hole in the snow and when he dug for it, repeated the search command. When he pulled the zip-lock bag out, he got the most praise in the highest voice I could muster, and he was so excited ! ! !

Later, when his attention was distracted, I would stuck it in a snow bank a little farther from where he was standing and gave him the search command. We did this every couple of days and made sure we stopped when he was still excited about finding it.

We progressed to making a bunch of identical holes in the snow banks and letting him check out all of them to learn his body language when he hit on the correct hole. We also want to make sure he doesn't just go to a place I happened to leave scent or where the snow was disturbed.