The Scientific Basis of Explosives Detection by Dogs

Increased vigilance regarding security to protect against terrorist use of weapons of mass destruction, including especially explosive devices, as well as an increased interest in the comparison to the explosive detection capabilities of instrumental technologies, has led to increased scrutiny of canine explosive detection capabilities. 

Despite recent increased interest in canine olfactory and applied EDD research, we stiU lack a complete and robust scientific model of the way dogs actually detect substances however, considerable progress has been made [5]. In particular, it has proved helpful to apply similar concepts to the detection dog and handler system as would be apphed to an instrumental detection system. For example  

As with all research involving humans and other intelligent creatures, it is also essential to design the experiments to avoid the introduction of unintentional bias from over-helpful subjects. We should remember the example of geneticist Mendel and his overly helpful fellow monks, who quietly weeded the pea patch so that the results came out in line with Mendel s predictions. Thus, where appropriate, variants on the double-bfind principle should be apphed in experimental design, and statistically significant numbers of measurements need to be made to properly account for the inherent variability of living subjects. 

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