Question by hikki-chan: Can dogs used to find narcotics become addicted to the drugs they’re trained to find?
The police use dogs to find illegal drugs. I wonder if the dogs can become addicted. Like that episode of Family Guy where Brian worked for the police and became addicted to cocaine.
Best answer:
Answer by Shibas are stubborn sunshine
It makes me laugh that the source of this question comes from Family Guy. :)
I imagine not, or they wouldn’t use them.
Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!
They aren’t given the drugs, they can simply sense the aromatic particles given off better than we can. Realistically a person would be inhaling pretty much what the dog is, except the dog’s far more sensitive nose is able to detect much smaller concentrations than we can.
It’s also probable that the aromatic particles are not the active compound in the drug.
No, the dogs find the drugs and they get a reward—they don’t consume the stuff! (Some of the drugs they find can be lethal to dogs)
Now are the dogs addicted to tennis balls? I know an arson dog (actually I think he is an “accelerant-detecting dog”) that loooves his squeaky toy.
I believe they are trained to detect the odor of chemical compounds found in the drugs, rather than the entire drug itself — and they use such trace amounts for training, that the dogs run no risk of inhaling enough of any drug to form a chemical/physical addiction.
NO.
The dogs are not addicted to the drugs. When training a dog for search, they ussually need a dog that has a high ball-drive. They put trace amounts of the scent on the ball, and then hide the ball.. when the dog finds the ball, he gets a game of fetch as a reward.
The dog learns to associate that particular smell with the ball. This training works for both drugs and for search and rescue.
The dog may be addicted to a tennis ball, but not to the drugs.
Funny that this question is based off a cartoon show.. remember that Brian also talks and is an alchoholic.
I seriously doubt it, since the dogs don’t actually “consume” the drugs they seek out. That’s the most important part of an addiction.
Hearing from a gentleman that has been involved with drug finding dogs, I learned that on very rare occasions, the over ambitious dogs have busted the packaging and received a surprise ‘dose’. But, it is only a rare accident, in some training programs that use a packet instead of a residue for training.
They are not ever addicted, but only learn to find it by scent.
The most modern methods use only a residue on the packaging to train the dogs.