A nose for foes

Dogs are mobile, versatile, affordable. "They are the only explosives detector we have that can locate and then respond at the source of an explosive odor," Kontny says. "The bad guys can check the specs and attempt to gauge a machine's capability, but they can't measure up a dog."

With their super-sensitive noses, dogs are a strong defense in America's war on terrorism. Scientists estimate that a dog's nose is from 100 to 10 million times more sensitive than a human's.

"There aren't machines sophisticated enough yet to measure the might of a dog's nose," says Paul Waggoner. He directs Auburn University's Institute for Biological Detection Systems in Alabama.

Dogs can discriminate between clashing odors. They can filter out "junk smells" and zero in on one scent. If your ears were as finely tuned as a dog's nose, you could find your best friend in a crowded school cafeteria by the sound of his voice ... even if he were whispering.

"We know that dogs have the ability to detect at least 1 to 100 parts odor in one billion parts of air, but their noses may be even more sensitive," Dr. Waggoner says.

That means a bomb-sniffing dog could literally find a needle in a haystack - if the needle had a drop of nitroglycerin on it. This ability to discriminate between odors is important to the Federal Aviation Administration, because a terrorist might try disguising a bomb with strong smells like coffee or perfume. But that's not likely to fool a well-trained bomb dog.

"A person walks down the street, passes a bakery, takes a whiff, and thinks 'Hmm: bread,' " says Bob Blessing, a longtime FAA dog trainer at Lackland Air Force Base near San Antonio, Texas. "A dog passes the bakery and thinks 'Hmm: Flour, water, sugar, salt, yeast....' "

The same sorting of smells happens if someone tries to mask the presence of explosives in a suitcase. An FAA dog can detect dynamite through dirty diapers, or C-4 through smelly socks.

If you go sniffing around the Web for more information on the Federal Aviation Administration's bomb-sniffing dog program, you'll only find a few scraps. That's because the FAA is keeping a tight leash on its tactics, so as not to give bad guys an advantage. (The Monitor stories were carefully screened by the FAA before publication.) You might find the following sites useful, though:

Dogs With Jobs

www.dogswithjobs.com/

Profiles on dogs that earn a "paycheck" by serving humans. It includes breed profiles and a video clip.

Animal Planet's Working Dogs

animal.discovery.com/working_dogs/working_dogs.html

Learn more about "blue collar" dogs that work in show business, law enforcement, ranching, and search and rescue.

USDA's Beagle Brigade

www.aphis.usda.gov/oa/pubs/detdogs.html

Working nose-to-nose with the FAA bomb dogs is the Department of Agriculture's Beagle Brigade. They sniff air travelers' luggage, hunting for prohibited fruits, plants, and meat that might contain harmful plant or animal pests.

Auburn University's Institute for Biological Systems Detection

www.vetmed.auburn.edu/ibds/

The Institute, located at Auburn University's School of Veterinary Medicine in Alabama, studies how dogs' sense of smell can be used to help humans.

Vietnam Dog Handler Association

www.vdhaonline.org/

Today's bomb-sniffing dogs are descendants of Vietnam War-era military dogs that served as scouts, combat trackers, and mine and tunnel dogs. This site is dedicated to those dogs and their handlers.

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