These days, we’d have to live in a bubble not to have encountered one of the many kinds of detections dogs that are becoming more commonplace at airports, transit stations, concerts and sporting events. While some dogs are sniffing for contraband – something that doesn’t effect our immediate safety, other dogs are detecting for bombs, and that absolutely impacts our well being. The trouble is the bomb sniffing dogs can detect bombs only if the device is very close by, and stationary. Enter the vapor wake dog.
Vapor wake?
When we move around, we discharge rising warm air filled with scents that trails behind us – a “wake.” In the right conditions, dogs specially trained for this can sniff out particles of certain smells in the thermal plumes of body heat we leave behind and detect a suicide bomber within a crowd of 50,000 people. VAPOR WAKE® detector dog technology was developed by Auburn University and was so innovative that it was granted a U.S. patent in 2015, and is the only detector dog technology certified by the National Center for Spectator Sports Safety and Security. Auburn’s 18-month vapor wake program has trained more than 100 dogs that have worked major league baseball games, at the Los Angeles Metropolitan Airport, Amtrak stations, and concerts.
Auburn prefers certain breeds, check out the video below to learn which ones:
Over the summer, Rolling Stone Magazine published an article on this newest form of detection dog and the video below is from that on-line article:
Now, if only someone would put some Paw Pads on the feet of those dogs walking on slick surfaces!
So…..tracking dog meets bomb dog?
Actually, Peggy, yes, now that you mention it!
I noticed that a German Short hair was one of the dogs in the video. This vapor wake is exactly what we call a cone of scent for a bird dog. Running free, the dog crosses the scent of the bird, doubles back to find the parameters of the cone, and then uses the increasingly strong scent within the cone to home in on the location of the bird and point it’s location. Just like tracking dogs always work forward, because they can identify increasingly fresh scent. Dogs work at considerable distance, quartering the field in front of the handler and checking out the natural targets like hedgerows where birds settle in. These vapor wake trained dogs put these same skills into a different context, and have the dogs alert on the bomb using a different indicator. I can see why spaniels are such naturals for this, since they hup or sit to indicate the bird rather than point. Always wonderful to see people so incredulous at a skill so core to the nature of the purpose bred dogs.
Fascinating observation, Sandra!
I have to add that I think the patented vapor wake name is more than a bit over the top. I can imagine the guffaws if one of the vapor wake people came to a hunt test and started explaining what air borne scent is. Even at the Junior Hunter level, this is exactly what all the dogs are doing. AND for the experienced dogs, especially those that have worked on wild birds, they can tell by the scent of the bird, how it needs to be worked. A pheasant is worked differently from a grouse or a woodblock, for example.
That should be woodcock. Darn new phone hasn’t learned my vocabulary yet. :-).
Tracking, Hunting, Scent/Nose Work, Barn Hunt. All dogs use scent cones if they’re trying to find an odor. Odor moves in every possible direction. I fail to see why this particular one of a dog’s senses needs a patent. Dogs will find an odor whether it’s a bad guy, a bomb or a treat.
In one of the links in the article, LB, it explains that the patent was not for what a dog can do naturally, but for the “scientifically-based method” for selecting, training, and employing the dogs.In case you missed it, it was at this link: http://www.vetmed.auburn.edu/blog/cvm-news/vapor-wake-technology-granted-patent/
It is absolutely amazing that these dogs can be trained for these things. Even better that they are adapting as the technology changes. I would love to see some of these in action.
We agree, Kenneth! In fact, we’re discovering all the time just how much our dogs are capable of learning, intuiting, performing and more. We give kudos to the Hungarians who have, as far as we can tell, taken the lead in researching our dogs after a period of time in which scientists didn’t think there was much “there,” there. Were they ever wrong! Thanks for writing!