Scent in Training Police Dogs? - Page 1

i read somewhere recently that there is a particular scent the body gives off under stress. This scent can be synthesised, bottled and use to train police K9's in pursuing fugitives through areas that have multiple scent trails, due to heavy pedestrian traffic.

Can anyone give me a link for this?  I sure wish I'd kept that article! It must have been in someone else's newspaper, or I would have kept a copy of it for sure!

Thanks!

I have never heard of it, but that doesn't mean it isn't being done.

I have heard of using scent pads on individual suspects. Example being a suspect runs from a vehicle and cannot be located. They put a scent pad on the seat of the car. If the suspect is seen again and runs, they use the scent pad for the dog to track the suspect from the area where they were last seen.

They also use scent pads for a suspect identification line-up. The dog is given the scent pad to identify the scent of a suspect from others used in the line-up. Basically the same as when you bring in an eye witness for a photo line-up. Not done much here in the US but is done in Europe.

I am not quite sure how isolating an odor caused from a stress response would be used in law enforcement. Maybe for alert dogs used for people with medical conditions?

It's synthetic adrenaline. There is also synthetic cadaver. (Want to avoid a large meal before dealing with it). I don't know how prevalent the practice is, but in this area the Police K9s are trained on the synthetic adrenaline. Not the scent of the individual because, obviously, they won't generally have a scent article of the pursued. Problem is, adrenaline is adrenaline and a frightened bystander can be an unintentional find. There have been a couple of incidents here w/i the last few years where bystanders were bitten or cornered and terrified. One was a child. But the PD uses many k9s here often. So, statisticly they don't have much of a problem. I would be willing to bet they have as many "equipment" or judgement type failures than dog failures.

You might try to google synthetic adrenalyn.

Well, according to what I remember from reading the article, law enforcement HAS been using this for a number of years in training K9's. It's application is as I gave above: a perp being chased by a k9 is going to be stressed, and give off this scent, which can be used to track them through a crowd or a place where there are multiple scent trails.

Then, one day, someone discovered it's the same scent, or very similar to the scent, epileptics produce prior to a seizure. As I said in the previous thread, until now, it was impossible to specifically train a dog for this task, though the dog can be trained to respond to a seizure by summoning help, etc.

Gawd, I wish I hadn't let that article get out of my hands!!   The paper it was in didn't belong to me, and I figured I could find it doing a web search. No such luck....

We cross posted, dawgs! Thank you so much for the info! I'll check it out!

Sunsilver, try the Delta Society website. They are the resource to go to for medical alert type information. I didn't read your previous thread so was only addressing the adrenalyne for k9s. I don't know how long dogs have been trained to alert to seizures. The Delta Society would be your best go to IMO.

Thanks, dawgs. I already found a fascinating article about pseudo-scents: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1511/is_n3_v17/ai_18047705/pg_4  Great stuff!!

allaboutthedawgs,

What area of the country do you live? I have never heard of anyone out here in Ca doing this. Are these simply tracking dogs?

I can't imagine why anyone would use a handler protection dog to search or persue a suspect who was unknown, not identified as a suspect, or without clear and convinving evidence the person you are searching for is connected to the crime. Definatly would not be tracking people though crowds. The reason being exactly what you said. A great many people have some sort of adrenaline reaction to contact with a police officer. Even people who are not in trouble during a consentual contact. I imagine that would only amplify around a working K9.

Training a dog to locate and apprehend based on the smell of adrenaline. The only thing that comes to mind on that is LIABILITY.

GARD-  AZ. The incidents were located inAZ. I am training with a rescue group in another part of the state but know those who have worked in that area. Not tracking dogs-k9 units. These incidents, as I have been told by a resource I would consider to be extremely reliable, were units that were first on the scene and sent their dog in the reported direction the suspect had taken. These were separate incidents.  If you do some "word of mouth" with others who have knowledge of the state and the way it works this will likely make more sense to you.

I don't know what police work and police officers are like in CA but I do know what they're like in AZ. Which is the main reason I have the attitude I do about them. Most people can identify a jerk cop on most PD's. Here, you're lucky to find one that isn't. It's systemic. I never had this broad a feeling about LE before I came here and saw what it's like. It's a different world altogether.

GARD, the pseudo-adrenaline is also used in training SAR dogs to locate people buried by explosions and cave-ins, which is probably a much better use for it.