How to prepare gun oil soaks for scentwork

Before we move on, what do we mean when we talk about soaks?

It's a colloquial term coined by scentwork trainers to describe the material used to absorb the target scent. Prepared soaks are usually placed in a container, such as a small vented tin. Soaks need to be absorbent to hold enough odour, examples of the most common materials include Q-tips, 3cm cotton squares, bits of wool and cigarette filters, but any super absorbent material will do!

It is good practice to use different materials for your soaks, because it helps in teaching dogs scent discrimination. For instance, if a dog only trains with Q-tips soaks, and is asked to search for a soak using a cotton square, confusion may arise as the dog might actually be searching for the Q-tip odour as well as the gun oil. You see, everything we use in scentwork has a scent!

Well that depends on a lot of factors, and certainly we could fill a whole blog with this subject. But the short answer is the intensity of the odour should match your dog's sniffing capabilities and also the environment we are asking the dog to search. Too much odour can create an overwhelming scent picture for our dog, making it hard for them to detect the source odour in question. Too little, and they might not find it at all, leading to frustration in both dog and handler! Finding the right balance is key. Personally, I think having dogs trained to search various strengths of odour leads to a more flexible and tenacious sniffer dog. 

This method produces a lighter odour, ideal for more experienced dogs already comfortable with detecting gun oil. First things first, prepare your area. Get all your containers cleaned and ready. Wear gloves and or use tweezers to avoid transferring any contaminants, including your own human scent onto the soaks.

For a more intense odour, apply a drop of oil directly to each soak.  This is the method I use when preparing gunoil soaks for scentwork trials. It is important that every soak gets the same amount of odour, so applying a single drop achieves this. This technique is also perfect for introducing gun oil as a new scent, offering a significant odour "hit” which sets our dogs up for success. This is also helpful for dogs new to gun oil as it creates clear opportunities to mark and reward odour recognition. In my experience I find 2 to 3 cigarette filters with a drop each of gun oil in a vented 15ml tin works well for dogs being introduced to gunoil for the first time.

The container can affect your dog's ability to source the odour. My preference when dogs have already imprinted on an odour is to use aluminium tins. Aluminum tins are great in because the material is less reactive. This means the metal is unlikey to "change" the  structure of the odour so the scent is more stable.

A few tips covering how I prefer to start dogs fairly new to gunoil. I like to keep the searches easy, setting up the dog for success by using larger containers with plenty of vents. For progression with more accomplished sniffers, I move onto  smaller, less vented hides or small plastic vials.

Mixing up the materials of your containers also known as "hides" will help your dog generalise the odour, not the container itself, so consider using different and novel hides in training to help your dog focus on the target odour and not the hide material.

I know the boring bit at the end! 😁 But looking after our scentwork gear is all part of scentwork! 

💡 Tip 1. For scent work equipment such as Kilner jars and tins, mix equal parts of white wine vinegar and water in a spray bottle, then apply to the items, allowing them to soak before rinsing thoroughly. White wine vinegar works wonders due to its mild acidity, which effectively breaks down any lingering odours without damaging the equipment. This solution can also be used for cleaning aluminium tins; but note that while a solution of white wine vinegar and water can be used, it is probably not a good idea to soak for an extended period. Prolonged exposure to acidic solutions can cause corrosion. 

💡Tip 2. Simply pop them in your dishwasher, just give a thorough rinse by hand in hot water to remove any detergent residue, after and leave to air until completely dry.

A final but important note, never mix and match your odour prep containers, it is good practice to keep them separate to avoid inadvertently causing cross contamination of target odours.