Can dogs smell mania
Dog sense of smell
Olfactory sensory system
The dog sense of smell is the most powerful sense of this species, the olfactory system of canines being much more complex and developed than that of humans.[1] Dogs have roughly forty times more smell-sensitive receptors than humans, ranging from about 125million to nearly 300million in some dog breeds, such as bloodhounds.[2]:246 These receptors are spread over an area about the size of a pocket handkerchief (compared to 5million over an area the size of a postage stamp for humans).[3][4] Dogs' sense of smell also includes the use of the vomeronasal organ, which is used primarily for social interactions.
The dog has mobile nostrils that help it determine the direction of the scent. Unlike humans, dogs do not need to fill up their lungs as they continuously bring odors into their noses in bursts of 3-7 sniffs. The dog noses have a bony structure inside that humans do not have, which allows the air that has been sniffed to pass over a bony shelf to which odor molecules adhere. The air above this shelf is not washed out when the dog breathes normally, so the scent molecules accumulate in the nasal chambers and the scent builds with intensity, allowing the dog to detect the faintest of odors and can even detect emotions.[2]:247
One study into the learning ability of dogs compared to wolves indicated that dogs have a better sense of smell than wolves when locating hidden food, but there has yet been no experimental data to support this view.[5]
The wet nose, or rhinarium, is essential for determining the direction of the air current containing the smell. Cold receptors in the skin are sensitive to the cooling of the skin by evaporation of the moisture by air currents.[6]
Function and mechanism[edit]
Characteristics[edit]
A great part of a dog's brain is dedicated to acquiring and interpreting odors. A dog utilises its nose as a guide in sniffing in order to follow a trail. The animal performs a series of short inhalations and expirations, permitting it to bring the odor-bearing molecules in contact with its olfactory mucosa. These molecules are dissolved and then absorbed by cells of the olfactory epithelium before they reach neurons, which transmit information to the brain. Dogs with elongated noses perform better than dogs with a flat noses. Additionally, larger dogs have a better sense of smell than smaller dogs.
The external surface of a dog's nose contains a number of pressure and temperature sensors. Forced and rapid evaporation of the wet skin due to wind chills the surface of the nose, this cold is perceived by thermoreceptors. These receptors thus give the animal the direction of the wind.
Odor is the only active sense which a dog possesses from birth, this allows young puppies to find their mother's nipples. It is also the last sense which remains during old age after the other senses are progressively diminished.
Memorization ability[edit]
The brain of a dog is able to memorize more 100,000 different odors and its ability to smell is 1,000 to 10,000 times stronger than that of a person. The predominance of this sense allows a dog to associate odors with situations and contexts, in a manner quite similar to the visual memory of humans.
Accuracy[edit]
The accuracy of a dog's nose is very high. For example, a dog is able to differentiate odors of members of the same family or the scents of two identical twins provided that they, each on their own, traced their one scent. Dogs are equally able to recognize the odor of a hand on an object after two seconds of contact, and are in fact able to detect the trace scent of fingers on glass six weeks after contact, even if this glass has been handled by different people.
Accuracy is variable among dog breeds: labrador retrievers have 220 million sensor cells, German shepherds have 200 million and fox terriers have 147 million.
Use in communication[edit]
The specific odors which dogs use to communicate arise from pheromones. These are chemical substances participating in communication between individuals belonging to the same species. Different hormones are excreted when a dog is angry, nervous or confident, and certain chemical signs serve to identify the sex and age of the individual, and if it is a female, to identify if she is in her estrous cycle ("in heat"), if she is pregnant, or if she has just given birth. A great portion of these chemical pheromones are dissolved in a dog's urine.
Canines possess the ability to discern odors one by one after they have been mixed. The animal can thus find its food, locate its territory or any other person, animal or object.
Problems and conditions[edit]
Anosmia is a great handicap for dogs. The loss of smell is due to the absence or the destruction of certain olfactory receptors. This issue can arise due to genetics, medical treatment, infection or brain damage. Loss of smell is a rare problem, but generally more frequent in albino dogs.
