Can a dog be trained to find gold or silver?

A

applecrack

Jr. Member
Jan 22, 2014
87
49
Western New York
Detector(s) used
Whites DFX
Whites XLT
Whites TM808
Primary Interest:
Cache Hunting
Ive seen a post on here before a few years ago, about a guy that was trying to train his dog to find Caches....Not sure how it turned out..but that would be one hell of a hunting buddy!
 

I recently watched a work dog sniff the outside of a car and find a small amount of drugs inside.
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You have to watch that stuff closely,the dog handler can also give the dog a signal so that the dog will display the drugs found sign.
 

pigs can find truffles buried under ground, but I wouldn't think gold or silver gives off much scent.

I always heard coyotes and fox can smell a steel trap buried an inch or so under the soil.

I think lack of scent, and depth would be two major obstacles to overcome.

GL.
 

After doing a little more reading I found out that dogs can find mInes buried up to 6 meters and could have been buried for years and years.
 

My dog can smell trash, that's for sure.
 

I've trained patrol dogs, attack dogs, drug dogs and obedience dogs, but never even thought of this. I think Gold Maven has hit it. Lack of scent would be a huge obstacle to overcome. I believe that the dogs finding mines would be hitting on the scent of nitrates used to blow sections of the mine, or possibly the scent of the dead air trapped inside.
 

This is my idea. Use a detector to find an object and it's depth. Then take a poker and push it into the ground at the depth shown on the detector and have the dog sniff the air from the pusher hole. I'm not sure if he can tell if it's gold or not but I imagine this could save a ton of time and maybe even increase accuracy. And what if your on a cache, it would be really nice to know your on the gold if your talking about many feet of earth to remove. Sometimes you need to think outside the box.
 

Processed metals have an odor and taste. Only an animal would know if native gold has its own
smell but I would bet blacksand has a peculiar taste. Never tried it though due to possible mercury
residue.
 

I can't remember his name, but there use to be a guy on here that trained his dogs to hunt treasure. He said to give the dog a coin and let him play with it (chew on it, etc.). Apparently the smell will become familiar to the dog, and he can then sniff it out. I can see doing that with an old, worn out silver dollar, but I don't think I'd be throwing down a lot of gold.
 

I really doubt it, drug dogs etc sniff airborne particles. Gold and silver are heavy enough they won't be airborne. They can find it if it has a human scent on it but they won't bother unless they are trained to that persons scent and that person recently touched the gold or silver
 

my schnoodle digs up pennies on a regular basis. he will be walking along and start digging and uaually if i check the dirt there will be a penny in it. didnt train him to do it he just started doing it on his own. i just wish he would find something more valuable.lol but its still cool he does this.
 

Yes. You can train a dog to find gold and silver. It is my understanding dog's have a sense of smell 600 times greater than a man. It is a tedious task to train a dog to do this, but if you do try to teach a dog to find silver and gold, be patient.
 

so I may have bought my golden retriever in error?
 

My dog will dig anywhere I put my foot...
I say "dig dig" in a certain way...

Problem is... he goes at it and scratches at the dirt... throwing dirt between his legs and everywhere as he rotates around the hole.
Which...
If anyone is within 10 feet... they are getting nailed with dirt... rocks... and whatever else those claws fling.
 

I've heard of cadaver dogs finding 150 year old graves. I heard that they signal where the skull is. There is a cemetery a couple of miles from me where the dog signaled all the old graves. When they were finished, there were flags placed a few feet apart in rows. The oldest grave dates back to the Civil War but I think the majority are 1870s-1890s and then there was a 30+ year gap and they are still using it.
 

Searching for coins.

applecrack said:
I recently watched a work dog sniff the outside of a car and find a small amount of drugs inside. It got me thinking. I asked the handler if you can train him to find precious metals and he said it was certainly possible. He said they find bombs and all sorts of things these days. Anyone ever try this? Thoughts?
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It would be nice not only to train a dog to detect coins and jewels but to dig them up. I try teaching Tippy my cat to detect coins and jewels, and she was so anger with me, she urine on my shoes and my beds for months. Good hunting and good luck. You are on your own.
 

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Honest Samuel said:
It would be nice not only to train a dog to detect coins and jewels but to dig them up. I try teaching Tippy my cat to detect coins and jewels, and she was so anger with me, she urine on my shoes and my beds for months. Good hunting and good luck. You are on your own.
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previous owner of Gold-N-Detectors had a little dog that had no training. would stand over a spot and owner would find stuff. True story. who knows wht dogs understand?
BB
 

miner1849 said:
Yes. You can train a dog to find gold and silver. It is my understanding dog's have a sense of smell 600 times greater than a man. It is a tedious task to train a dog to do this, but if you do try to teach a dog to find silver and gold, be patient.
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No you can't. Gold is impervious to natural minerals and it does not oxidize. Translation = there is nothing about gold for a dog to smell.
 

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