MAR/PSAR K9 Bigwig - training session to practice human scent discrimination - Video

Problem: the owner’s scent is usually on the dog or cat’s scent article (like a collar, harness or leash) because they have to touch the item regularly, thus contaminating it.
How to teach a scent dog to follow the freshest scent of the PET rather than the owner’s scent - which is usually all over the search area before we get there, unless the pet was lost by the sitter.
Bigwig’s trainer has us practice a “split trail” where the owner and her dog are laying down scent together, and then at some point the owner splits off away from her dog and an unfamiliar person (whose scent is NOT on the scent article) continues with the dog.
Goal is for the scent dog to choose the trail with the target dog, not the trail of the owner.
Future sessions will include doing this type of trail aged 1/2/3 days, as well as practicing negatives (owner scent is present, but no target dog)
Caveat: this impromptu training session was conducted on a camping trip, without wearing my usual SAR gear (hence the wardrobe malfunction and wonky video while trying to hold up my pants ????)

K9 Bigwig’s training is from:

M.A.R.N. (Kat Albrecht)
https://www.missinganimalresponse.com/
P.S.A.R. (Annalisa Berns)
https://www.petsearchandrescue.com/about-us