Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Extensive Skill Is Required For Detection Dog Training

By Chloe Gib


The dog has a remarkable sense of smell that extends far beyond the scope of the human being. Although this is an innate trait, detection dog training requires an extensive period of time to complete. In most cases, the canine is first tested for trainability.

When a dog is evaluated and considered to be appropriate, it is determined what the focus of training will be. Among the many possibilities are as a cadaver dog, in which case he will be focused on finding dead bodies both above and underground. A specialty is finding cadavers under water. He could be trained to detect blood, illegal drugs and even cell phones that are hidden in prison cells. Blood can be detected many years after it was deposited on walls or a piece of furniture, for example.

If an avalanche buries someone alive as they ski down the slopes, there is a thirty-minute window of opportunity in which to dig them out. After that half hour, it becomes a recovery maneuver. Some dogs train to find a live person under snow, rocks or debris. Others, called cadaver dogs, train to locate a body. Some train to locate a body submerged in water.

Law enforcement dogs are trained to find bodies after an earthquake, for example. Others save human lives by detecting a living person buried under any type of debris and allowing rescuers to know where to dig. These dogs are in peril themselves during such a search as it may include going into narrow and unstable piles of rock or building materials.

Two types of training teach the dog to trail human scent. In one case, the dog is trained to follow, on the ground, any scent of any person. In the other type of training, the dog sniffs an article of clothing or other object that gives off the scent of one specific individual. The law enforcement canine then follows that person without being distracted by the smell of any other person.

Sometimes a type of mussel travels from one country to another and is damaging to an indigent fish or sea creature. Lakes also have found destructive mussels brought in on a fishing boat. K9 law enforcement dogs can learn to detect these sea or lake creatures. This is important because a lake can have the fish population killed by these mussels.

Most recently, bedbugs have proliferated in many areas. They have been found in some of the best hotels and motels. A dog who can sniff them out is of great value to the travel industry. Lessons in any of these skills take a long time to teach, even when the canine in question is a remarkably suitable candidate for detection dog training.




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