Hello! I know about dogs that have been trained to find/report narcotics, cancer, other personal possessions, etc. (And by "report", I mean paw at, bark, sit, or whatever it is they do once they find the item.) Right now I am training one of my dogs to find/report a few different things. She also naturally finds/reports a particular type of bacterium. Odd, I suppose, but rather useful.

Anyhow, do you know if there is anything on the market at the present time that has, say, different bottles filled with liquids scented with different kinds of cancers, different kinds of drugs, etc.? I would think products like this would be useful. (Or am I missing something and it's done a different way?) Any info anyone could give would be appreciated.

Actually I have a related question as well, but I'm not sure where to post it, so here goes:

For those of you who have trained dogs to find/report, what are the different types of reports dogs can give besides pawing at the item, barking at the item, or sitting in front of the item? I would like to train my dog to report different items differently, but I'm not sure how many ways there would be for her to do it.

For instance: If I wanted to train her to find skin cancer, I could train her to sit in front of it. If I wanted to train her to find bladder cancer, I could train her to lie down in front of it. If I wanted to train her to find lung cancer, I could train her to bark. If I wanted to train her to find leukemia, well, I may be starting to run out of options... I'm thinking having her do a tap-dance with her right hind leg is probably too specific/"impossible". LOL. What are some other options?

Also, assuming the trainer is decent, how many different items would you say a normal dog with a good nose could be taught to reliably find/report?

ok let me first may that i am no expert and if somebody has better knowledge you may be better off listening to them, like ED or WILL. here goes from what i know of there is one thing that is available you can get and that is persudo (spelling?). there is a lot of debate rather this is good or not. it is suppose to simulate marijana (spelling? weed). that is all i know of that is out there you can get. i am not sure where to get it since i have never wanted it. i aint sure if you need any permits either. sorry but i really dont know of anything. if you have an in at a hospital you may be able to get a little piece some kind of cancer sliver, but that may still be hard to get. explain to them your reason for having it and maybe they will work with you.


now to answer 2nd post. training your dog to alert is really up to your imagenation. maybe you could get one alert to be lay and put a paw over his nose <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" />. maybe another train to lay and roll over. like i said it is really up to what you can think of. i dont know how may scents a dog can remimber but if a dog can remimber all the different drugs, it seems that they should remimber a lot. oh another idea to alert stand on two feet and and just say, "hi i am sparkey and i would like to tell you that you check out ok" <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> lol.

Uh this is getting kind of crazy. Why don't you read some of the posts in the detection dog training section? Also training complex and detailed alerts is probably asking for trouble (JMO).

I think differentiating TYPES of cancer could be a bit much - same with the plethora of alerts. There is lot of stuff on the internet on training dogs to detect cancer - I would both go to the detection section AND follow up directly with some of the folks who are doing it.

Concerning products there are a variety of pseudo scents available from Sigma Chemical as well as a variety of opinions on the effectiveness of the product. In any event their cadaver stuff tends to be generic for the target scent, not specific.