How do they do it?
The way I start my dogs on human remains – and this can translate to drugs is I set up one "hot" pipe and several negative pipes (pvc pipe with holes) and I set them up in a line – I give my dog the command that will associate the scent and when he shows the SLIGHTEST interest in the "hot" pipe, I reward with praise, toy, food whatever the motivator is for the dog. My Rottie has two certified finds on drowning victims one on the lake and one in a river. I’ve had great success in starting them out this way and just moving on from there. I also have a specific toy that has been "scented" with HRD that we play with which helps to reinforce the scent with him a bit. He is food rewarded and pavlov’s theory comes in because when we are on a search and he comes into "scent" of the HRD he begins to drool a bit as he is relating the scent to his food reward.
Drug dogs do not get ADDICTED – that is ridiculous – they would have to ingest the product or inhale it for that to happen and great care is taken when training drug dogs that this does not happen. They are responding to a chemical compound of the particular drug that is why they are able to scent on different types of drugs (they are taught one drug at a time). It is very hard to get certified to train drug dogs because you have to be trained to handle the training material. There is a company called Sigma that produces a Pseudo scent that dogs can be worked off of but they should be trained on the real drugs as well.
8 Responses
2010 Feb 28
They get the dog to relate the smell with their favorite treat or toy. They had a special on this type of training, on Animal Planet once.
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2010 Feb 28
Trainers do NOT get the dogs addicted to drugs. They show them what they should alert to, and they praise them when they do the right thing. Usually they are given a kong or tug toys, something they love, in exchange for their response to the drugs.
A drug addicted dog would be useless…
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2010 Feb 28
The trainer puts different stuff around on the training place for the dog to sniff. Drugs is just one of those stuff. When the dog, sniffing around, runs upon the drugs, it is being heartly treated and shown that this is something very good to do. When it runs upon other stuff than drugs, it is said to the dog "No!" or similar things to show the dog he/she has found wrong stuff. So the dog eventually starts feeling happy when it runs upon drugs because it found the "right" stuff.
Dogs that will eat anything are not good for searching drugs.
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2010 Feb 28
The way I start my dogs on human remains – and this can translate to drugs is I set up one "hot" pipe and several negative pipes (pvc pipe with holes) and I set them up in a line – I give my dog the command that will associate the scent and when he shows the SLIGHTEST interest in the "hot" pipe, I reward with praise, toy, food whatever the motivator is for the dog. My Rottie has two certified finds on drowning victims one on the lake and one in a river. I’ve had great success in starting them out this way and just moving on from there. I also have a specific toy that has been "scented" with HRD that we play with which helps to reinforce the scent with him a bit. He is food rewarded and pavlov’s theory comes in because when we are on a search and he comes into "scent" of the HRD he begins to drool a bit as he is relating the scent to his food reward.
Drug dogs do not get ADDICTED – that is ridiculous – they would have to ingest the product or inhale it for that to happen and great care is taken when training drug dogs that this does not happen. They are responding to a chemical compound of the particular drug that is why they are able to scent on different types of drugs (they are taught one drug at a time). It is very hard to get certified to train drug dogs because you have to be trained to handle the training material. There is a company called Sigma that produces a Pseudo scent that dogs can be worked off of but they should be trained on the real drugs as well.
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2010 Feb 28
Simple substution.
You find the drug sample and I give you a treat.
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breeder trainer exhibitor
2010 Feb 28
Good question.. Drugs detection dogs, as all detection dogs should be, are chosen for their immense hunt drive. That is the ability to search endlessly for a toy they have not seen placed.
The dog is started in training by being exposed to several narcotics together in a training box. Usually there are 4 boxes in the training area, when the dog sniffs the correct box he gets rewarded by being given his favorite toy. That can be a ball or a tug.
As soon as the dog shows interest in the right box, (odor recognition), he is taught the sit command and then gets rewarded only when he sniffs and sits as an alert.
Most agencies use the toy reward method, but, some federal depts use the food reward which I believe to be wrong.
That is as much as I am willing to say in an open forum!!
Hope I helped!!
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2010 Feb 28
A simple substitution method. You can teach any dog though some breeds are obviously better at it than others. A drug dog is taught with the substances it needs to find but you can do it with something that the dog already knows, your scent. Put a cloth you’ve rubbed your hands on well into a box and put it with other boxes the same and when the dog starts sniffing at that box make a fuss in an excited tone of voice and reward the dog with a treat or it’s favourite toy (the substitute reward). Ignore when he sniffs the other boxes. Soon you’ll have a dog that ignores the other boxes for the one that contains the cloth. All will have your scent on but the key box will smell stronger! It’s a great game for the dog, looks really clever and gives the dog a bit of mental stimulation.
Drug dogs aren’t working they are playing!
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2010 Feb 28
Once an officer from the K-9 unit came and showed us how he worked with his German Shepherd. What they did was they took a towel and soaked it in the smell of the drug. This towel was used as a toy. Basically after the dog knew it was his toy, they’d hide the towel and the dog would get it. Then after they’d play with the towel. So now when the dog smells drugs, he digs at the box or whatever and the officer throws out the towel like it came out of the object hiding the drugs. He actually put a small amount of drugs in a pizza box and we got to watch the dog sniff it out.
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