How long does it take a trained dog to be retrained to alert to a different odor?
Probably not long at all.
Several of my Dobe’s relatives do scent work competition and once the dog initially understands the command ‘seek’ means find anything that smells like whatever sample was offered to it, it goes pretty quickly.
3-4 hours
It’s pretty easy for them to learn a new target odor. My dachshunds (yes working scent hounds) do competitive scent work and are at the elite level in one organization (NACSW) and detective level in AKC.
I hit send too soon. One of mine is also a blood tracker during deer season, and when I place her on the line where the deer was shoot she is off following that blood trail. Zero confusion about what her “job” is.