“Find the dope, Etta!” (Part 2)

Etta and Tom at work

Maybe you’ve never said this to a dog, but Tom Brownlee says it all the time to Etta, his 8.5 year old Border Collie. You’ll remember them from my last post; Tom is a Master Trainer with the ASCT and an instructor at the Human-Animal Bond Program at Carroll College. Etta, the dog, is trained in bite work and assistance-dog work. 


Then there’s the dope. 


Etta is trained to detect narcotics. Tom recently shared the intricate details of training and working with a narcotics dog. And nobody gets high! 

Julie and Tom hide the dope

In the dryer!

Julie Hecht, Dog Spies (JH): Which narcotics can Etta sniff out?

Tom Brownlee, Master Trainer  (TB): Marijuana, cocaine, heroine and methamphetamine. 

JH: What drug quantities can Etta detect? For example, would she let you know when trace elements of pot were in the area?

TB: She is trained to indicate on quantities of one gram or more as this amount is prosecutable in almost every jurisdiction. This means she will give a full-blown indication on one gram or more. On less than a gram, she will give an alert. 

JH: Ooh, new words! Can you explain the difference between an Alert and an Indication? 

TB: Yes! These are key words in tracking and detection work and often misused. An alert is a change in a dog’s behavior when coming upon an odor of interest. It’s the handler’s job to notice the dog’s change in behavior. In narcotics work, alert behavior can include:

Head jerk - head moves in a particular direction when they first detect the odor

Rapid sniff - yes, you know what that means

Rapid sniff with purge - dog gives a sharp exhale to bring a new air sample into the nose

Nose press - dog presses nose against a surface

Pop jaw - jaw opens slightly and brings air into mouth to the vomeronasal, to help sample more air.

Each dog alerts to scents slightly different from one another, but the general trend is to move from general olfactory behavior to rapid sniff to rapid sniff with purge, all signifying the dog is getting closer and closer to the source. 

Finding the dope!

The other term, indication, differs from alert. A dog indicates when locating the specific source of the odor, and dogs vary in the behaviors they show when indicating. Because dogs who perform narcotics detection are high-energy, excited dogs, they very often perform an aggressive indication, meaning they scratch intently at the source of the smell. This type if indication makes sense if you picture the scene. The dog just found the item of interest and their reward (probably getting to play with their favorite tug toy) is just moments away. This dog is very, very excited and he’ll show it! On the flip side, dogs could also give a passive indication; the dog sits and points with either its nose or eyes at the source of the smell. As you would imagine, a passive indication is much less common in narcotics detection. 

Also worth noting, an aggressive indication has the potential to be problematic if you consider where the dog could be when indicating. Imagine a dog is on the top of or in the backseat of a car, and she located the source of a smell. An aggressive indication, scratching intensely, could produce a very damaged paint job or destroyed upholstery. That’s why, if a dog is an aggressive indicator, the handler has to assure that when the dog indicates, she’s right! This comes from intense training and monitoring dog behavior. If she’s right in her indication, you don’t have to pay for the damage to the paint job or upholstery! 

JH: We all know a dog’s tongue and nose assist in olfactory processing. How do dogs engage these body parts during detection work?

TB: The design of the dog’s nose greatly assists its ability to retain smell. For example, during an exhale, a nasal pocket allows the scent molecules to accumulate, so a dog can continue sampling a scent even while sniffing and exhalation occur.

Meet a dog's nose

Meet a dog's tongue

If dogs are at a tracking school where other dogs are in the area, you might notice a really small tongue flick. By doing this, a dog is sampling the air which carries the scent to the vomeronasal (found on the roof of the mouth) where pheromones are detected. You’re likely to see a tongue flick when other dogs are in the area because a dog is smelling information about the other dogs. This behavior has little to do with the target odor and everything to do with noticing other dogs.

JH: Let’s back up a second... How do you train a dog to find dope?

TB: It’s simple discrimination-learning made possible because successful dope-dogs are almost manic about finding dope. Not all dogs fit the bill; dope has to be the coolest thing ever, the most fun the dog has ever had and definitely more interesting than McDonalds fries or burgers that could be stashed nearby as a distraction. Ordinarily, really high-drive dogs will go past human and dog food to get to the dope because after the dope, they are rewarded with their favorite thing, a tug toy like a Kong on a rope! 

