Articles relating to Scent Specific Working dogs
Forensic Magazine, April/May 2006
Forensic Science Communications, Vol 6 Number 4, October 2004
Forensic Science Communications, Vol 6 Number 3, July 2004
Forensic Science Communications, Vol 7 Number 2, April 2005
Thesis by Captain Kendra S. Fletcher, USAF, June 7, 2007
Courtesy of Bill Tolhurst
excerpt from Yahoo group K9Forensics
courtesy of Bill Tolhurst
Additional Articles of Interest
Search and Rescue Tracking Institute, Richmond, VA
Search and Rescue Tracking Institute, Richmond, VA
Search and Rescue Tracking Institute, Richmond, VA
Search and Rescue Tracking Institute, Richmond, VA
Can a Dog become overwhelmed with the scent coming from the scent article? How much better is the dog's sense of smell than that of a human?
"W. Neuhaus... employed an olfactometer for mixing and delivering odorant samples at very low concentrations. ....he estimated that a dog's ability to detect butyric acid (a component in sweat that smells like dirty socks) is from 1 million to 100 million times better than a human's ability. ....Butyric acid is a prominent feature of the scent picture utilized by dogs.""Neuhaus's findings...of tracker dogs. ....human sweat has about 0.156 per cent of acid of which about one-quarter is aliphatic. If only 1/1000th of this penetrates steadily through the sole and seams of the shoe, it can be calculated that of an acid such as butyric acid, at least 2.5 x 10 to the 11th power molecules would be left behind in each footprint. This is well over a million times the threshold amount for the dog, and could still give a detectable smell when dispensed in 28 cubic meters of air"
"Handbook of Applied Dog Behavior and Training by Steven R. Lindsay.
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I have seen handlers use the "bag" technique when presenting the scent article. This is done by placing the baggie over the dogs nose, and some handlers actually pump the bag to express the scent up into the nostrils. Is this too much? It seems that we might be scent Over-Loading our dogs? In my own personal experiences, I have, on occassion, seen my K9 actually turn "away" from the scent article as I presented it in front of his nose. Was he trying to tell me something? Was it just too much at one time? Something to think about --
