Kali has been working on learning scent articles on and off for 6 months
(Tie-down method). I've been patient and waiting for her to learn to sniff
instead of taste them figuring it will happen eventually. I thought I'd
start tracking this spring to help teach her how to use her nose.

Just over a month ago, I ran out of her incontinence medication (PPA) and
after seeing a post saying that they knew a dog who didn't need it life long
I thought I wouldn't refill and wait to see if she started leaking again.
She did, but in the meantime she started using her nose, a lot! So, I took
her down from 50 mgs a day to 25 mgs a day and she still has use of her nose
but no leaking.

Now that she's on a lower medication level she sniffs her articles instead
of tasting them. In the past month she's made so much progress! After 2
weeks of lowering her medication, we went from two metal articles tied down
(the scented one loose), to 2 tied down, 2 loose and the one scented--she
picked up the scented article 95% of the time. Our trainer added the last
loose metal article and Kali was still finding the scented one (the scented
one out of six articles on the ground).

Then our trainer said she's getting it and time to introduce leather
articles; tie down one metal and one leather to the board. She put down
several loose metal and leather articles and Kali still picked up the
scented one--totally ignoring the new leather ones! Then she said to scent a
leather article, and on her first try, Kali picked out the scented leather
one amongst a big pile of leather and metal articles.

Our trainer told us after this session no more board!!! We've graduated to
doing articles grown up style!! YEA!

The moral of the story is; if you know someone who's dog is on PPA and seems
to have no sense of smell--it's the PPA. Lower the dosage as much as
possible.

--
Kristen and
Kali CDX, CGC, TDIA, TT
www.kristenandkali.com

Great info. Thanks. I have seen dogs that are on a course of antibiotics lose
their noses too. Always give the benefit of the doubt and look at all possible
causes.

Great info. Thanks. I have seen dogs that are on a course of antibiotics lose
their noses too. Always give the benefit of the doubt and look at all possible
causes.

Great info. Thanks. I have seen dogs that are on a course of antibiotics lose
their noses too. Always give the benefit of the doubt and look at all possible
causes.