Is there a secret to getting treat smell of your hands?

[K10]

My OH and I have really done a great job finding wonderful varieties of the smelliest treats possible to use while training. But! We have to wash our hands a good three times after training our dogs to rid our hands of the lingering treat smell. Is there a secret to getting stinky treat smell off of our hands with one good hand washing?

[barry581]

What are you using that is this bad?

[POPTOP]

^ same question.

Special treats around here are cut up hotdogs and boiled chicken bits.

[smartrock]

Maybe try dishwashing soap, like Dawn, on a washcloth or dishcloth to add some good friction to good soap to help get the oils off your skin. I heard someone recently talking about how the key to getting oils from poison ivy off your skin is to use a washcloth along with the soap, the soap alone won't get it off. Maybe the same would work for treat stinkyness. I haven't tried it myself, not sure what else to suggest.

[K10]

We're using a lot of freeze dried fish, freeze dried tripe, jerky, and stella and chewy's type treats! The first time we wash our hands, most of the smell goes away, but if I have my hand by my face for more than a few seconds at a time, I can still faintly smell it. Also, I have to wash all of the clothes I wear to train twice to get all of the treat smell out of the pockets. The fish treats are so smelly that if the ziplock style bag they come in isn't sealed the whole way, the entire car smells like fish. Bleh! We started putting them in a tupperware kind of container because the bag doesn't always close nice and tight.

eta: I found some suggestions! How do you get the smell of fish off your hands? - Seasoned Advice

[barry581]

Being a chef, I handle a lot of fish. I've found that lemon juice will do a pretty good job of taking fish stink off your hands.

Have you considered using latex gloves when using these treats?????

[K10]

Being a chef, I handle a lot of fish. I've found that lemon juice will do a pretty good job of taking fish stink off your hands.

Have you considered using latex gloves when using these treats?????

Lol, I've considered it. Once the one pack of fish ones that I know smell exceptionally stinky are gone, I'm not getting any more of them. I don't think the other ones are quite that bad. One of our two dogs goes bananas for any kind of fish flavored anything, so we tend to get a lot of fishy treats for her. Luckily, my boy goes bananas for everything, so I can lay off the stinky stuff when I'm only working with him.

[Labradorks]

I thought maybe you were using bleu cheese or something!

The one thing I hate is putting gooey training treats in your pockets. Ugh...cold fat is gross! I typically use string cheese or chopped up beef or chicken that I overcook in the crockpot. The other day I had leftover prime rib scraps. Gross!

[Snowshoe]

Vinegar, lemon juice, stainless steel. But, I wonder how much your dogs are smelling residual treat as opposed to having learned fingers contain treats? And it's not that they quite sniffing beause your hands no longer smell but because they gave up on finding more treat there. I use the "All Gone" sign, hands splayed open to show the treat is gone, works no matter how much my hands still smell.

There was a problem with black bears lifting windshields right out of pick up trucks at the canoe route takeoff. Empty pickups. Bears had learned they Sometimes contained food so operated, it seemed, as if any of them might have food. It's thought smell was a minor factor.

You should see a windshield lifted right out, intact. It's quite amazing. I've only seen it on a remote cabin window.