Dog Scouts

Check out the Dog Scouts. This site has lots of fun information. There is even an article describing how to teach your dog to paint. I like the scent discrimination games. I think teaching the dog to find my kids will be useful. I've been on a "learning about dogs" kick ever since I saw a bloodhound track a baby that was inside a car and found her 20 miles away. That bloodhound knew which highway exit the would be thief had taken. Amazing. Then I learn of dogs that can smell cancer. Now that is awesome.
In a National Geographic show titled 'Dog Genius', an untrained juvenile bloodhound successfully tracked the suspect from a staged shooting who fled by vehicle through the city of Long Beach, CA by using nothing more than the scent from a bullet casing. In the experiment, the suspect was allowed to travel anywhere within a 3 mile radius. The dog was able to easily track the suspect through busy intersections, along a major highway, past numerous hot dogs placed on the ground as a diversion, and finished by singling out the correct person on a crowded beach.