How to Train a Doberman Pinscher to Follow a Scent

Getting your Doberman pinscher to follow scents and demonstrate where it is finding them, known as scent tracking, is an age-old process. "Training" is an inappropriate term because your Doberman uses its nose to follow scents all the time. Rather, you will give your Doberman incentive to follow scents and to show you their source. Dobermans are adept at this process as they have more expressive body language than most other dogs and are trained for handling stressful and dangerous work.

Things You'll Need

  • Hot dogs
  • Dog treats
Show More

Instructions

    • 1

      Take your Doberman to a large open, grassy space. Cut the hot dogs into small pieces the size of a quarter or so before you arrive there, or break them into pieces once you arrive.

    • 2

      Make your doberman sit in one place and walk in a straight line in front of it, dropping a piece of hot dog and smashing it into the grass with your shoe every 10 feet or so. Do this for about five or six hot dog pieces. At the end, leave something with your smell on it (such as a piece of clothing) and a hot dog piece.

    • 3

      Encourage your Doberman to find the first hot dog piece by leading it with your fingers and encouraging it verbally.

    • 4

      Encourage your Doberman to find the second piece, and so on down the line. Give it verbal encouragement each time it finds a piece. Dogs recognize your accolades for what they are.

    • 5

      Pet the dog and let it know its achievement once it completes the task. Encourage your dog to follow the scents so that it will complete the course.

    • 6

      Repeat the task and create longer and more intricate scent trails. Your Doberman will slowly learn to show you the scent trails it is tracking when you show it encouragement after completing all of the trials.