10 Useful Skills for Sport Detection Dogs That Don't Have Anything To Do With Odor

1. Marker training (clicker)  - For training the skills on this list!
2. Some sort of indication behavior - a nose freeze is my current go-to
3. Stay or wait, on a platform or not - for doing skills reps, the dog can wait on the platform while the handler rearranges the search. Also good for posing in front of all those ribbons and awards.
   
4. Work with food in the handler's hand - this makes it quicker to reward, and trains the dog to ignore distractions in a search
5. Work with a toy in the handler's hand - same as #4
6. Play with a toy (all the way back to the car) - stress relief, prevents the dog from delaying finding hides because they don't want to go back to the car.
7. Look! - For checking areas in the search that may have been missed
8. This Way! - For calling your dog back into a search area
9. Name (means turn to me) - I only use the dog's name if "This way!" isn't working, but it's really useful in real life
10. "Good" - wait while a treat is brought to you, for rewarding at source and for rewarding stays in position