WHAT IS A TMAU SERVICE DOG ALERT

DRAY IS ALERTING FOR A SPECIFIC SCENT,
so that whenever he detects it, he will alert without a command.

Liz Norris, Master Instructor and Founder of Pawsibilities Unleashed*, is demonstrating how well Dray's training is coming along in alerting for whatever specific scent he is asked to find. Dray is trained to find any scent he is given to smell, whether it is TMA, or any other odor a sufferer may have, as long as he is then asked to "find it". Eventually as the training progresses, he will automatically alert to the scent without a command.

What we're doing is we’re taking a ‘diabetic high’, which is a blood sugar high. This is saliva, we have put saliva on cotton balls, frozen them and thawed them back out so we can use them to fake it. This little boy is not diabetic, but we’re going to use the scent on him, Dray is going to go over and show us if the child is high or low. He’s going to indicate that from the scent; and the scent is hidden in the little boy’s shoe.

'Dray, find the high, where's the high, Dray, show me, where’s the high. Yes, Searching, good boy, good boy – searching, where's the high. Yes, oh, good boy, Dray. That was a good 'find a high'.

OK now, we’re going to try again and you ask him, 'Am I high?', [Liz tells the boy raising the his hand.] Show him, 'is he high?' [she says to Dray,] 'Good boy, yes.' 'show him again.' [Dray raises his paw indicating that this is the high diabetic scent. The low diabetic scent is different, and the dog is trained to nudge with his head to indicate a low diabetic scent.]

There you go, so what he did is he showed the little boy , and if this were my son, and my son were ignoring him because children don’t [always listen to the dog]; then he would come to me and I would ask him, 'Dray, what is he, is he high?' And Dray would say, 'Yes, mommy, he’s high.' So the dog would come back and tell the parent that the child is high.

Awesome, Yay!!!

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Liz is a former U.S. Air Force K-9 unit trainer, including search & rescue (SAR), cadaver detection, drug detection, and K-9 obedience. She has also trained Malamutes as sled dogs, shown on the AKC circuit, been an AKC judge, and has volunteered with her own dogs in multiple SAR missions...

Liz Norris is the founder of Pawsibilities Unleashed. She is an official tester for the Therapy Dog certifications and Canine Good Citizen (CGC) tests and Service Dog Public Access Test.
http://puptky.giving.officelive.com/aboutus.aspx>

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MeBO Research

DRAY ALERTS TWO DIFFERENT SOURCES OF SCENT

VALLIE AND DRAY AT WORK
(AND PLAY) IN SCHOOL

Dray takes the initiative to alert two people who are each emitting a 'high' diabetic scent in the same room, which is the scent they are working with to train both dogs during that session. The scent could be very easily substituted for any other scent, and the learned behavior to alert would immediately be applied to the new scent introduced.

This is how a dog can be used for search and rescue, he's just given the new scent of an individual, and asked to find it. The behavior is already learned.

There are sufferers who believe that their type of odor changes, sometimes a burnt rubber smell, other times fecal odor, and other times fish odor, for example. A sufferer can take saliva swabs during each flareup, label them and freeze them. Once all the various possible odors are collected, they could be thawed out, put in separate containers with a lid with holes on the top, set on the floor and have Dray smell the sufferer and asked to 'find another'. It would be interesting if Dray indicates that the there are any swabs that agree with the sufferer's odor perception, and if he identifies all or some of the swabs as having the same or different odors.

A Service Dog's olfactory system can answer so many questions. He could help us classify the various odor types to begin with.

DRAY AND VALLIE'S LAST SESSION BEFORE RECESS

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MeBO Research

Dray's first 'drive by' TMAU Alert!

Progress Report on Dray,
First TMAU Service Dog in training
MARCH 18th, 2010

"Dray show me, find another"

This week (5/11-5/18/2010) we got our First, "Alert" on Dray's own. Charley walked into room with the TMAU urine scent pad in her pocket. She gave no commands and went on about her business. Dray got up, came straight to the pocket and indicated on it.....gave her a, "High 5". It was his first, "drive by" alert.

With no commands, Dray got up, came straight to the pocket and indicated on TMA ("T") scent and gave Charlotte a, "High 5". It was his first, "drive by" alert.

In other words he took it upon himself to come to the scent, (with no command) and gave the, High 5, which means, I found the "T" scent. Awesome progress in short time frame. This was his first automatic, "Check me".

Test Results show he can find the, "T" scent 100% of the time in a room, no matter where you have it.

