Detection dogs are trained to recognize and identify various chemicals based on their odor concentrations. This skill is critical to law enforcement agencies’ ability to protect the public and their communities. The dogs’ powerful sense of smell helps them identify explosives, narcotics, decomposing bodies, and other dangerous substances. In addition, they assist with tracking and apprehension of suspects.
Narcotics
Police and military canines are trained to discriminate scents and search for evidence. They are invaluable team members for many law enforcement operations, including bomb threats, drug seizures, and tracking suspects. Although they are used widely, canine scent detection near me is not a popular option for law enforcement agencies, primarily because of the cost associated with purchasing and training such dogs. Typically, these dogs are imported from shelters or breeders. These animals are bred to have specific morphological features that aid in their ability to identify certain types of odors, such as narcotics or explosives. In addition, they can maintain their ability to sense odors even in challenging environments under strenuous physiological conditions. They are also known to have a high drive, which helps them work continuously over several hours. These characteristics help them cope with the long working hours required in many conservation and SAR detection environments.
Explosives
Detection dogs are trained to detect the odor of many different explosives. Their sense of smell is up to 10,000 times stronger than a human’s. The Federal Protective Service, Transportation Security Administration (TSA), and local law enforcement agencies have teamed up to train and deploy explosives detection canine teams to airports, seaports, mass transit, and cargo facilities across the country. These canine teams search for explosive materials near building exteriors, parking lots, vehicles, offices, and packages. The canines are also taught to indicate when they have a positive hit on an explosive material, and the origin of that hit is then investigated. This helps ensure that the team has real impacts.
Body Scent
Dogs have an unparalleled sense of smell that is over 10,000 times stronger than that of a human. They are trained to perform various searches, including drug and explosives detection and locating bodies of missing persons. Detecting body scent is one of the most popular public service tasks dogs are trained to perform. Their extraordinary capabilities help law enforcement agencies save time and lives during emergencies. The scents that dogs can identify are particular and can provide clues to a person’s location in a search and rescue mission or a crime scene. During training, positive reinforcement helps the dogs learn what odors to focus on, and handlers praise them when they find them correctly. The dog’s heightened sense of smell means they can distinguish the scents of live people from those of deceased people, even if buried deep in rubble. Canine search teams are a critical element of disaster response and are often used by Type 1 US&R task forces.
Fire
If you’re a firefighter or a law enforcement officer, you’ll know how important it is to have a trained dog sniffing the evidence at a fire scene. Their olfactory sense – 200 times better than ours – allows them to quickly and safely check out a large area without risking contaminating the scene. They also detect drug, explosive, and accelerant traces at fire scenes. This is especially important because an arsonist may carry the accelerant into the car, which could be stowed in their trunk or poured into a flammable container. These dogs are specially trained to work with their handlers over months and years. They are fed on a food reward system and have learned to signal their handler when a scent resembling an accelerant has been found.
