I was watching some TV show yesterday, and part of it was about dogs used by the Canadian border patrol (or whatever the Canadians call theirs) using dogs specially trained to detect guns, and it went on to tell about how effective they are and how many guns were intercepted from people going into Canada.

While I wasn't aware of such dogs, they obviously exist. I wonder what it is about a gun they can smell?

My guess would be the gunpowder in the ammo and maybe the solvent/oil used in cleaning the firearm, too.

Don

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Laus Deo! <><

Makes you wonder if it was sealed up in plastic zip lock bags, but drug dogs find dope sealed in plastic bags. All I ever heard was don't try and smuggle a gun across and never lie to a boarder guard.

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H Richard
SWCA1967 SWHF244

A dogs sense of smell is far better than a human can even imagine and they "see" the world through their nose more than any other sense they have. As an example, when a human smells something like spaghetti they smell a combination of all the ingredients mixed together. When a dog smells it they don't smell spaghetti per se but instead they smell each individual ingredient that was used.

With that in mind I would assume they are trained to identify traces of gun powder, copper, lead and probably even a variety of various gun cleaning solvents.

My agency has a dog that does nothing except bodies, explosives, and guns. He is part black lab mixed with something else. The dog is flat out incredible. There have been many times he has been called out to find a gun thrown after a chase or otherwise disposed of. Not only has he found the weapon in question, but frequently finds multiple other guns that were not the subject of the search. He is also trained to sniff out explosives. I can ask next week when I go back to work, but I'm pretty sure he smells the chemicals produced by the combustion of the powder.

He is also trained to find bodies and boy is he good. One of the boats our dive/search/recovery team uses has a special platform built on the front. The dog lies down on the platform and sticks his head out over the water. He can actually detect bodies underwater. According to his handler, what he smells is the methane (and other chemicals from the decaying body) bubbling up to the surface. In fact, this is the second dog our agency has had that can do this. The platform on the boat was actually constructed for the previous dog. On more than one occasion, both dogs have smelled the chemicals so strongly that they dove off the platform.

I have watched both the retired and the active dog search for both guns and bodies. it is impressive. Each dog has or had a very specific indicator for explosives, guns, or bodies. I am always amazed when I watch my agency's canines work.

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Un-Reconstructed Southerner

Don't know why they are feeding all those dogs. I can smell Hoppe's #9 a mile away.

Charlie

Another endorsement for Frog Lube!

Unless you gotta dog that searches for Ben Gay...


But seriously, won't animals/insects/machines that sniff for gunpowder residue at airports and such alert if you've fired a gun recently, just from what's still on your hands? Imagine if you're wearing the same jacket that hasn't been washed.

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TEAM DNF

I always make sure the clothes I wore shooting are well laundered before traveling just to avoid any potential problems. I bet a dog would still smell residue on me, if a dog were sniffing me directly, but it's never been a problem yet.

I worked with a dog handler in the past. It is the solvents and lubes used on guns that the dog smells and then alerts. A good dog will find a clean unfired handgun just as fast as one that was fired. .....

I don't think I will ever go to Canada again after all the bull they gave me about my NRA sticker on my truck but if I do, I will put a dab of #9 behind my ear's.

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Don

I would worry more about a dog than any machine sniffer... had a friend go straight from a machine gun shoot in Colorado to the airport... machine sniffer did not detect anything... and he had literally been firing a Ma deuce 90 minutes earlier and only washed his hands... did not change clothes... those machines are a waste of money...

I thought those machines detect explosives instead of gun powder.

I assume when he does that he gets a bonus in addition to his regular paycheck.

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You're shy a few manners.

Heck Miami International has Beagles that can smell cash money!

Dogs noses are amazing. a gun would be easy.

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Still Running Against the Wind

Well, now I have a new project!! If I can get "Erma" out of her "Mama's" lazyboy long enough, I will start to train her on my only Pre War N frame.



She could be a big help at gun shows. So far she has mostly been known for sniffing out "Puperoni", and similar items.

