Scent work
In all transparency my guy is half doberman not pure bred, so I hope this is OK here.
We have been playing a game where I hide small treats and have him wait while I place them. When I tell him "find it!" He goes tearing off and is able to sniff them out in record time. Hes gotten so good at it we've graduated to the yard, and even the woods behind our house. Its a bit odd as he is not food motivated on a good day, let alone with so many distractions outdoors, so I think he genuinely enjoys the searching part. Like he has been given a job to complete
He loves other dogs, but is a bit leash reactive so im hesitant to get him into a scent work type of class.
Can anyone help with training methods to begin to teach him to locate a specific object that is not just treats? Or point me in the direction of some good online sources?
There is a lot of information out there, and im just trying to weed out the good methods vs the bad
Also is this a doberman thing? The wild ability to use their nose like that? He is not mixed with any type of hound dog, and any other dog I've owned before him just did not seem interested in this capacity
Included is a dog tax photo