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The Scent of a Dog

By Steve Hall

"Handlers' beliefs influence drug-sniffing dogs' performance," is the title of the San Francisco Chronicle report by Amelia Glynn. The accuracy of drug- and explosives-sniffing dogs is affected by human handlers' beliefs, possibly in response to subtle, unintentional cues, UC Davis researchers have found. The study, published in the January issue of the journal Animal Cognition, found that detection-dog teams erroneously "alerted," or identified a scent, when there was no scent present more than 200 times ? particularly when the handler believed that there was scent present. "It isn't just about how sensitive a dog's nose is or how well-trained a dog is," says Lisa Lit, a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Neurology and the study's lead author...continue to full post

Full post as published by StandDown Texas Project on February 03, 2011 (boomark / email).