Detection of Explosives by Dogs

Publisher Summary One of the most effective and available technologies employed for the detection of explosive materials is the explosive detection dog (EDD) and handler team. 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 however led to increased scrutiny of canine explosive detection capabilities. Despite recent increased interest in canine olfactory and applied EDD research, there is still a lack of a complete and robust scientific model of the way dogs actually detect substances, although considerable progress has been made. For explosives, there are three possible types of signatures a dog can key on, which include the explosive itself; a contaminant or minor constituent of the explosive common to most batches of that explosive; and a decomposition product of that explosive. Although there is enough evidence to conservatively suggest that dogs clearly possess sufficient potential olfactory sensitivity for explosive detection tasks, a more practical concern is related to operational sensitivity, which depends strongly on how the dogs are trained. In the United States, the use of food reward was supported by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and in the late 1990s the ATF issued guidelines for proficiency testing known as the National Odor Recognition Test (NORT) where the dog has to recognize six explosives in 100 g quantities, which include black powder (free flowing or in safety fuse), double-base smokeless powder, dynamite (containing NG and EGDN), PETN, RDX, and TNT.