Best Regards, Les

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SWCA 3084, SWHF 495, PGCA 3064

This all brings to light where we need to aim with our man-made technology. Dogs can detect and smell cancer, impending death, guns, drugs, and lord know what else, all because the molecules are there; someday we'll have man-made technology that will sniff the air to make all kinds of medical diagnoses, to find people, maybe even specific people, the sky will be the limit. In 50 years a visit to the doctors office might consist of walking by a machine, it sniffs you, then tells you what's wrong and what you need to do. We ain't seen nothing yet with technology, and perhaps dogs have been the catalyst for creative ideas of where technology should take us.

That's nothing, I have a wife that can do that.

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Don

My friend trains and runs cadaver dogs for the County Sheriff. One of hers recently located a body in a car with windows and doors closed under 30 feet of water. I think dogs can be trained to alert on about anything.

Please do, I'm curious as to the answer.

Last time we went through DFW the quesadillas in my girlfriend's purse caused some consternation amongst the scanner crew. I can only surmise that they had a similar density to C4 or SEMTEX. Tasted fine, though.

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Release the Kraken

I've read varying estimates that said a dog's nose is from 600 to 10,000 times as sensitive and discriminating as ours.

Reading all these posts, and viewing some documentary stuff on television, my guess would be on the high end of that range.

I suspect my dog can sniff where another one peed and know what the other dog's great-great-grandsire liked for lunch.

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Oh well, what the hell.

Didn't have my glasses on. I thought it was Gun SMITHING Dogs. Now if that can happen, Dogs will truly be man's best friend! Picking up brass, reloading, and cleaning could be added to these multi talented canines. I'll take 2 pups and 1 fully trained!!!

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PTLAPTA!

My diagnosis: Don't eat so many peanuts!

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PTLAPTA!

I am gonna try my dog to pick up brass, my brass only! He has a great nose. If I lived in Europe I'd train him for Truffles!

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Still Running Against the Wind

I surprised these people who look for Ginseng don't use dog's.

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Don

I had the same experience in the Louisville airport, except it involved a peanut butter and jelly sandwich in my carry-on.

Lol......That dog goes absolutely HAYWIRE for a chewed up section of firehouse.

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Un-Reconstructed Southerner

I go through a border patrol checkpoint several times each month, and they nearly always have some drug sniffing dogs there. Apparently they don't respond to guns as I always have a few in the truck. Only time I got nailed by a dog at the checkpoint was from carrying about two weeks worth of dirty clothes in the truck bed. The BP officer said their checkpoint dogs will respond to gamy human smells. I imagine most "Undocumented Immigrants" probably have enough BO to attract a BP dog's attention.

The scout dogs used in RVN could pick up stuff at some pretty long distances and alert on it. They were surrounded by guns, explosives,and a bunch of sweaty grunts and could tell the smells weren't ours,pretty amazing.

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Hue 68 noli me tangere

DWalt,

I can assure you that if you ever have the opportunity to be present when a trunk lid or the door of an enclosed rental truck is opened in the summertime and which also happens to be occupied by several undocumented travelers, you will NOT need a dog or even any vision at all to ascertain whether or not that space is filled with "gamy human smells"! I can tell you that it is an incredibly overwhelming and overpowering odor!! Once smelled, you can actually smell and identify this odor prior to opening the lid or doors of the occupied vehicle. A dog present at the scene won't even have to get off his spot in the shade of the border patrol vehicle set up at the roadblock to "alert" on this vehicle. And an occupied vehicle which is towed and stored, usually closed up and parked in a towing company storage lot for a long time will continue to smell the same for maybe ever! With your own nose, you can tell that a vehicle has previously carried folks in this fashion even though it may not be occupied by them when it is checked. In my experience, there is nothing at all "probably" about this odor!

I've had the privilege to watch a few of these dogs back in the day when using dogs was a relatively new practice with respect to drugs. Even if you have not seen it before, you can tell when the dog alerts. They are very energetic in what they do, and they take great pride in it as well. And yes, they get a "bonus" when they make and identify a discovery!

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So long ... Ken

Wife's cat has uncanny ability to locate my guns:

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Buy American
Vote Responsibly

Now that's a useful skill.... teaching your cat to cock a 1911! Never know when you might need a helping... set of teeth!!