Use of ability by humans[edit]
Humans learned to use dogs' exceptional sense of smell, primarily for hunting but also, more recently, for diverse types of searches.
Rescue and detection of substances[edit]
Police use dogs for various purposes purposes including searching for people (the most well known being search dogs for avalanches), for explosives, for narcotics as well as for flammable materials.
Detection of disease[edit]
Some studies have found that certain dogs are able to detect diseases among human beings, notably cancer. The British medical journal The Lancet, suggested for the first time in 1989 the use of dogs to detect cancer. However studies should be carried out to determine the nature of the molecule produced by cancerous cells which could pave the way towards new tests for early screening of cancer.
According to these British findings and experts of the NGO Medical Detection Dogs in Gambia, certain dogs should be equally able to detect malaria in infants who do not yet present with symptoms.
Due to the specific odor produced by an epileptic person, dogs are able to detect an epileptic crisis before it is triggered. The sense of smell, very efficient in dogs, is used everyday in a number of areas of research, concerning the detection of illicit substances, the search for dangerous materials as well as finding insects such as bed bugs.
Hunting dogs[edit]
Employed for various purposes in hound-hunting, the hunting dog is above all used for its tracking abilities, that is finding and sniffing out prey.
Truffle dogs[edit]
This type of dog has been trained and raised to find truffles buried in the ground.
See also[edit]
References[edit]
Can Drug Dogs Smell LSD & Acid Tabs?
Police and customs have used dogs to help detect illicit substances for decades, and with good reason too. They have 300 million olfactory receptors in their nose. This means that have a sense of smell said to be 10,000 times better than ours. Combined with their ability to be trained, it makes them a key component for law enforcement as they sniff our narcotics.
These crime fighting pooches are seen working at customs, borders, airports, and even music festivals. But given the wide range of illegal drugs there are, can drug dogs smell acid, or are they even trained to detect LSD and tabs?
To get the bottom of this I read a lot of accounts by real-life police dog handlers who have shared their knowledge online. Heres what I discovered with the short answer first.
Can police dogs smell acid?
Drug dogs cannot smell LSD as it is has no smell and is low in concentration. However, some highly trained police dogs maybe able to smell acid tabs by detecting the odor of chemical impurities produced in the manufacturing process or smell the cross contamination of banned narcotics.
Even in cases like this though, its unlikely that a drug dog can LSD or acid tabs (or the chemical impurities) because sniffer dogs are trained to detect individual scents. The dog would have had to be trained to detect a particular chemical impurity.
Given how police dogs are only trained to detect between 3 and 5 different drugs, the police force is probably going to train them to alert on what are perceived to be problem drugs. Think of drugs such as methamphetamine, heroin, cocaine, and marijuana.
The bottom line is, police dogs can smell anything they have been trained to. For example, research published in 2019 found they dogs can accurately sniff out cancer in blood. If dogs can smell cancer cells, they can certainly smell chemical impurities used in LSD manufacturing.
Dogs have smell receptors 10,000 times more accurate than humans, making them highly sensitive to odors we cant perceive. A new study has shown that dogs can use their highly evolved sense of smell to pick out blood samples from people with cancer with almost 97 percent accuracy. (view source)
However, unless a local police force is undergoing a strategy to bust a large LSD manufacturing ring, its highly unlikely the dogs will have been trained to smell for acid.
You will hear about drug dogs smelling out LSD, but this is probably due to the carrier of the acid having cross contaminated the tabs with another more detectable narcotic.
As far affirmation goes, I also found a quote on Quora from an anonymous source, so take it with a pinch of salt, but it stacks up from a common sense perspective:
I have worked in law enforcement, and am a chemist. Now I concede that it is possible for a dog to smell chemicals that have the potential to be leftover in a batch of LSD, but that being said those chemicals are almost never present in any meaningful quantity.
Are drug dogs trained to smell acid?
Its very unlikely that you will encounter a police sniffer dog who has been trained to smell and detect LSD or acid tabs. There are a few good reasons why this is the case, and why its a safe assumption to make.
