Canine Training

Can canine units get addicted tothe drugs they are trained to sniff out?

Anyone ever thought about this? Credible answers and opinions are both welcome.

No. When we train dogs to search for narcotics we start their training out using a powder substance call "Sudo" which is not available to the general public. Sudo come in different odors and is nontoxic to the dog. Each one has an odor that mocks different chemical odors in certain narcotics. If you were to smell these different types of Sudo it would not smell like drugs to you i.e Cocaine, Heroin, Marijuana, Meth. Each one has a different chemical odor that mocks one certain chemical odor in each type of narcotic. A dogs nose doesn't work the same way a human's does. Best example that I can give is when you smell beef stew cooking what do you smell? Beef stew right? A dog can smell all the ingrediance in the same beef stew i.e Beef, Salt,Pepper, Potatoes,Carrots etc. So when a dog that is trained to detect narcotics comes across real drugs he is recognizing that one chemical odor that is an ingrediant in that one type of drug that he is smelling. They never really come in direct contact with the real drugs because direct contact with real drugs could be harmfull or possibly deadly to the dog. As soon as the dog indicates to the handler that their are drugs preasent. Usually by scratching and pawing at the area (Aggressive indication) or by sitting and staring at the odor(Passive indication) which is the same way that explosive detection dogs are trained to indicate. He is then rewarded with his toy which is what he thinks he was looking for in the first place and totally looses interest in the area he was indicating on. The reason he thinks he is looking for his toy (Rolled up cotton towell) when he is finding drugs is because when they are training the towell or "Toy" is coated with these different sudo powders and we simply play fetch and tug-a-war with the scented towel or "Toy" and so the dog associates the scent of the drugs with his toy. The dogs only motivation to locate the odor is the desire to play because he doesn't think he is looking for drugs but instead he thinks he is looking for his toy and when he picks up the odor of the drugs he thinks he has found his toy and all he wants to do is play with the toy. We do use real drugs at times during training exercises to get the dog used to finding actual drugs but they don't get direct contact with the drugs because it's done the same way as if we were on an actual scene doing a drug search. As soon as the dog indicates on the odor he is rewarded with the toy. I hope that answered your question.

Police K9 Training


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