The Drug Detection Dog

Dogs were first used in the early 1970’s to detect hidden drugs on people, in vehicles and in buildings. Why does he do it? Because it’s made into a game that the dog gets rewarded for and gains praise from his pack leader aka handler.

Let’s look closer at this work, which in turn saves our authorities millions of pounds and months of their time. The breeds most used for this job are Spaniels (Springers & Cockers), Labradors, German Shepherds, and a cross section of other breeds. The dogs used must show a high degree of hunting instinct known as ‘prey drive’, be a good physical specimen and have a great deal of fitness and determination. The ‘active’ search dog covers buildings, vehicles and open areas. The ‘passive’ search dog covers lines of waiting of waiting passengers at airports, docks, theatres etc. The active dog will stop and stare at the location of a substance to indicate he has found something, whereas the passive dog is trained to sit in front of a person scented to be carrying drugs.             

The dog is only interested in the scent that he has been trained to search for. They can also be trained to search for money, mobile phones & human scents. An animal with the right attitude can be taught in a matter of weeks. So how does the dog‘s nose work? It’s all down to the scent glands and olfactory bulb which is around 40 times larger than the one in us humans! Dogs have 125,000,000 to 300,000,000 scent glands compared to our measly 600,000 in comparison. Their sense of smell is so strong they can detect one drop of oil in an Olympic sized swimming pool! Nature has built the olfactory bulb in canines to help their everyday life in hunting, recognising each other, and even scenting adrenaline forewarning them of an attack.

Let’s look at the dog’s nose close up. The air is drawn in via the two central nostrils, and exhaled through the slits on either side of the nose. This is so that there is no dilution of  scents whilst exhaling. Dogs can also move each nostril separately. Inside the dog’s nose are membranes called turbinates. The nasal turbinates are long, narrow passageways that help to warm and moisten the air that flows in through the nose. Inside the turbinates are scent detecting cells.

The olfactory gland in the brain has a memory bank capable of storing thousands of scent memories which the dog will remember through its whole lifetime. Mother nature has provided this scientific apparatus for the dog, so as working animals, it is important that we make good use of it.

So, we have a fit young dog, ready for training, who shows a lot of enthusiasm for hunting for a ball or a toy.   We have to check that the animal can handle slippery floors, open head stairs, noise distractions and be able to climb over obstacles.  They must also have a good temperament to work closely with people and other animals. Their training starts with a simple game of hunt the toy.  When we can see that the dog is keen and determined, and quite happy to cover all areas when searching, we introduce the various substance scents.

Scent impregnated cloth pads can be used to start with, which are concealed in a small safe cannister. When our canine friend is competent at locating the container, a cocktail of scents will be mixed to ensure the dog can identify each individual substance. This is where we make use of what nature has given our dogs- remember the memory bank that is part of the olfactory bulb? When searching for the cocktail, the memory bank would have stored the scent notes of all the previous substances the dog has been exposed to.  So picking out an individual drug is relatively easy for our willing workmate.  Hides are then made more difficult, and within a few weeks the dog is ready for assessment.

The passive dog can be trained in a similar way, but without the excitement of being off the lead and searching large environments. These dogs need to be calmer in their approach, as they are usually in close contact with people.  They are trained to sit in front of a carrier once a substance has been detected on the person. Sometimes nothing is found, has the dog make a mistake? Highly unlikely. The person identified could have been exposed to a substance but not actually be carrying it.  All in all the dog’s sense of smell is an incredible thing, and we are so lucky to be able to work with these incredible animals.

-Dogzilla