The physical chemistry of odors — Consequences for the work with detection dogs

Abstract

Search dogs are used throughout the world in the search for illicit compounds or human individuals and similar tasks. Such search work is complex and not well understood in all its details which makes training of the dogs difficult. One important component for a successful education and deployment of search dogs is a good understanding of the behavior of scents under typical environmental conditions. This work summarizes up-to-date knowledge on the physico-chemistry of scents and discusses the consequences for the every-day work of dog handlers and trainers.