How do police dogs know what scent to follow? Let’s Explore

by

How Do Police Dogs Track Scents?

A police dog’s impressive scent tracking ability all comes down to the power of their nose. A dog’s nose has 300 million olfactory receptors, where the human nose only has 6 million. Not only do they have significantly more receptors for smell within the nose, but the portion of their brain devoted to smell is also nearly 40 times as large as ours. Their brain was truly set up for smelling!

With having so many scent tracking abilities within their genetic makeup, we are able to train dogs in searching for specific smells. Police dogs are able to differentiate between certain types of smells due to the power of their nose, making them the perfect scent trackers in multiple areas of searching.

What Smells Do Police Dogs Track?

Police dogs can have many important duties, some of these including scent tracking. With having such a powerful sense of smell, police dogs are often the most vital part of the operation when it comes to tracking. Some of the smells that police dogs are known to track include:

  • People and suspect odors: Police dogs can track the scent of a suspect and help to lead police to their location.
  • Drugs and illicit substances:Police dogs can help to locate drugs and illicit substances in vehicles, airports, in homes, schools, and more.
  • Bombs: Some police dogs are trained to sniff for bombs and other explosive devices. This is a dangerous and extremely important job, so these dogs are often trained much longer.
  • Missing people:Police dogs are able to smell the belongings of a missing person and help to potentially track this person to their current locations.
  • Corpses: Some dogs are specifically trained to track the smell of decomposition. These dogs can be used to track missing victims, or even find bodies in natural disasters.

    • 7 facts about police dogs chasing, attacking, and biting bad guys

    This might seem weird to you but it’s essential both for a job well-done and preventing accidents.

    K9s get trained around policemen with and without uniform. That’s how the dog should learn to differentiate the good guys.

    But like with any method, this isn’t 100% bulletproof. The dogs might stil bite, if they read some body language cues as bad.

    Although accidents happen, police dogs continue to be a valuable part of the police force. Mainly because they track down suspects in a manner that humans cannot.

    How do Police K9 Tracks Work?