Before I begin to experiment further I'd like to hear from those of you who are knowlegable on the principles and techniques for teaching a working k9 to detect firearms in a classroom for example.

How is the firearms introduced to the dog? Must the firearm have been discharged at least once?

Is ammunition enough? The ammo must smell like black powder? Once the dog knows black powder, does he know several different types?

Start with room search, building search? Baggage search then onto people search?

If I welcome 30 students through a classroom door, can the dog alert me when he detects a handgun?

*** All contributions are welcome.

Kirk Simon

I can tell you the scents that I train on are an actual hand gun,shot rounds or shells,and gun cleaner or a rag that has been used to clean the weapon.The dogs Ive done were passive indicators because thats what I feel is the best for searching people.I practice situations like people standing in a line some holding bags and some bags on the ground too.

Many thanks for your response.

I've begun some training based on what I've learned so far. I'd like to outline my procedure and have further comment from you and others.

I obtained three rifle shells and held them in my hand, introducing them to the dog with the keyword, "mo". I did this serveral times and this is my usual procedure when introducing any new item to the dog.

While training at home, I start by having the dog go out to relieve himself. I also encourage him to drink water beforehand.

I then kennel the dog in my bedroom and close the bedroom door. I prepare myself with a rawhide treat where I can deliver it to him immediately.

For the first training session I hid the bullet under his living room bed. I put it just under enough that he couldn't see it, but where I thought he'd be successfull.

I then roll all around the house, making noises, opening the door for a little fresh air to come in, drop a few kernals of the food in his bowl, stirring around the kitchen trash, anything to make it more difficult.

I then call him to me and when he reaches me I give him the commands, "find it", "mo" and he goes right to work and I can really hear him sampling the air.

He needs little direction as he moves around from one area to another sampling the air. Another words this is off leesh and he may roam.

It didn't take long, soon his nose was at the corner of his bed, and he even pounced on it this first time, though I'm striving for the passive alert.

I quickly gave the command, "sit" and issued the rawhide with loads of high pitched, happy voice praise.

Since then we've had three successful searches and I now feel he gets the idea when I say, "mo".

Please, have I made an error? Could I do this differently in some way? Do you feel this is a good start?

Should I drop in on a gun shop and ask for an old rag? Do I need to train the dog to smokeless and black powder?

Sincerely,

Kirk

PS, I welcome all responses and any advice.

I have to throw in a caution here.
That is that the use of a detector dog to sniff people in a school is a search under the fourth amendment. Several cases support this. What that means is that you cannot run a dragnett type of sniff operation in a school where you are subjecting students to a dog sniff. Objects are a different story.

Kevin is correct, but several other factors need to be considered. Is it a public/private school? What is your position with the school? Are you a state actor? The other issue is are you invalidating the search for criminal purposes or opening yourself/school up to civil damages for civil rights violations? Before you actually start implementing the searches you should check with a qualified attorney in your jurisdiction.

Also, what is your intent when the dog gives an alert? Just some things to think about. I still think it's a good idea to train the dog - no knowledge or ability is a bad thing so what the heck.

I think you should be careful that you are not teaching your dog to find "your" scent.You need to be more careful and not handle the finds directly!

Im not an expert on this type of training however I can tell you that since I am interested in firearms detection myself and have been studying it the dog can scent on the powder, cleaning agents, and even if the gun has never been fired he can scent on the oils used to protect the metal of the gun. We tried this with a handler/friend by putting a coating of oil on a brand new knife and his dog found it. Also when it comes to school searches you may sniff what they call public access areas which would be rooms in general, OUTSIDE of lockers, and packages, book bags(use common sense) etc however I would NOT sniff search a student or teacher regardless, If there is that much suspicion it should be left up to the local police to handle from there. School searches could be great proofing for your dog because of the added distractions,and scents and every locker looks the same but again be very careful when you have a human sniff/search, even if you are doing it to demonstrate the abilities of your dog, what would you do if your dog alerted on a student or teacher? I ve seen good cases with large amounts of drugs lost when it came down to proving probable cause and then the agency and officer Instead of getting "ATTABOYS" got sued for violating this persons CIVIL RIGHTS. SUX dont it.

Thanks to all for the varied information.

I think more than anything I want my dog to have this ability for my own knowlege and awareness if a firearm is nearby.

There is much training between now and the time where the dog may actually alert me and be certain of a firearm.

If it comes to that day, than I will have to evaluate the situation, keep myself and dog safe. Perhaps if the threat is great I'd call the local police.

Right now I'm focused on the methods and materials that can be used as training aides. Throughout most of this "find it" training I've been doing (3yrs) sometimes I hide the object but most often I've secluded myself and the dog and have an assistant hide the scented object.

Perhaps there is another topic for the proceedings of a search and following the law.

Today Pilgrim found the ammo despite much distraction! I had two visitors and an awesome GS in the room while Pilgrim did his search.

I'm interested in the scratch box method or rather the switch it game. Three or more identicle boxs with one loaded. Subsitute scratch for sit.

I considered three identicle toys, one loaded with the gun smith cloth.

Many thanks again for participating in this thread.

Kirk Simon