Example of what a Kong on a rope could look like

JH: A Kong on a rope?

TB: Yup, that’s how I reward Etta when she successfully indicates on dope. When you begin training, you try out different toys and find which one ramps the dog up the most. That is deemed their favorite toy and is set aside just for dope work; it becomes their reward when they locate and indicate correctly on a source. This type of reward is also easier than say, throwing a ball for a dog. Imagine you are working traffic and your dog finds dope. You can’t just stop and throw a ball in the middle of traffic, you need control of the dog. Also, because a Kong on a rope is interactive with the handler, the desirability is increased by a factor of ten.

Kong on a rope!

JH: People in the “real world” are hiding drugs. How do you emulate real-life situations when practicing detection work?

TB: As a handler, you begin training by hiding the drugs yourself so you learn the particular alerts your dog gives when in the presence of drugs. Then you bring in helpers to hide the drugs so you are ignorant of the drug’s location. This forces you to practice reading the dog. The helpers also need to pollute the area, meaning they touch lots of objects and places in addition to where they plant the drugs. In real-world situations, an entire area might be contaminated with drug residue. As a handler, you have to learn how a dog reacts to residue.

JH: Why might Etta not succeed in a search?

TB: One possible reason is if dope is no longer there. If someone stored dope in one location for a really long time, that might trip the dog up, even though they are trained not to hit residue. Another possibility, sometimes people pour bleach in an area to screw up the dog’s nasal passages. If you go into a vehicle and smell bleach, get the dog out and you go in and find the dope! Also, sometimes people try and mask the smell and that is something we train extensively on. It is impossible to mask the smell or hide dope because of molecular movement. So if you combine dope in coffee, they will smell the coffee and the dope. Also, there is no such thing as an airtight container.

Bowie is a narcotics detection dog found at Savin’em All Animal Rescue 

JH: Which dogs are used in narcotics work? How are they bred or selected for this job?

TB: If you want a dog just for narcotic detection, you want a high-speed, active dog, a full-sized dog with a traditional pointed snout. One option -- go to the local pound and find a hyper Lab that was dropped off for being just that, a hyper Lab. If you want the dog to give passive alerts, train her immediately to perform ‘sit’. Since good things come after she sits, she’s more likely to give passive alerts!


JH: The drugs that Etta can sniff out, marijuana, cocaine, heroine and methamphetamine, why were those drugs chosen?

TB: They are the most prevalent on the streets. Since I don’t have a DEA license and can’t legally work with the real substances, I buy a pseudo form of these drugs to use when training and practicing detection work.

JH: A drug pseudo form? Explain.

TB: Sigma Aldrich is a chemical company with state-of-the-art capabilities to make pseudo-narcotics. These narcotics have exactly the same formula as real drugs, same molecular weight and same chemical formula; everything is the same except the angle on the atomic bonds is changed to render them non-psychoactive. I work with pseudo forms of marijuana, cocaine and heroine, but a pseudo form of methamphetamine is not available.

Dogs trained to perform detection work on pseudo narcotics can detect the real thing. When I’m with someone who is licensed to carry drugs, we can alternate dogs searching for the pseudo and the real form. Dogs can’t tell a difference; they detect both. 

JH: How do you store pseudo drugs?

TB: If you freeze them in Ziplock bags, they have a shelf life of about 2 to 3 years. Keep each substance away from one another to prevent cross contamination.

Etta and Tom at work

JH: Let’s end with the car. What is Etta doing on top of the car? I assume this has something to do with air movement?

TB: You got it. Look at the picture; the window of the car is cracked open on both sides. When dope starts to move, the scent travels out an opening, spins over the top and goes in the other window. We keep the car as found and don’t change the airflow. After the dog indicates on a window, open the door slightly, snake the dog in and she can hit the airstream back to the source. If you fling the door open, it takes longer for her to find. By maintaining the airflow, the dog will usually find the dope in about a minute.

JH: I lied; one more question. What do you want people to take away about narcotics detection?

TB: The number one thing is that training has to be fun. Period. If it’s not fun for the dog you’re doing it wrong. It has to be fun in a big way.

This has been great! Thanks, Tom!