<story><title>Handler beliefs affect scent detection dog outcomes (2011)</title><url>https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10071-010-0373-2</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>daddylonglegs</author><text>Dogs are very good at reading people and if the handler wants an indication they will get it; they may not even realise that they&amp;#x27;re influencing the dogs. As others have said, this has been known for a long, long time. There was even a book written taking a wry look a scent dogs (and the plans for scent bees etc that were in vogue during the great war on terror) [1].&lt;p&gt;That said, dogs can be fantastic when used for finding threats rather than &amp;#x27;proving&amp;#x27; what the handler already believes. They have a combination of nose and brain that we can&amp;#x27;t replicate any other way and are great for search and rescue, finding explosives and some law enforcement searching.&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;headspace-the-book.blogspot.com&amp;#x2F;2008&amp;#x2F;07&amp;#x2F;acpo-police-dog-training-and-care.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;headspace-the-book.blogspot.com&amp;#x2F;2008&amp;#x2F;07&amp;#x2F;acpo-police-...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>Handler beliefs affect scent detection dog outcomes (2011)</title><url>https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10071-010-0373-2</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>praptak</author><text>I&amp;#x27;ve heard this mentioned a few years ago in a TV report on dogs used in labs that test evidence for criminal trials. Their procedure was to let the dog &lt;i&gt;alone&lt;/i&gt; into a special scent-free room that contained the sample being tested, plus a few control ones. The samples were placed into containers that only let the smell out (no visual cues, even though the samples were identical-looking cotton swabs).&lt;p&gt;Also, I vaguely remember a high-profile case where the evidence was dismissed precisely because the procedures for gathering and testing the samples were not followed.</text></comment>