REFILL - Scent Work Odour tips - Anise | Clove | Birch | Cypress

You want to avoid getting the oil on your skin – use tweezers to remove the q-tips from the jar and wear rubber gloves. Also avoid letting oil (q-tips, or anything with the oil on it) touch things in the environment. This causes residual odour in the environment which can cause extinction of interest in odour over time, or lead to false alerts in search environments.

Store your odour in a cool, dry place where you don’t do searches. Store in a container that is as airtight as possible (you can invest in a Pelican case or something similar). Don’t store your odour in a place where the dog can smell it all the time. 

When you are ready to throw your used q-tips away, please be careful how you do it. We really want to avoid q-tips with odour on them randomly in the environment. I always put my q-tips into a zip-lock bag before throwing them out. I also tend to wait until bin night and put them out on the street, rather than having them in my kitchen bin for any period. The dogs can still smell them there!! 

You can use the q-tips over and over for quite some time, unless they smell weird, get very soiled or contaminated with other things like food or dirt. I tend to keep my q-tips in my hide vessels for a few weeks for regular use before disposing of them, however it is best to store your q-tips back in a jar. The q-tips in this jar can be re-used for longer as the odour has not ‘burned off’ by being left outside of the airtight jar. 

Consider the size of your hide vessels, especially while you and your dog are still learning. Although smaller containers are easier to hide, depending on your dog’s size and search style, we want to limit the chances of your dog swallowing or inhaling a q-tip or a small tin. Always start with a larger hide vessel until you’re sure your dog is not likely to ingest the hide.

PLEASE SEEK VETERINARY ADVICE IF YOUR DOG SWALLOWS A Q-TIP OR A HIDE VESSEL.