Essay On Detection Dogs

Another category of dogs that help people is detection dogs. A detection dog is a canine that uses its nose to find substances. There are quite a few different types of detection dogs, but there are two that deal the most with our safety: military and arson detection dogs. Humans have had a relatively short history of using dogs in war. Dogs were first used in World War II (Weiss-Roessler 3). The United States alone used 12,000 dogs during World War II (Coren 203). From then on, dogs were not used in large quantities until 1989 in Afghanistan (Weisbord & Kachanoff 16). Military dogs have had a exceptional history. It is estimated that 10,000 lives were saved during the Vietnam War due to military dogs (Coren 209). There are a few different tasks that dogs can preform in wars. Dogs can be “scouts, sentries, trackers, and bomb detectors, and also help improve troop morale” (Weiss-Roessler). They can act as scouts by walking ahead of the troops with cameras and microphones on them so that their

handlers know what the conditions are like ahead (Weiss- Roessler). Probably the most important job of a military dog is to detect land mines. Dogs detect land mines by smelling the explosive materials in them. They are even better than metal detectors at finding these explosives. For every one land mine found by a metal detector, there are one hundred to two hundred false positives (Weisbord & Kachanoff 16-17). Also metal detectors cannot detect new land mines that have plastic casting and dogs can (Weisbord & Kachanoff 16-17). Man’s best friend is faster at finding land mines than humans. Two dogs can do the work of twenty humans (Weisbord & Kachanoff 22). “Land- mine detection dogs have cleared tens of thousands of square yards of land. So far, in Bosnia, there is only one incident in which a dog detonated a mine- a far better safety record than that achieved by humans” (Weisbord & Kachanoff 19). Arson analysis dogs are also detection dogs. These canines determine how a fire was started and if arson was involved. Dogs go to the fire and sniff out gasoline or other non-natural fire starters. Today's machines cannot distinguish between natural fire substances and arson accelerants, so there are numerous false positives. In order to do these amazing jobs rigorous training is needed.
Military dogs go through the most extensive training of all the other dog jobs. To train these dogs, they are exposed to fires and explosions to make sure they can stay calm and quite under pressure. Not all pups are cut out to be war dogs; about 45 percent of dogs between 1942 and 1945 failed basic training (Harris). Training military canines takes $20,000 to $40,000 so serious care is taken with the dogs (Weiss- Roessler). To train canines to detect land mines, “‘We make as if we’ve thrown the Kong into the square, so he’ll go into the square thinking he’s going to get his Kong but instead he finds the scent of the explosive. He knows he’ll get the Kong as a reward soon after’” (Weisbord & Kachanoff 21). German Shepherds are commonly used for military dogs because they are strong, good tempered, larger sized, and can adapt to different climates (Weisbord & Kachanoff 16). For arson dogs the training also relieves on a reward system with praise and play included. There is no one best dog breed for arson detection dogs. Dogs can also help people in their day-to-day lives.
Service dogs help out the physically disabled or ill people. There are four main types of service dogs: Hearing dogs, visual assistance dogs, medical alert dogs, and wheelchair assistance dogs. Hearing dogs help the daily lives of deaf people by alerting them to certain sounds such as the doorbell, a phone ringing, a timer going off and more. Visual assistance dogs help blind people. They help them cross the street and just generally avoid obstacles. If someone in a wheelchair needs assistance then a dog can help. Wheelchair assistance dogs are so smart that they can tell whether the object that the person dropped is in or out of their reach (Weisbord and Kachanoff 171). They also open doors, retrieve objects, and help the person move their body to get into their wheelchair. Probably the most amazing service dogs are medical alert dogs. Some medical alert dogs are trained to recognize the smell of high and low blood sugar on their owner’s breath and alert them by tapping them. Their sense of smell is so great that they can detect their owner’s blood sugar from three miles away and alert the person’s family (Castaldo 130). Medical alert dogs can also sense if someone is going to have a seizure and bark to warn them to get to a safe location where they can find help. Dogs can also push an emergency button that calls 911 if their owner is in danger. Lastly, there have been cases where dogs have notified their owners that they had cancer. In the case of Lisa Hulber, her dog would persistently stick her nose into Hulber’s breast, so Hulber went to the doctor and found out that she had a type of breast cancer that is rarely picked up on routine mammograms (Ascher-Walsh 79). A few months later, Hulber’s dog would relentlessly sniff her arm in the exact spot where the cancer had spread to. In fact “‘of 27 lymph nodes, that was the only nodes it had spread to’” (Ascher-Walsh 80). Hulber’s pet is not the only one that can detect cancer; “ A 2006 study by the Pine Street Foundation indicated that dogs could sniff out breast cancer with 88 percent accuracy even in the earliest stages of the disease” (Ascher-Walsh 81). Like the other dog jobs, service dogs require training.
Training can begin at an early age; “A service dog’s training can begin as early as the second day of the puppy’s life” (Ascher-Walsh 51).

