Sniffydog — Train Your Dog’s Nose

What can you train a sniffer dog to find?

Well, does your target release any chemical footprint into the air at all?  Yes?  The dog can learn to find it.

I just ran across a wonderful article from the BBC, 2007, on two labradors trained to detect the chemicals used to make optical disks.  Trained by a Northern Ireland handler who usually trains explosive detectors, the dogs find all the disks — CD, DVD, legit, not — by smell for customs officers to sort out.  They were deployed to Malaysia, a hotbed of movie piracy, and are getting movie-star treatment themselves.