I have a 6-month old mal that I am going to start training to do narcotics detection. Has anyone used the Sigma pseudo scent products in their training, or heard anything about them? I am curious as to whether or not the dog will train as well using these simulated scents in lieu of the real deal.
I don't mind being the broken record. Can a dog be trained to find pseudo? Yes, they can. YOu can also train to find peanut butter, baking soda, acetic acid, you see where I'm going with this. Pseudo is exactly that; Look-a-likes; smells similar; ALMOST like the real thing. Point is, it isn't real. All the certifying agencies require certification on real drug substances. To be fair, I'll admit, there is no current case law where the use of pseudo drugs were a negative issue. My dislike stems from the fact that they aren't real. With me it's a training issue. Why train a detector dog on something that isn't illegal, then, have to proof them on the real stuff anyway. Just doesn't make sense.
DFrost
Any behavior that is reinforced is more likely to occur again.
I don't mind being the broken record. Can a dog be trained to find pseudo? Yes, they can. YOu can also train to find peanut butter, baking soda, acetic acid, you see where I'm going with this. Pseudo is exactly that; Look-a-likes; smells similar; ALMOST like the real thing. Point is, it isn't real. All the certifying agencies require certification on real drug substances. To be fair, I'll admit, there is no current case law where the use of pseudo drugs were a negative issue. My dislike stems from the fact that they aren't real. With me it's a training issue. Why train a detector dog on something that isn't illegal, then, have to proof them on the real stuff anyway. Just doesn't make sense.
I agree with David. That said...I trained my first dog on pseudo cocaine only. The rest of the odors were the real thing. The transfer to real cocaine was easy and it was never an issue later on. Don't know why it was done that way. It wasn't my call. Later on whenever I trained new teams it was with the real thing only.
Thanks all for the quick response, and please accept my apologies for the delayed response. A couple of manhunts in the last few weeks has turned into a heck of a lot of OT.
I have been doing a little research tonight, during which I found this article:
It's quite interesting, and not a bad read at only 4 pages long (and it verifies what you all have said, as well as my gut feeling).
I tend to be of the same opinion as you all, in that there is no substitute for the real thing. I just wanted to get some other perspectives on the issue.
More questions are created by this study than answered.
The most basic question here was do operational detector dogs recognize pseudo narcotics. The answer seems to be no. The next questions should be: How many were started with pseudo but dropped it out of their training after the basic phases?? Do any still use it?? The reverse study should be done asking the question of whether or not dogs trained on pseudo recognize the narcotics??
One aspect of this that disturbs me is that the products which use the actual explosives were recognized poorly as well. If this is so then what is it we are teaching our explosive detector dogs? Solvents, and substrates??? The question of submitting the solvents and substrates from the detasheet (I assume that is what they called data sheet in the study which is a trade name) to the detector dogs without the explosive added.
Is the quantity of odor simply below threshold (the conclusion of a German Military study using SOKKS) or are we teaching a recognition of the proprietary blends of mixtures used in the manufacture of explosives (of which there seems to be more than 24,000).
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