Electronic analyzers & detection dogs

Learning Beyond the Target Odor

In forensic and operational work, electronic analyzers such as the Gemini Analyzer are often used to identify narcotics and explosives. These advanced instruments use Raman and FTIR spectroscopy to analyze molecular structures and compare them to large chemical libraries. When a match is found, the machine identifies the substance.

But there is a weakness. The world of synthetic drugs and other target odors, changes constantly. Manufacturers modify molecular structures to stay ahead of legislation, often by making only small but significant changes. These small molecular shifts can make the analyzer fail to recognize the compound until its database is updated.

This limitation creates an interesting comparison with detection dogs. Dogs do not work from a fixed library. Their strength lies in learning, memory, and generalization. Through reinforcement and experience, they build an internal “odor library”, a biological system that updates itself with every exposure. However, this adaptability only develops if we train it. And trainers must always remember a simple truth: you get what you reinforce.

Dogs are exceptionally skilled at discriminating between odors. When we train them on one very specific target under consistent conditions, they will focus precisely on that single odor profile, and nothing else. If that’s what we reinforce, that’s what we’ll get. But when the odor changes, a different manufacturer, another level of purity, new packaging, or aging, the dog may hesitate or fail to alert. This doesn’t mean the dog is wrong. It means the dog learned exactly what we asked for, not what we needed.

Let’s put this into a human example. Imagine I am teaching you to recognize the letter E. I present line-ups like:

A B C D E

D C E A B

E C D B A

Each time you correctly identify the letter E, I reinforce you. Soon, you are very good at finding the letter E among single letters. Now, I make the task more realistic. Instead of single letters, I show you words:

FLOW – RABBIT – FLOWER – PAIN – GIRAFFE – AIRPLANE

Your task remains the same: find the E but what about the letter 'e'? Now, it becomes more complex. The target is hidden among other letters, patterns, and distractions. You now need to discriminate and focus your attention differently.

At this stage, you also realize something important: it’s not only about recognizing the big E you trained on. You now need to also identify the small 'e'. And what if we start writing the letters in different colors? Or use a thick marker instead of a thin one? What if some letters have stains, are faded, or blurred? Suddenly, you can’t rely on the perfect, clean E you first learned. You must learn to recognize all kinds of E symbols, big or small, thick or thin, black or blue, sharp or smudged. You must understand the concept of the letter E, not just one version of it.

That is exactly what we want from our detection dogs. We don’t want them to react only to the perfect, pure training odor. We want them to recognize the idea of that odor, even when it is mixed, aged, contaminated, wrapped, or slightly altered.

The “odor picture” changes with many factors. The difference between one gram and one hundred grams of the same substance can create a completely new olfactory image for the dog. The same applies to the age of the material. If your agency trains with narcotics that are four years old, the chemical composition, and therefore the odor, will be different from the fresh material your dog might encounter during real operations. Without exposure to these variations, dogs can easily begin to doubt or ignore what we consider the same target.

Although I am not a supporter of training detection dogs using Kongs, I know it is a common practice. It also provides an excellent way to observe how odor variation works. Train your dog ten to twenty times using a new Kong. Once the behavior is solid, hide a few old Kongs, ones that have been stored or played with for months. You will often see hesitation or failure to alert. Why? Because even though it’s the same object, the odor picture has changed. Material aging, oxidation, and environmental exposure all modify the scent signature. The dog doesn’t perceive “Kong”, it perceives molecules, and those molecules tell a different story now.

We need to help our dogs understand that we are not only interested in the pure target odor, but also in those odors that belong to the same “odor family.” That doesn’t mean we want false alerts. It means we must carefully expand the dog’s understanding through structured training and controlled generalization. This is where thoughtful training design comes in. We expose dogs to realistic variations, measure their responses, and reinforce correctly to build understanding, not confusion.

The goal is to create a dog that can recognize the “E” in any context large or small, hidden in a word, colored differently, or slightly distorted. In odor terms, that means a dog that can detect the true target odor in all its natural variations, without being misled by irrelevant changes.

Both the electronic analyzer and the detection dog aim for the same goal: accurate identification in a complex and changing chemical world. The analyzer depends on a digital library that must be updated manually. The dog depends on a biological brain that can update itself through learning, exposure, and reinforcement. As trainers, our task is to make sure that learning continues. Expose your dogs to variety. Reinforce understanding. Build flexibility. Because in the end, you always get what you reinforce.