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MeBO Research

TRAINING VALLIE

Training 4-month old Vallie at
Pawsibilities Unleashed, Pet Therapy of Kentucky, Inc.,
Training Center, 1410 Versailles Road, Frankfort, KY 40601
MARCH 18, 2010

Even though this young pup is hesitant to go where the 2 cats seem to have their domain for the moment, even allowing the cats to eat the treats intended for her, she is gently and lovingly coaxed (and even carried) to a position in which she assumes the more dominant role over the cats, as a service dog should. Then she happily wags her tail as she goes through tunnels (initial lesson for seek and rescue), finally learning to go down the slide to learn to play with children. As she comes down the slide, the cats move out of the way...

Vallie (Valentine Snow) initially doesn't care to walk on the ladder, but is lovingly coaxed with treats and does so with an excited wagging tail. An SD needs to get comfortable with all kinds of terrain.

Finally, she takes it in stride practicing walking on a treadmill as she is rewarded with a glob of peanut butter placed in front of her nose. This trains her to walk on moving sidewalks and escalators.

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MeBO Research

UNIQUENESS OF HUMAN ODOR - COMPARING IDENTICAL TWINS

Forensic Science Communications
July 2004 – Volume 6 – Number 3
Research and Technology
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)

Unique Odor in Identical Twins

The issue of genetic makeup and human odor was studied using scent-discriminating canines and scent collected from three sets of twins. The test subjects included fraternal twin baby boys on the same diet, identical twin baby boys on the same diet, and identical adult twins on different diets. Dogs were able to correctly identify the fraternal baby twins on identical diets and the identical adults twins on different diets, 89 and 83.5 percent respectively. The dogs were able to correctly identify the identical twins on the same diet only 49 percent, which is no better than chance (Hepper 1994).

It was found in scent lineup tests when the scent of identical twins is offered to dogs in succession, the dogs could not differentiate between the twins. In tracking experiments in which two scents are offered simultaneously and mixed up, the dogs were able to distinguish between the two identical twins (Kalmus 1955). These studies show that dogs can differentiate between identical twins, especially when the twins are living apart. However, discrimination is more difficult when the differences were genetic (Schoon and Haak 2002A)...


MeBO Research

CANINE ABILITY TO FOLLOW UNIQUE HUMAN SCENT

Forensic Science Communications
July 2004 – Volume 6 – Number 3
Research and Technology

Specialized Use of Human Scent in Criminal Investigations

Blended Odors
A scent item with multiple human odors is a contaminated-scent article. The term contaminated-scent article, however, is a misleading description. Due to the resiliency of human scent, there are few evidence items that carry only one human scent. The items used for scent articles are manufactured, transported, stocked, and sold by people who, by touching them, contribute additional scents. Scent canines have the ability to work accurately with an article containing blended human odors.

European studies have demonstrated the ability of properly trained scent-discrimination dogs to accurately match a target's scent to a contaminated-scent article. These studies established the basis for use of scent identification lineups as reliable evidence in criminal proceedings. In one study using scent-identification lineup dogs, it was determined that dogs, "like other animals, are capable of discerning the odor of different individuals on an object, and can use these odors in scent identification lineups" (Kalmus 1955; Schoon and Haak 2002B)...

Dogs can identify a person's odor that is blended with other human odors. Using a variation of tracking known as trailing, bloodhound handlers use dogs to differentiate a trail of specific human odor from all other odor trails in a search area. The trailing dog is trained to identify and follow the human scent presented to it by the handler. This scent is presented as a scent article containing the unique scent of a suspect or missing person. If a trail of scent matching the scent on the scent article is at that start location, the dog commences to trail and follows that trail to the exclusion of all others. If there is no matching scent trail at the start location, the dog refuses to trail.
http://www.fbi.gov/hq/lab/fsc/backissu/july2004/research/2004_03_research03.htm

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MeBO Research

WHAT SCENT IS IT? IS IT THE "T" SCENT?

TRAINING GOALS

Teach him to come and, "Alert" when he finds the scent.

Dray's training consists of him coming to get someone, when asked, "What is it?" Is it the, "T" scent? Show me? he will walk his handler back to where the scent item is or to the person the scent item is on and indicate them as the, "target" and give the High 5 sign.

Steps to get Alert:

Step 1: Dog must know the scent for sure.
Step 2: 2 people to work on this with dog
Step 3: One person is in another room, than the person with the scent sample hidden on them
Step 4: Tell Dray, go find Dad"
Step 5: when Dray comes to Dad (or whoever) they say; What is it? Is it the, "T" scent?
Step 6: Dray does his, "Alert" High 5
Step 7: Good Alert Dray, show me....
Step 8: They start walking with Dray back to the scent target
Step 9: Dray indicates where the scent target is
Step 10: Dray does the High 5
Step 11: Click /Treat and major party

Teaches Dray to come and alert to someone else besides just you the handler.Why? If you do not listen to him when he tells you, the dog will pester you for awhile and then go get someone to come and say, "you are not listening to your dog'...you need to do this.

Also, validates the dog understands the job.

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MeBO Research