Video: Finding Hidden Scent Sample

Austin was out of the house this morning, so I took the opportunity to do scent training with Bo. I put Bo on his place and then hid the sample out of his view. I returned to him and gave him the 'find low' command. This is one of the videos I took of him finding and alerting to the low sample.

When Austin is Away Bo Will Play

Play scent games, with low scent samples, that is. We don't do scent training with samples when Austin is at home because we don't want to confuse Bo with the scent of Austin's live blood sugar. Our samples range between 85 and 70 and Austin's target is 120. You factor in Austin running above target and you can see how a live blood sugar, coupled with a scent sample of 85 could be confusing. So, all our training with scent samples is done while Austin is not present. When Austin is at home or in public with us, we use live blood sugar to train Bo.

For the past few days Austin has been overnight with family members and I've been doing extra scent training sessions. Our sessions include games where I hide a low scent sample and give Bo a command to find the low. Once he finds the sample, he is rewarded with a high value food and a game with me involving his favorite toys. Between sessions, I will also take him outside to play and sniff as a reward and give him time to rest. Tonight we had two sessions indoors involving  games of finding a low hidden in a container and two sessions outdoors involving recognizing a low scent on my body. He hit on the low the first time all but once -- when a lemon peel in one of the containers was enough to distract his focus. When this happened, I told him 'let's try again' and I took him out of the space, moved the containers and then brought him back.

Video: Scent Training with Snap-in Drains and Caps

Snap-in drains and caps for scent work. 

I'm changing the threshold low blood sugar number that Bo gets rewarded for from 100 to 85. I've decided to do this in hopes his 'ahead of the meter' alerts are below 100. Right now, he will alert ahead of the meter at say 118 and then within 10-15 mins (sometimes less) he re-alerts and Austin's blood sugar is 100 or below. See our alert log for examples. I expect it will take some time to re-train him to alert on the lower number and for this reason plan to increase the number of daily scent training sessions I do. My goal is to do four 10 minute sessions a day. One of the biggest challenges is going to be collecting an ample supply of scent samples between 80 and 85. Today, I picked up these snap-in drains and caps to use for scent work. In the video below, you see him sniffing around the room and when he comes to the container with the low scent sample (second in from left), he turns to me (off camera) and bows. I can only imagine what he would be capable of if he were being trained full-time by a professional -- rather than part-time by me.Thankfully, he is forgiving of my mistakes. If only I could learn to be as forgiving with myself.
VIDEO

Videos: Finding a Hidden Low Scent

In these videos Bo is using his nose to find a hidden low scent. It's hidden in a scent stick and he knows to bring it to me once he finds it. I do this training only when Austin is not home. I will hide the scent stick in different places. I also play this game without the scent stick and hide the sample in various types of containers.