Why precision matters: The hidden danger of cutting your Getxent Tube

Jan 20, 2026

In the world of professional odor detection, we often say that "aiming for 'good enough' is the first step toward failure in the field." At Getxent, our mission is to provide the most technologically advanced tools to ensure your K9 partners are operating at their absolute peak.

Recently, we have noticed a growing trend in the community: cutting Getxent tubes into smaller pieces. While we understand the desire to manage odor intensity or extend the life of a product, cutting a Getxent tube is one of the most common mistakes a handler can make. Here is the science of why cutting your tubes is actually sabotaging your training and the professional way to reduce intensity instead.

1. The "Barcode" Effect: You’re handing your dog an incomplete map

Think of a specific odor as a barcode. To a human, an odor might just be identified as "Human Remains" or "Molds" but to a dog’s high-level olfactory system, that odor is a complex sequence of chemical "bars."

When you cut a Getxent tube, you aren't just making it smaller; you are physically altering the odor profile. By cutting the polymer, you remove critical fractions of the odor.

The Risk: Your dog is a genius. If you give them an incomplete barcode, they will likely still "guess" the code and alert. However, over time, your dog begins to associate this partial profile as the "correct" odor. When they get into the field and encounter the full odor profile, their detection efficiency drops significantly because it doesn't match the "incomplete map" you’ve been training with.

2. Chemical integrity and "Odor Pictures"

Our tubes are engineered with specific chemical blocks designed to capture and hold a "full odor picture." This engineering exists throughout the entire structure of the tube.

When you cut a tube, evenbefore impregnation, you disrupt these chemical blocks. This prevents the tube from ever capturing the full spectrum of the target odor. You are essentially using a high-tech tool but disabling its most important features before you even start.

3. The Professional solution: Odor equilibration

We understand that sometimes a full Getxent tube provides an intensity that is too high for a specific training scenario. However, the solution is dilution, not amputation.

If you need a lower-intensity training aid while preserving the 100% accurate odor profile, follow the Equilibration Method:

Take one impregnated Getxent tube and place it in a clean, airtight glass jar.
Add one (or more) blank Getxent tubes into the same jar.
Seal the jar and wait for 72 to 96 hours.

Because of the way Getxent technology works, the odor will naturally "equilibrate" (balance out) between the tubes. This effectively divides the odor intensity by the number of tubes across the tubes while ensuring that every single tube contains the full, 100% accurate "barcode" of the odor.

The Bottom Line

Your dog's reliability in the field depends on the quality of the "odor picture" you provide during training. By keeping your Getxent tubes whole, you are ensuring that your dog learns the most accurate, complex, and reliable version of the target odor possible.

Don’t cut corners, and don't cut your tubes. Your dog deserves the full picture.