Dogs Can Now Help Catch Criminals By Sniffing Out Electronic Storage Devices

Most of us are familiar with sniffer dogs who are trained to detect dangerous substances such as chemicals for bombs or illegal drugs. But police detection dogs are now being trained to sniff out something entirely different – electronic storage devices.

Back in 2011, a scientist from Connecticut named Jack Hubball discovered that the circuit boards inside electronic storage devices like USBs or microSD cards contain components that have unique scents that dogs are able to detect. Using a sample of these scents, the first two police dogs began their training, marking the creation of the ESD K9 Unit.

Criminals such as hackers, blackmailers, and even child pornographers may hide files and photos of their illicit actions using these storage devices since they are compact and easily hidden. Because of the incredible scent detection talents and the training that these dogs receive, a lot more suspects for these types of crimes have been caught.

The success of the small batch of electronic storage devices or ESD detection dogs has made the demand for them grow these past few years. The good thing about this is that the dog’s chosen for this career is that any dog may be qualified! As long as the pooch shows a willingness to do the work and are energetic, then they are sure to excel at ESD detection training.

In fact, those dogs who fail their training to become service dogs and other types of police dogs because of their enthusiasm and their hunting drive are the best ones to take up this vocation. What’s more, the training for sniffing out electronics is way more fun than the ordinary police K9 training methods!

Todd Jordan of Jordan Detection K9 is one of the leading trainers for these types of sniffer dogs in the US. But while other police K9 handlers use playing or toys as training rewards, Todd prefers to use treats. He also developed a way to train these energetic pooches to find the scents for these ESDs in a fun and yummy way that is also incredibly effective.

Source: Youtube | WGN News