Scent Items

If your dog has gone missing, you will be asked by our tracking teams to provide a scent item. Without a scent item, our teams cannot do their job, so this is vital!

The scent item is something that smells uniquely of your lost dog within a sealed container.

When an Active Search is in progress, the Tracking Team will meet you and the dogs will work from your scent item.

If you have a multi-dog household, please bring a scent item that is solely used by the missing dog. Objects that are shared between dogs will not be effective.

Instructions for Collecting a Scent Item

It’s important to minimise scent contamination when bringing us scent items.

1. Choose your scent item

2. Find a ziplock bag or similar, and turn it inside out

3. Pick up the item using the ziplock bag

4. Turn the bag back the right way, without touching the scent item

5. Seal the bag

6. Alternatively, you can use latex gloves to pick up the item and put it in a ziplock bag, or similar

It’s important that the bag be sealed. If at all possible, please try to provide 2-3 scent items; you can bag up your dog’s collar and harness separately, for example, or cut up your dog’s bedding to split into three bags.

Any of these type of items are suitable for use as a scent item, providing they are used only by your dog.

• A collar or harness

• Any “clothing”; dog coats, but also items such as bandanas, or snoods

• Bedding; blankets, vet-bed, mats

• Toys, especially soft toys or tug toys

• Grooming brushes or recently groomed fur

Do not wash or clean your scent item. The most effective scent items are items that are well-loved and well-used, and have been fully contaminated with fluff, oils, and/or saliva from your dog.

The Ideal Scenario

In a hypothetical, perfect world, your scent item will:

• have been made in advance

• be stored in a glass container (sterilised jam jars/spice jars, or small mason jars are perfect)

• have been re-scented within the last 12 weeks (if you are using groomed fur, just add or replace the fur after a fresh groom)

• be a multiple (i.e. be 3 identical scent items)

We understand that most people will not have this, so please don’t worry. We know that some people find it useful and reassuring to be prepared for the worst case scenario, and we want accurate information to be available.