11/11/2025
‼️SCENT DETECTION‼️ Why source may not be the strongest part of the scent cone!🐕🐕🐕
When we train dogs to indicate, what we’re really asking them to do is locate and communicate the point where the target odor is most concentrated.
Usually, that point is the true source — the place where the scent originates. From there, odor particles disperse into the air, becoming weaker as they move farther away. The dog follows these changes in odor strength to trace the scent back to where it’s strongest.
However, the spot with the highest accessible odor concentration isn’t always the exact location of the source.
For example, imagine a hide placed inside the crevice of the trunk of a car. If the air currents are carrying the odor upward instead of outward, the densest odor might actually escape from the top edge of the car trunk on the opposite side instead of where the acutal source of odor is. That’s the first place the dog can access the scent.
If no odor is escaping from the side where the hide sits, the dog can’t detect it there—they can only respond to what reaches their nose. In this case, if the dog indicates at the top edge, they’re actually correct: they’ve found the point where the scent is strongest and most available.
If we insist that the dog move down and indicate exactly where we know the hide is, we risk teaching them to point away from the strongest odor.
We can’t see how scent travels or behaves. What we can do is train with clarity, pay attention to what the dog is showing us, and adjust our expectations based on what’s truly happening in that moment.