Specifically for dogs that recognize high and low blood sugar they are in foster homes from birth until they are given to someone who needs their help. When they are forty-nine days old, these dogs are given a scent recognition test along with a personality and obedience test. Once they have passed these tests, they are entered into an obedience class and are given to their families at about eleven weeks old (Castaldo 129). There are different programs for each type of service dog, such as NEADS, which is the oldest hearing dog program in the United States and it has over one thousand dogs (Ascher-Walsh 129). The most popular breed of service dogs is Labrador Retrieves due to their friendly nature, however Golden Retrievers are also common (Ascher- Walsh 61-67). Just being around a dog can be beneficial to a person’s

health.
Owning a dog can improve your physical health. Dogs can lower your risk of getting allergies. In a study conducted by a pediatrician at the University of Wisconsin, blood was analyzed from babies right after they were born and then one year later. He found that if the baby lived in a house with a dog, they were twenty-four percent less likely to have pet allergies, their chance of getting an allergy skin condition called eczema was decreased, and they had higher levels of certain chemicals that show signs of a stronger immune system (Davis). Another study showed that it a family has two pets; there was a seventy percent reduction in sensitivity to all allergens (Coren 221). Pets, specifically dogs lower a person’s chance of getting allergies because endotoxins are found in their spit and exposure to these toxins at a young age causes someone’s immune system to have a lower chance of reacting to certain allergens (Coren 222). Man’s best friend also can lower your blood pressure; “ In one study, stockbrokers with high blood pressure who adopted a cat or dog had lower blood pressure readings in stressful situations than did people with pets” (Davis). People who are prone to heart attacks who have pets survive longer than patients without pets. Also, if the owner is a male, then they have lower cholesterol levels and triglyceride than males without pets (Davis). Dogs do not just benefit a person’s physical health.
Besides physical health, puppies can improve your mental health. Dogs make people happy. According to Lynette Hart, a professor at the University of California, “Studies have shown that Alzheimer's patients have fewer anxious outbursts if there is an animal is in the home” (Davis). Also, people with AIDS that have pets are less likely to become depressed than those without pets (Davis). This may be due to the fact that spending time with your dog raises levels of serotonin and dopamine in the owner, which cause feelings of pleasure and calming (Davis). Ownership of a dog also can make someone feel better about themselves. There have been quite a few studies that have shown that kids with dogs have higher self-esteem than children without dogs (Coren 148). Having a pet can improve someone’s characteristic as well. There have been many studies on this issue. One study demonstrated that kids that looked after dogs became more popular, cooperative and sharing, and improved the child’s role-taking skills (Coren 150). Other studies have shown that young people with pets have higher degrees of empathy compared to people without pets. Puppies also can help increase a kid’s attention span (Ascher-Walsh 63). Dogs’ abilities to help people are incredible.
Dogs have been extremely useful to humans over the years. First, dogs helped ancient people to survive, which caused them to evolve and become the people that we are today. Canines’ have also helped us in the modern age by finding missing persons (search and rescue dogs), detecting danger (detection dogs), and helping the physically disabled or ill persons (service dogs). Pups have to go through extensive training before they can perform their jobs. Just being around a dog is beneficial to one’s physical and mental health. One can safely say that a dog is truly man’s best friend.