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Detection Dog |
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 A detection dog is a dog that is trained to and works at using its senses (almost always the sense of smell) to detect substances such as explosives, illegal drugs, or blood. They are often known as sniffer dogs. Hunting dogs that search for game and search dogs that search for missing humans are generally not considered detection dogs. There is some overlap, as in the case of cadaver dogs, trained to detect human remains. In the state of California, dogs are trained to detect the Quagga Mussel on boats at public boat ramps, as it is a invasive species. Sniffer dogs have also been enlisted to find bumblebee nests. The Bumblebee Conservation Trust has trained a springer spaniel to detect the colonies, assisting them with the conservation of threatened species.
Functions
Detection dogs have been trained to search for many substances, including:- Plants, animals, produce and other agricultural items (used by customs services to detect possible invasive species such as Quagga mussel)
- Cancer
- Polycarbonate optical discs such as DVDs (used to search for bootleg recordings)
- Crime evidence
- Currency
- Drugs
- Expired food items (such as sandwiches)
- Explosives
- Mobile phones (as contraband in prisons)
- Firearms
- Human remains
- Mold
- Termites
One notable quality of detection dogs is that they are able to discern individual scents even when the scents are combined or masked by other odors. In one case at an Australian prison, a detection dog foiled an attempt to smuggle drugs that had been hidden in a woman's bra and smeared with coffee, pepper and Vicks Vapo-rub. A sniffer dog's sense of smell is 2000 times more sensitive than that of humans. They can even detect things (blood, etc.) that have been left for as long as 10 years. They can detect blood even if it has been scrubbed off surfaces. In one case, a sniffer dog sniffed a drop of blood on the wall that had been attempted to be scrubbed off. It was so small that it couldn't be seen without a microscope. They can be exposed to diseases like canine influenza, henipavirus, and rabies and parasites like fleas or ticks if terrorists want to destroy the dogs.
Some of these functions can be carried out by trained pigs, which also have an excellent sense of smell, and have been used to hunt truffles, underground fungi, for centuries.
Flea
Flea is the common name for any of the small wingless insects of the order Siphonaptera (some authorities use the name Aphaniptera because it is older, but names above family rank need not follow the ICZN rules of priority, so most taxonomists use the more familiar name). Fleas are external parasites, living by hematophagy off the blood of mammals and birds. Genetic and morphological evidence indicates that they are descendants of the Scorpionfly family Boreidae, which are also flightless; accordingly it is possible that they will eventually be reclassified as a suborder within the Mecoptera. In the past, however, it was most commonly supposed that fleas had evolved from the flies (Diptera), based on similarities of the larvae. In any case, all these groups seem to represent a clade of closely related insect lineages, for which the names Mecopteroidea and Antliophora have been proposed.
Some well known flea species include:- Cat flea (Ctenocephalides felis),
- Dog flea (Ctenocephalides canis),
- Human flea (Pulex irritans),
- Northern rat flea (Nosopsyllus fasciatus),
- Oriental rat flea (Xenopsylla cheopis).
Tick
Tick is the common name for the small arachnids in superfamily Ixodoidea that, along with other mites, constitute the Acarina. Ticks are ectoparasites (external parasites), living by hematophagy on the blood of mammals, birds, and occasionally reptiles and amphibians. Ticks are important vectors of a number of diseases, including Lyme disease and Tick-borne meningoencephalitis.
Young ticks have six legs, and mature ticks have eight legs. They are about the size of a sesame seed, and males are black; females have a brick-red abdomen with a black shield-like plate close to their head.
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