Secrets of the Snout

Secrets of the Snout Secrets of the Snout THE DOG’S INCREDIBLE NOSE FRANK ROSELL Foreword by Marc Bekoff Translated by Diane Oatley THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS Chicago and London The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637 The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London Copyright © Gyldendal Norsk Forlag AS 2014 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations in critical articles and reviews. For more information, contact the University of Chicago Press, 1427 E. 60th St., Chicago, IL 60637. Published 2018 Printed in the United States of America The translation of this work was funded by University College of Southeast Norway. 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 1 2 3 4 5 ISBN- 13: 978- 0- 226-53636- 1 (cloth) ISBN- 13: 978- 0- 226-53653- 8 (e- book) DOI: https:// doi .org/ 10 .7208/chicago/ 9780226536538 .001 .0001 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Rosell, Frank, 1969– author. Title: Secrets of the snout: the dog’s incredible nose / Frank Rosell; foreword by Marc Bekoff; translated by Diane Oatley. Other titles: En nese for alt. English Description: Chicago; London: The University of Chicago Press, 2018. | Includes bibli- ographical references and index. Identifiers: lccN 2017030476 | ISBN 9780226536361 (cloth: alk. paper) | ISBN 9780226536538 (e-book) Subjects: lcSh: Working dogs. | Olfactory sensors. Classification: lcc Sf428.2 .r6813 2018 | DDc 636.73—dc23 lc record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017030476 ♾ This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (Permanence of Paper). This book is dedicated to my mother and father, who gave Terje (my twin brother) and me our first dog, Tinka no. 1, when we were twelve years old, and to all my four-legged friends— the Tinkas, Tapio, Tapas, Shib, and Chilli. CONTENTS Foreword by Marc Bekoff ix Preface xi 1 Dogs at Work 1 2 A Dog’s Sense of Smell 24 3 A Good Judge of Character 39 4 Pet Finder 55 5 Search and Rescue 68 6 On the Hunt 78 7 Police Work 97 8 Customs and Border Control 114 9 Military 120 10 Medical Detection 131 11 Field Assistant 144 12 Pest Detector and Building Inspector 165 13 Other Work Tasks for Sniffer Dogs 180 Acknowledgments 191 Notes 193 Index 255 vii FOREWORD Dogs have a nose for everything. If you live with a dog, or simply enjoy observing them, you know that dogs fol- low their noses most of the time, often in ways we wish they didn’t. What secrets can a dog sniff out, and what are the secrets of the dog’s olfactory talent? In these pages, Frank Rosell covers all we know about the dog’s amazing nose. He shows how dogs’ prodigious sense of smell has helped us in more ways than you’d imagine, and why understanding dogs’ noses can make us better companions to them. He is fortunate to live with three border collies who participate in his research. People have been interested in dog olfaction for many centuries, but only in recent decades has research in this field received more detailed attention. We are curious about dogs’ noses because they are so vastly more sen- sitive than our own, and because we understand so little about what dogs are doing when they stop to smell a lamp- post or fire hydrant. Many dog books cover some of the topics that Dr. Rosell considers, but none are as extensive, well researched, or written for a general audience. ix x FOREWORD Each chapter of Secrets of the Snout begins with the story of a spe- cific dog and continues with current knowledge in the field. Through- out, Dr. Rosell shows readers how dogs’ sensing abilities are helping humans. I was simply astonished at the growing range of applications for which the dog’s sense of smell is being used. Through specialized training, dogs are taught to find the missing or lost, including humans and animals buried under snow or debris, and to locate an array of other items and substances, from golf balls to air pollution. Dr. Rosell also discusses how dogs help doctors by detecting diseases such as cancer and diabetes. He does an excellent job explaining what odors dogs detect and how they do it. Dr. Rosell’s stories of how dogs learn to put their noses to work for people and other animals hold many lessons for all people interested in dogs, including dog trainers. Dogs love to sniff here and there, and it’s essential to allow them to do so. With a better understanding of the canine sense of smell, you can devise new and absorbing olfactory challenges for your dog. Secrets of the Snout offers a perspective on dogs, along with plenty of practical insight, that will greatly enrich your dog’s