How Do They Train Drug Sniffing Dogs?

Dogs amaze us with their ability to detect scents from just a few molecules. At least we recognize their abilities, and use them to find things like drugs, explosives, and even cancer. But how to we train dogs to focus on one kind of smell? It's a basic dog training technique that's been refined to suit the dog's future job. But there are inherent dangers in these jobs, too.

While rare owing to the fact that the dogs are being used to find hidden drugs (thus likely barriers between the drug and the dog), it does sometimes happen where the dog may be exposed to something so toxic that even trace amounts pose a risk to them, such as relatively recently happened in Broward County, Florida where sniffer dogs were exposed to the extremely potent opioid fentanyl.

To get around this problem, the dog’s handler will keep a vigilant watch and particularly not deploy sniffing dogs at all if there are any loose drugs present. For the unseen drugs that nonetheless may be particularly potent, the handler also might carry things like naloxone with them, which rapidly reverses/blocks the effects of opioids, just in case.

Read about the specific training technique for drug detection dogs, plus some of the benefits and dangers of using dogs to detect drugs and other contraband at Today I Found Out.


Comments (0)

James Roe, merging the two sinks would not be sanitary. When I had a business the health department demanded separate sinks for hand washing and any other washing.

As for combing the shower and toilet areas, that's done all the time in RVs and trailers.
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Have to follow-up my last comment which wasn't intended to put down James Roe.

Don't we all wash our hands, lettuce, dishes, auto parts and such in the kitchen sink?

However, I don't know if an apartment could meet code if it had only one sink.
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Showering above the toilet has never appealed to me.
It's also too gross to brush your teeth in the same sink you wash the dishes in.

Looks like he made the place habitable, but is it "livable"?
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