Best regards, Lees

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SWCA 3084, SWHF 495, PGCA 3064

About a month after the Twin Towers came down on 9/11 I had to go into Lower Manhattan (NYC) with my SUV on business. Any vehicle that went south of Houston street was subject to search. I had to prove I had business down there and they had a police Sniffer Dog go into my SUV and sniff EVERYTHING. I had been to the Range only a day or two prior to this and while there were no firearms or ammo in the vehicle it must have smelled from gun powder and gun oil (and believe me I am a clean freak so it was CLEAN!). Anyway they searched every square inch of my SUV and after emptying the entire contents of the SUV out and reloading it they let me go on my merry way. What a pain in the butt!

Cute dog, Les! One of mine used to sit the exact same way--tucked up in between the arm of the chair and whoever was sitting in it.

If I'm slouching on the couch reading a Handgunner, our newest and littlest will jump right up on my chest, in front of the magazine, right in my face. Then she'll roll over and bat her tail furiously. It's not that bad, though--she only weighs 3 pounds!

Dogs are amazing, far beyond humans, with their ability to smell.

That said, I do think guns, well maintained firearms, have a distinctive smell of oil and steel.

It is estimated that a dogs nose can smell 5 parts per billion. IOW, 5 billion pink dots on a wall, if you were to paint 5 of them black it would be the visual equivalent. Then look at a wolf and their nose is that much longer so more sensing receptors. I read a claim that a dog could track a human if he left 10 drops of urine in a swimming pool, and remember and identify them 10 years later. I now know why my dog gave me so may "You idiot cant you smell that" looks.
For Canada it is just a matter of identifying the scents be it oil, powder or priming compound.

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Front sight and squeeze

Back in the 70's while living in San Antonio, I had an acquaintance that worked at Southwest Research Institute. She said that SWI was working with miniature pigs that were being trained for gun detection at the request of a federal agency. The stated fact was that the pigs had a better sense of smell than dogs (?). The problem developed was that the pigs were very notifiable versus small dogs in a public situation. I guess the goal was to have agents in crowds or gatherings with the animals to alert if someone was carrying a firearm. So the idea has been around for a while. If in a crowd where a prominent figure is appearing, maybe that person carrying a small dog or pig in their arms is sniffing you out???

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Wherever my mind isn't
Jim

Sounds like a typical day at the Social Security office!!! I swear that some folks haven't bathed in MONTHS.

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John 3:16
WAR EAGLE!

Sounds like a typical day at the Social Security office!!! I swear that some folks haven't bathed in MONTHS.

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the customers or the people that work there?

Sniffing machines detect explosive residue, not gun powder or gun powder residue. I've asked about this at the TSA check points because I often travel with firearms in my checked baggage.

I've been told by a K9 handler that dogs can be trained to do two things. Most dogs are trained to be tracking/protection of officer dogs and one other specialty. Which is why you see gun sniffing dogs, explosive sniffing dogs, drug sniffing dogs, live victim sniffing dogs, cadaver sniffing dogs, but usually not more than one of those specialties.

Now, if they could only train a dog to sniff out good deals on used 3rd Gen semi autos...

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Can open, worms everywhere.

Dogs are truly amazing but bears are even better. Now can you imagine a big brown going through your car?

Why wait 50 years. There are dogs that can diagnose cancer by sniffing already.

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Can open, worms everywhere.

The customers. Some would come in wearing the same clothes for months at a time.

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John 3:16
WAR EAGLE!

Anyone care to insert a gun show comment into this thread?

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Can open, worms everywhere.

In the 60's and 70's, there were some pretty big hippie communes in the mountains north of Santa Fe up toward the Taos area. An annual event held in Santa Fe was a big Fiesta that included the burning of a huge paper machet effigy of Zozobra (old man gloom!). This took place on Labor Day weekend. It was a big well attended affair, including Banditos (who held their annual reunion there at the same time, Indians from every rez and pueblo around, plus locals and touristas from every where.

