On Thu, 02 Dec 1999 23:41:14 -0500 (EST) Stephen Black
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> I've often wondered about the scientific accuracy of claims that dogs
> can be used to track people, sniff out drugs, etc. They seem based
> mostly on anecdotal reports. It might be interesting to review the
> literature and see if there was any serious attempt to rule out Clever
> Hans and identification by the handler.
>
> -Stephen
>
Stephen is not the only one to question this capability, as the
following reference attests.
AN: 1992-00446-001
DT: Journal-Article
TI: Testing the individual odour theory of canine olfaction.
AU: Brisbin,-I.-Lehr; Austad,-Steven-N.
SO: Animal-Behaviour. 1991 Jul; Vol 42(1): 63-69
IS: 0003-3472
PY: 1991
AB: Used 3 male dogs trained in human scent discrimination to
evaluate whether the Ss could distinguish the scent of their
handler from the scent of other humans, irrespective of the body
part from which the scent had been collected. Ss were successful
at distinguishing scent obtained from the hand of their handler
from that of the hands of strangers, but could not similarly
distinguish their handler's scent when it was obtained from the
crook of his arm. Results suggest either that there is no such
thing as an individual human odor or that dogs trained with
standard methods do not spontaneously identify individual odor
components of scents taken from different parts of the body.
Results question the practice of using dogs to identify
individuals from scented objects in law enforcement. ((c) 1999
APA/PsycINFO, all rights reserved) KP: discrimination of scent
of handler vs other humans taken from different parts of body,
trained male dogs MJ: *Odor-Discrimination
MN: Dogs-
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Stephen Black, Ph.D. tel: (819) 822-9600 ext 2470
> Department of Psychology fax: (819) 822-9661
> Bishop's University e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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> J1M 1Z7
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> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
----------------------
Kenneth M. Steele [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Associate Professor
Dept. of Psychology
Appalachian State University
Boone, NC 28608
USA
