# Scent training cups



## Molly's Mum (Apr 1, 2011)

I'd like to do some scent training with Molly and want to get some opaque cups that have breathing holes in them so that I can hide a treat or scent underneath one of the cups and get her to identify which cup is hiding the scented object. Is there such a thing and what are they called? I could make my own by using picnic tumblers and drilling some air holes in the bottoms but as I don't have any tumblers to do this to, and I'd have to buy some to do what I want to do, I may as well buy the proper thing if there is such a thing.


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## Stretchdrive (Mar 12, 2011)

I use stainless steel teaballs. They work great, and you can buy them at Target for only $1.99. I highly recomend the method!

Here is a really good video someone I know did with her dogs to explain the method.


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## Stretchdrive (Mar 12, 2011)

You could also use the plastic mini M&M containers, Ice Breaker mints containers, plastic gum containers ect.


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## Molly's Mum (Apr 1, 2011)

I love the tea ball idea, that would work perfectly. It's even better than the cup idea I had because Molly would need to give me the tea ball for it to be opened to reveal the treat for her rather than just knocking over a cup. Thanks for sharing the video too, it gives me a good idea of how to do the training. Off to amazon now to see if I can find some at a good price, thanks heaps for the suggestion


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## LibertyME (Jan 6, 2007)

ive made some out of pvc before...cheap and easy


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## FlyingQuizini (Oct 24, 2006)

LibertyME said:


> ive made some out of pvc before...cheap and easy


That's what I was going to suggest. Drill holes in a short piece of PVC and add two end caps.


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## Molly's Mum (Apr 1, 2011)

Just wanted to update on this thread. I bought some teaballs and have started training with Molly. I'm so proud of my girl and had to share our progress. It's still very early days as we've only worked on this a few times but I feel that we've made some really positive progress already. I put a treat inside the teaball and started working with just one teaball to start with. Molly wasn't too sure about picking it up as it's metal and I guess she wasn't sure about the feel of it in her mouth. So I used the clicker and holding the teaball in my hand I clicked and treated each time she took the teaball into her mouth. After a short while I was placing the teaball on the ground and she'd pick it up but immediately drop it. A bit more clicker work and she was picking it up and giving it to me. She realised pretty quick that I had to have the teaball in my hand so that I could open it and reveal the treat for her to take. If she didn't give it to me she wouldn't get the treat. Today I introduced a second teaball, one had the treat inside (I used a hotdog sausage which is quite strongly scented to make it easy for her), the second teaball was empty. I expected to take a while for Molly to learn which one I wanted her to pick out but it was immediate. Each and every time she would pick up only the one containing the sausage. If she went to the empty one first she'd sniff it then move onto the other teaball and pick that one up after smelling it. Each session we've kept to only 5 minutes max as she's still a baby and we've done four sessions now. I'm so proud of my little Molly, what a clever girl! Anyway, just wanted to say thank you Susan for the teaball idea but also for posting the video on the training. It has helped us so much. I'll try to get a video done of Molly doing her training to share.


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## Stretchdrive (Mar 12, 2011)

That is great, I am so happy to hear it is going well!! It really is a fun method to teach them, and the dogs love it!!

We will be looking for the videos!!


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