This gathering centered around the old Plaza in Santa Fe, a city block park surrounded by buildings (stores, taverns and pubs, and a few offices) so vehicular traffic was blocked off from the Plaza area for at least two blocks all around. LOTS of foot traffic, and by the end of the weekend, LOTs and LOTS of inebriated Indians as well as other folks. Things were shut down about 2 AM and opened up again early after daylight. I was member of what was later called a Tactical Team, and we were routinely assigned to help police this event, along with officers from every other LEO agency from all around, including from off the rez.

This event brought huge numbers of the hippie crowd to town for the weekend. Talk about some sights to see! Most of them apparently had not bathed since it got warm enough in the spring to take a bath where they lived. I guarantee that you could smell them coming from a very long way away if you were even slightly downwind. You could smell the drunk Indians too but it was a different odor. Those enclosed spaces full of IA's were very smelly places, but I have never before or since smelled anything like the way those hippies smelled, especially the females of the species. If a gut wagon smelled like they did, all the maggots would jump off and hitchhike!!! You could rake it off your tongue with your pocket knife, and it stuck on the inside surfaces of your nose which meant you had to wait a loooong time to eat anything after being in close proximity with those folks.

It is interesting how odors probably bring back more memories than any other of the five senses. Lots of odors are similar and remind you of odors in your memory bank. But some are like what a rattlesnake sounds like! Lots of sounds may make you think "rattler", but when a rattler sings, you know it is nothing else!!! And if the wind is right, you can also smell a snake if you realize what a snake smells like!

I've smelled a multitude of stinky people over the years, but I have never smelled a living human being that smelled like those hippie womenfolk at that time. Similar, yes, but nothing approaching the intensity and specific smell they gave off. I'm sure it was a combination of odors, including body odor and wood smoke and other things they were continually exposed to 24 hours a day plus no bathing! To make this pertinent to the thread, during one of these weekend events, I saw an elegantly dressed woman, obviously a tourista, walking daintily through this mass of unwashed and washed people. She had lots of jewelry on (which was not a wise thing to do!), and she had some kind of tiny dog pure white in color on a jeweled leash. She walked past a group of the hippie women standing on the sidewalk, and her small dog began sneezing and coffing and barking inbetween. I stood and watched the woman and her dog walk away to the corner and then down the street to leave the Plaza area. As far as I could see them, that little dog was trotting along and snorting and shaking it's head, I guess trying to get that awful odor out of it's nose!!! I would bet that the only way you could ever get that little dog anywhere close to those hippies again would be to pick it up and carry it there. It sure wouldn't have walked there on it's own!!! That odor and this scene is still a vivid memory in my mind.

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So long ... Ken

It might help out with getting suspects to cooperate. I can imagine a scene like:

Officer Jones: Are you SURE there's no illegal drugs in the car?
Driver: I'm tellin' ya, I don't know wha-
Officer Bear: RROOAARRR!
Driver: Gnyah!! Okay, yeah, sheez, it's right in there...

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TEAM DNF

Be careful with Hi-Points. After they sniff it out they usually poo on it.

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Thirty characters. Exactly...

Uhn...err... You think I could borrow that dog for a few dozen walks. I mean after all, dogs need exercise and I do have a nice supply of treats. Also, I think I can find places to store all the extra firearms.

Back to the way folks smell. At our community meetings we had a pretty nice woman who came to them. She was, so to speak, easy on the eyes. Also very nice to talk to. But for whatever reason, she and her husband were going to Africa to climb Kilmanjaro. So when they got back we had a get together to see their pictures. Her comment was the smelled so bad she wonders how they ever could have kids. Then her husband said the native women smelled even worse. Their conclusion being they'd never even heard of personal hygiene.

My dog, who we'll just call Ole Spot (because that was his name) had some uncanny abilities. He knew when someone was lurking just out of sight. You people call it "alert". I called it madder'n hell. He didn't like lurkers (take note, those who haven't joined here yet.) Often he'd turn his head, then his body and go beserk at whatever was hiding. But I never could get him to find me any extra guns.

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Dick Burg

Hey Sip - WELCOME BACK!