How to Train Your Dog to Find Money

Wouldn't it be nice if your dog could find money for you?  Good news! You can train a dog to sniff out pretty much anything as long as you have the patience needed to do so. Like many other things including drugs, people, and other creatures, money has its own distinct smell. Since most dogs have a fantastic sense of smell, they can be taught to use this sense to help them find hidden items, in many cases even when that item has been carefully hidden.

In fact, most branches of law enforcement have dogs that have been trained to sniff out a variety of items including drugs, ammunition, explosives, cadavers, live bodies, and yes, even money. Sniffer dogs trained to sniff out money are also used by Customs and TSA officials in the airports and shipping ports. These dogs are so good that they have found hundreds of thousands of dollars hidden in secret compartments over the course of the last few decades. You, on the other hand, could train your dog to find money every time you go out for a walk.

The task is pretty simple: your goal is first to teach your dog to recognize the smell of paper money (it's the ink that has the distinctive smell). Then you must teach your dog to use his newfound "love" of the way money smells to help you find money no matter where it is hidden. You never know how much money your dog might find for you every time you go for a walk. While you can train your dog to find money at almost any age, you should plan to start training him for this as soon as he has mastered the basic commands.

Not only will you be training your dog to recognize the smell of money, but to find it, and to alert you to the fact he has done so. One thing to keep firmly in your mind is that it will take time for your dog to learn to recognize the smell of money and then to use his sense of smell to find it.

Like most forms of training, teaching your pup to sniff out money is going to take some time and a few necessities, including:

• Money: You need to have several pieces of paper money to train your pup to recognize the smell.
  
• Treats:  No good training program is complete without a lot of treats to reward your pup for getting it right.
  
• A toy:  To use during training sessions, a tennis ball works best.
  
• A plastic zipper bag:  To place the ball and money inside to ensure the ball smells like money.
  
• A quiet place:  If you plan to train your dog to perform any type of trick, a quiet place free of distractions is the best place to do so.
  
• Patience:  It will take time to teach your dog this trick, so you will need to be very patient while he learns.