Dog Info

BOMB DOG HEROES

The British were the first to employ the talents of detection canines in WWI when they were trained to find land mines. Since America first used combat canines in World War I, more than 30,000 dogs have done everything for the military from carrying messages and first-aid supplies to the front, to searching for land mines and tunnels, detecting booby traps and trip wires all but invisible to two-footed soldiers, alerting troops to imminent ambushes, protecting camps, and tracking and capturing the enemy.

In 1971, the Air Force began training dogs to detect explosives. The British, who trained "bomb dogs" for use in Northern Ireland, first attained success in this field. The Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms' dog-training program was developed in 1991, after the agency entered into an agreement with State Department to train the canines for foreign countries under the anti-terrorism assistance program. Now, with their super-sensitive noses, dogs are a strong defense in the global war on terrorism.

THE NOSE KNOWS

An average human being has 125 million smelling cells in the nasal passage. In a German shepherd's nose, 250 billion smelling cells go to work to detect what the canine has been trained to find. To illustrate: A person walking down the street can pass a bakery, take a whiff, and think--bread. In comparison, a dog passing the bakery would think--flour, water, sugar, salt, yeast....

Scientists estimate that a dog's nose is from 100 to 10 million times more sensitive than a human's. In laboratory tests, explosives detector dogs were able to detect odor concentrations as small as one to two parts per billion; in several tests, the dogs detected concentrations too small to measure with current equipment, At Auburn University's Canine Olfactory Detection Laboratory, one of the lowest detection limits identified so far is 500 parts per trillion.

Dogs often work in environments that involve contact with strong odors such as car exhaust. Studies have shown that dogs are remarkably good at detecting a target odor even when mixed with high concentrations of extraneous odors. An as-yet unquantifiable combination of intelligence and smell sensitivity makes it possible for dogs to discriminate between clashing odors. They can filter out "junk smells" and zero in on one scent. The same thing happens if someone tries to mask the presence of explosives in a suitcase. An FAA dog can detect dynamite through dirty diapers, or C-4 through smelly socks. Remarkably, dogs have been known to locate a case of dynamite buried 2 ft. in the ground. This ability to discriminate between odors is important because a terrorist might try disguising a bomb with strong smells like coffee or perfume. But that's not likely to fool a well-trained bomb dog.

Research into the mechanism of dog smelling and discrimination is being conducted by the government and by private agencies with the goal of creating handheld devices to replicate a trained dog's performance; but even with the capability of detecting the smallest molecular presence in the air, no machine has yet been able to duplicate the success of a trained dog. In fact, there are still no machines sophisticated enough yet to measure the power of a dog's nose.

OTHER ADVANTAGES

Explosives detection dogs also offer the advantage of mobility. A dog and its handler can perform anywhere, even where heavy detection equipment cannot be transported. This is particularly critical in mine detection, where even the slightest vibration on the ground might set off a deadly explosion. Another advantage is that a dog is a virtual, real-time detector. You don't have to take it to the lab and wait for an answer. The adaptability of dogs to wide-ranging environmental conditions and a dog's capacity to make decisions are also great advantages that make dogs an excellent means of fighting terror.

MAKING THE CUT

While the breeds of choice for bomb detection are Belgian Malinois, Labs, and German shepherds, in general, no one breed outperforms any other. Attainment of skills is as individual to dogs as it is to humans. To pass the psychological and physical screening necessary for training, a dog--no matter what breed--must possess a rare set of attributes. These include intelligence, the ability to remain calm even in the presence of loud noise, to stay focused in the presence of distractions, and above all, a compulsive desire to play with a toy, which is absolutely critical to how these dogs are trained. To a dog that lives for the toy, it's a game--find the scent, get the toy.

HOW THEY DO IT

From the dog's point of view, the task of mine detection is relatively simple: identify the presence of a unique odor (and/or some other set of environmental cues), locate its source and reliably communicate having located the source to another individual. This is a skill that is easily derived from the abilities that meet the needs of a cooperative group hunter. Wolves, the ancestors of all dogs, often search for prey alone or in small groups and then communicates their find to other members of the pack. Dogs are good at mine detection and other tracking and detection tasks because they are building on a 30-million year history of wolves practicing the same basic skill. Dog trainers capitalize on this evolutionary reality by adding to it a dog's love of play.

TRUE HEROES

The FAA started its canine program in 1972 after a near disaster on a TWA flight leaving JFK International airport. Authorities received an anonymous tip about a bomb onboard the flight while it was still on the tarmac, waiting to take off. It returned to airport, where the passengers were evacuated. A detection dog was brought in, and it found the bombÑonly twelve minutes before it would have exploded. That success resulted in detection bombs being posted in airports across the country.

In Egypt, police responded to a terrorist threat of a bomb hidden in the moving parts of a bus. But they were unable to find it. A dog was brought in, and the bomb was removed without loss of life. In Greece, a dog detected a bomb in a courtroom in a woman's handbag. In the U.S., the rising frequency of criminal bombing incidents has increased the use of dogs as explosives detectors in courtrooms, schools, government offices, lecture halls, anywhere that there might be a threat.

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