life, and your own. Marc Bekoff, PhD Author of Canine Confidential: Why Dogs Do What They Do PREFACE My fascination with dogs started at the age of twelve, when my twin brother, Terje, and I got our first dog, Tinka, a Shetland sheepdog. I began to notice how mam- mals communicate with one another through the use of odorants. Later, at university, I focused on chemical engi- neering, but my fascination with the behavior of animals led me to chemical behavioral ecology as my field of ex- pertise. I completed my doctorate in 2002 and became a professor in this subject area five years later. For twenty years I have done research on and taught about the odor- based communication of many different species of mam- mals, including the beaver, brown bear, yellow-bellied marmot, and European badger. I was born and raised in Halden in Østfold County in Norway. My research has been predominantly focused on the beaver since I observed my first individual beaver on July 21, 1990, the day before my twenty- first birth- day. Tinka became my constant companion on beaver excursions, and starting in the autumn of 2008, I ex- xi xii PREFACE panded the focus of my research to include the dog. I have taken great pleasure in all the dogs I have lived with both in Halden and later in Bø in Telemark. Tinka 1 and the border collies Tinka 2, Tapio, Shib, Tapas, and Chilli have all eagerly put their noses to work, run- ning off to chase after female dogs in heat, rolling in feces, and sniff- ing at other dogs’ faces, behinds, and scent markings. I have often observed this with interest and wonder and, now and then, with irritation. The dog has been man’s “best friend” somewhere between 11,000 and 33,000 years, and in more recent centuries, dogs have been em- ployed for many more purposes than solely that of a companion. This book is about dogs’ sense of smell and the many ways we have put it to work. Dogs can be trained to sniff out almost everything. They have a nose for all manner of things, and there is almost no limit to the tasks they would gladly do for us. We all know about hunting dogs. Search and rescue organizations use dogs to find missing persons. Customs authorities have their own dogs to sniff out narcotics, currency, and other smuggled goods, while police dogs are trained to find weapons, blood, and semen. The armed forces train dogs to search for bombs, mines, and other explosives, while pest controllers train them to detect carpenter ants, rats, mice, and bedbugs. Thousands of dogs protect us from criminals, smugglers, terrorists, and arsonists. Dogs are also used to sniff out alien or endangered animal and plant species, to locate contaminants, and to detect diabetes and different types of cancer at a very early stage. These are just a few of the themes that will be discussed in this book. You will also read about the wine and spirits dog Tutta, the pet finder AJ, the rescue dog Barry, the hunting dog Balder, the police dogs Trixxi and Kaos, the military working dog Lisa, the diabetes detection dogs Shirley and Nemi, the turtle dog Ridley, the Lunde- hunde Frøya, the orca feces detection dog Tucker, the beaver sniffer dogs Mie, Shib, and Tapas, the spruce bark beetle detection dogs Meja and Aska, the rot detection dog Cleo, the building inspector PREFACE xiii dog Luna, the oil spill dogs Jippi and Tara, the estrus detection dog Elvis, the human feces detection dogs Sable and Logan, and the golf ball dog Goya. Enjoy the book! Frank Rosell One1 Dogs at Work In 1925 diphtheria broke out in Nome, Alaska, and it was vital to acquire the antitoxin serum for those afflicted with the illness. However, with winter storms and im- passable roads, it seemed virtually impossible to acquire the serum before the outbreak became an epidemic. Nonetheless, dog relay teams were assembled to deliver the antitoxin, with the final leg of the treacherous journey completed by Norwegian Gunnar Kaasen. With his team of Siberian huskies led by a dog named Balto, Kaasen suc- ceeded in delivering the serum, which prevented a deadly epidemic. Caught in a blinding snowstorm, Kaasen had almost given up on making it to Nome with the serum until, in a final act of desperation, he appealed to Balto to find the way through the snowstorm. There was minimal visibil- ity, so Kaasen was completely reliant on Balto’s sense of smell to reach their destination. In The Cruelest Miles, Gay Salisbury and Laney Salisbury describe the scene: 1 2 CHAPTER ONE [Balto] understood that he had to regain the trail, to find the faint scent of the dogs that had pattered before him that winter.

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