Can canine units be trained to search for drugs AND explosives?

Question

Yes i was asking if they are mutually exclusive... meaning if a dog is trained to detected drugs then does that mean he cannot also be trained to detected explosives

Answer 1

I believe they are trained to search one or the other -- never both.

Starred for our resident expert, greekman.

Answer 2

They can be trained for all kinds of things---are you asking if training for drugs means they can't be trained for explosives??? I don't think the two are mutually exclusive.

I think arson dogs (aka accelerant-dectecting dogs) are usually trained for just one thing---although they can dectect many kinds of accelerant.

Answer 3

Yes, we saw a presentation by our local canine unit a few months ago and they specifically talked about recent busts for both drugs and explosives.

Answer 4

One or the other, not both.. There are very few dogs that can do both.

Answer 5

No, they're not mutually exclusive, but because of how police work it's often easier to have a dog on the bomb squad, a dog for drug detection, a dog for physical apprehension and a dog for dead-person and live person tracking.  The more you pile on a dog, the less reliable they are.  I know that some dog in Canada is trained for so many different things, but typically that's such a low percentile it's just easier to have the dogs specialize rather than double or triple or worse train them.  

Basic explosives sniffing though, most drug dogs are trained in that as well as basic tracking.  But when you get a dog who's specially trained in explosives and such, then you get a dog who can go through a burned out building and tell you if someone used something to start it.  

It just basically depends on how smart the dog is.  With so many different drugs these days... it's just smarter to have a drug dog do drugs exclusively.  You don't want them going into someone's garage and alerting to a can of gasoline.

Part of it also has to do with how they alert.  Drug dogs, in the past, have been trained to pull the stuff out and start playing with the handler.  Which... would be terrible for an explosives dog.  :P  But if you train a quiet alert (the dog sitting and staring at the scent, the dog going into a point, or something along those lines) then it's better.  The best police dogs I've seen that do both explosives and drugs actually pull out drugs and sit for explosives so that the cop knows what he's dealing with.

Answer 6

Yes, they can; and they already do.

my husband is a military cop, he works with military dog handlers on a daily basis. their dogs both sniff for drugs, explosives, AND are military working/guarding dogs.

*dies laughing* the guy above me has NO idea what he's talking about.

less reliable my butt. these dogs are trained constantly to keep up their "reliability". a dogs reliability is only subject to the training it receives. trained properly and they are very reliable.

it's more cost effective to have dogs that can do both (or even more tasks), than one for every task.

Answer 7

I know of dogs that are trained for both, so I know it can be done. However, they are usually specialized in one or the other.

The beagles used at Dulles are multi-trained for drugs, explosives and contraband. Amazing little guys!

Here is a CBS news story>(quoted)

""More and more dogs are being used both for drugs and for bombs.""

More about the demand for such dogs>

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/01/0...