Seeing Eye Dogs and Drug Sniffing Dogs
Seeing Eye Dogs and Drug Sniffing Dogs
Dogs are certainly amazing and versatile animals. When you are in the process of training a dog and are getting a bit discouraged, you might take a moment to consider those two highly specialized trained dogs, the drug sniffing dog and the seeing eye dog.
The first school for Seeing Eye dogs was established in Potsdam, Germany shortly after World War I. The idea was to train German shepherds to assist men blinded in the war. An American lady living in Switzerland learned of the school and wrote an article about it that was published in the Saturday Evening Post in 1927.
This led to the establishment of the first American Seeing Eye dog school in 1929. Over the years, the school has practiced a selective breeding program to improve the quality of dogs that are trained to act as companions and eyes for blind people all over the World. It is the tremendous loyalty of the dog to its owner that is the key ingredient in this type of advanced training.
Another quality of the dog is its keen sense of smell. This trait has enabled the dog to be used as a hunter and a tracker for centuries, and in the modern era, it is being put to use to help in the fight against illegal drugs. Dogs are trained to detect even small amounts of marihuana, cocaine, and other drugs. The dogs have such an acute sense of smell that they can still detect the drug even when it is masked by other fragrances such as perfumes or gasoline. There are some common misconceptions about drug dog training. The dogs are taught not to touch the drug, and they are not fed the drugs or exposed to them in anyway that might be harmful. The bomb sniffing dog is another example of the sense of smell being put to use to protect society.
The average pet owner is not going to train his dog to sniff drugs or seek out bombs, nor rely on the dog to get around or cross the street. It should be encouraging to know that such training is possible though. After all if a dog can be trained to sniff out a small bag of pot in a mountain of luggage, you should be able to train your family pet to sit or come when he is called.