The Scent Article
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Scent article collection
Ideally, the only two people that will have touched your scent article are the subject and the handler. Anyone other than those two start to create a less than perfect scent article. That’s the bottom line.
I have worked off of “dirty” articles in the past, but only if all of those who touched the article were standing there for the dog to rule out. And I personally don’t recommend this. Your dog should not have any trouble with your scent — because it is not trailing you. Remember the percentages that I listed earlier: a dirty article just reduces those already challenging numbers.
Storage
The scent article should be bagged and brought along with the handler in case you need or want to re-scent the dog. The bag should be sealed shut, because you don’t want additional scent trickling out onto the ground, which could, in rare cases, make for a difficult scent picture for the dog to have to think about.
Age of Article
It should be standard practice to have a scent article that is at least as aged as the trail —because that is your real-life scenario. In training I think that most people overlook this. I have done enough old trails with hot articles to make it debatable, but since that will never happen on a real search, you should train for the real deal.
***This text may not be used or reproduced with out the author’s permission. This text is copyrighted material.
