Air scent occurs when a disturbance is made by whatever has recently passed through the air (eg. an animal, human, or a toy that has been thrown for the dog to retrieve). It is affected by atmospheric conditions - temperature, humidity, wind speed and direction - and the time that has elapsed since the air was disturbed. Air scent disappears more quickly than ground scent.
Dogs detect scent molecules in two different ways - sniffing the air for traces of a particular scent, or from sniffing the ground or objects with scent on. Some dogs seem to have a preference for air scenting or ground scenting but all dogs are capable of doing both to some degree or other.
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