Handler’s cues affect sniffer dog’s performance
By IANSTuesday, February 1, 2011
WASHINGTON - A handler’s subtle or unintentional cues can affect a sniffer dog’s performance.
The study, conducted by the University of California, found that handler teams erroneously “alerted” or identified a scent more than 200 times, even when no scent was present, the journal Animal Cognition reports.
“There are cognitive factors affecting the interaction between a dog and a handler that can impact the dog’s performance,” said Lisa Lit, neurologist at University of California, who led the study.
“These might be as important - or even more important - than the sensitivity of a dog’s nose,” Lit added, according to a California statement.
Researchers studied a group of handler-detection dog teams from law-enforcement agencies. All of the teams were certified by an agency for either drug detection or explosives detection or for both.
The dogs all were trained to either alert passively at the location of a scent by sitting or lying down, alert actively by barking. or by doing both.
The teams included male and female dogs, including Labrador retrievers, Belgian Malinois, German Shepherds and Dutch Shepherd dogs.
The dogs’ level of experience ranged from two to seven years. Their human partners had as many as 18 years of dog-handling experience.
