If you are looking for K9 Nose Work kits containing target odors and supplies, visit All Good Dogs LLC. If you wish to purchase your own essential oils and cottons swabs without the kit, please follow the instructions listed here:

 

Following is information on of how NACSW Trial swabs are prepared with a video description included at the end of the page.  This not an exact recipe. Since we make 1000’s of swabs at a time, it is challenging to break down the quantity into smaller batches for in-home use.

Materials Needed:

  • 4 oz. Glass jars with lids
  • 100 % Cotton swabs cut in half (Gardening clippers work well as a halving tool) Cut enough swabs to fill the jar about 2/3-3/4 full.
  • Target Odors: Pure essential oils (Sweet Birch, Aniseed, or Clove Bud) with bulb type dropper (oil vials and droppers vary greatly in size)

For reference on vastly different amounts of oil:  People often buy the larger ½-oz. bottles. Student kits come with 1 dram vials, CNWI kits come with 2 dram vials.

  • Latex, Nitrile or Vinyl gloves

Steps:

  • Fill the glass jar with cotton swab halves ½ to 2/3 full
  • Extract a dropper full* of one of the target odor essential oils; one odor per jar of cotton swabs.
  • Drizzle oil on the glass sides around the inside of the 4 oz. jar.
  • Secure the lid and tumble the swabs around in the jar.
  • Let swabs sit (‘cook’) for 24-48 hours, then check to determine if more il needs to be added. Repeat process until desired strength is obtained before using.

*Smaller droppers may need to be full, 2 dram droppers half full, ½ oz. droppers about ¼ full – these amounts are estimates. Exact amounts will vary.

Storage:

We recommend storing the scented cotton swabs in a glass jar with a threaded plastic or metal lid. These jars should then ideally be kept in an airtight, storage container away from sunlight.  Do not store scented swabs in plastic containers. Odors are at best temperature inside the house. Refrigeration or freezing is NOT recommended. Alternatively, heat sealed Mylar bags are also for long term storage.

Note:

The target odors are difficult to reproduce exactly every time.  Proportions may vary in potency due to the quantity of swabs to oil.  Therefore, we recommend training with varying quantities of cotton swabs to account for differences in concentration and surface area of available odor. Keep in mind you should be training with a varying amount of scent, so that the dog gains the experience on varied strength.  However, at this time, we do not recommend regularly training with high concentrations of odor.  Typically NACSW event hides contain 3 half cotton swabs unless otherwise dictated by conditions.

 

Video of Making NACSW Trial Odor