What a good boy! Deciphering the efficiency of detection dogs (original) (raw)

Frontiers in Analytical Science

Abstract

Dogs have a powerful olfactory system, which is used in many areas of the police and military to detect drugs, human remains, and explosives, among other items. Despite these powerful detection abilities, methods assessing the performance (MAP) of dogs remain scarce, and have never been validated. In particular, scientific knowledge on post-training performance assessments is scarce. To validate a quantitative MAP, an efficient detection dog (DD) must first be defined. Here, we aimed to define what an efficient DD is, and to develop a quantitative MAP. Specifically, we conducted 1) an international survey sent to professional DD practitioners (n = 50), and 2) an experimental assay on cadaver and drug DDs (n = 20). Based on the survey, efficient DDs were defined as confident animals, making few mistakes, alerting to the presence of target odors as close as possible, able to strategically screen the search area effectively, independent and not easily distracted. The developed quantita...

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