The first reason; it takes a lot of effort and time to train a police dog to detect drugs, with patience and time needed until the dog consistently alerts to the narcotic correctly.
Secondly, I dont believe that many police or customs forces would put the work in so one of their dogs can smell acid. For me, it seems to be a waste of resources and money to do so.
Given the demand for certain drugs and their impact on society, its fair to assume that the majority of police sniffer dogs would be trained to smell for amphetamines, cocaine, and heroin.
Plus, from what I have learned, drug dogs can only be trained for around 4 or 5 drug types, so I would hazard a guess its going to the ones that society and government are most concerned with.
To conclude on my research and what would make sense, I think that theres a very slim chance that drug dogs can smell acid tabs and LSD. Thats not to say it doesnt happen, but it would be rare.
Handy Hint: Dogs have such an acute sense of smell that some women owners even report their dogs being more interested in them when they have a monthly period. I researched into why dogs might smell human female menstruation and what it can mean.
Does LSD have an odor?
No, LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide) in its pure form has no smell, which is why drug dogs cannot detect it.
LSD is found most commonly in liquid form, which is clear, colorless, and odorless. The liquid is applied to blotter paper, which is cut into stamp-like squares or circles. The paper is applied to the tongue, and the drug enters the bloodstream through that membrane. (view source)
According to police sources I found online, the only time a dog might be able smell acid tabs is if they have been trained to detect the chemical impurities from the manufacturing process.
Police dogs might still be able to detect LSD though
Just because dogs cant smell LSD, and probably arent often trained to, it doesnt mean police sniffer dogs wont end up detecting acid tabs.
For example, a press report from Australia in 2016 had the headline of Dogs sniff out LSD, MDMA and cannabis. Reading that would make you think the Aussies must have some amazing dogs working for their police.
Heres a quote from the article:
During a search of the man, police found a sheet believed to contain 72 tabs of LSD, or acid at the Pacific Hotel, a 25-year-old Yamba man was found to be in possession of 34 capsules of white powder, believed to be MDMA.
A few things here; firstly, the LSD tabs were found once the dog had alerted the police to the man. Secondly, during the search they also found MDMA.
My suspicion here is that the police dogs smelled MDMA (they are trained for this) or the picked up the scent of another drug on the man. Its highly possible that the LSD tabs might have also had some cross contamination on them from another narcotic.
Alternatively, there is some evidence that police dogs are trained to alert when they smell something unusual. I watched a documentary on the Discovery Channel that said dogs are trained to alert on anything they smell out of the ordinary.
How drugs dogs are trained to smell for narcotics
Dogs can smell out and signal for anything they are trained to do, providing it has an odor scent.
Given that we know dogs cannot smell acid, if police or airports wanted to instead train their sniffer dogs to smell for certain chemicals commonly used in the production of LSD it would require the following process:
- The dog is taught to associate a favorite toy with the smell of the chemical impurities.
- The training toy will often be a small white towel which the handler will play tug of war with them. It can be easily cleaned and used again and again in the drug training game.
- Because the dog knows the towel is fun, trainers will eventually progress to putting small trace amounts of the target drug. In this case, it would probably be the chemicals impurities sometimes used in the production of acid tabs.
- Police dogs will start to associate the smell of the chemicals with playtime. This then means that sniffing becomes a game, with rewards given to the dog once he finds the towels location.
In the training game, dogs are taught to locate the smell, sit down and point with their noise where it is.
Any dog can be trained to be a sniffer dog, but some breeds are better than others such as any of the retriever breeds, German Shepherds, and Beagles.
Conclusion
Dogs have been trained to smell for drugs and explosives for years and have an amazing reputation for doing so.
However, LSD is a different proposition due to the lack of odor, plus the rationale that police and customs probably dont believe it would be a good use of resources to train dogs to detect it.
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I love writing about the special talents that dogs have, with smell being just one awesome talent they have. Here are some other blog posts you might be interested in on similar topics.
