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Research undertaken by a team of animal behavior experts at the University of Lincoln, UK, has revealed a game-changing approach to training sniffer dogs, which could revolutionize the field of dog detection.

Widely used for a variety of detection tasks, detection dogs can scent the odor of volatile substances including explosive materials, drugs or wildlife, as well as certain diseases. Given this critical role in security and public welfare, the dogs' reliable and accurate performance is essential.

Historically, detection dogs have been trained using a sequential鈥攐r single-odor鈥攎ethod which involves training the dog to detect a target odor in isolation, with additional odors learned consecutively. While sequential training can be an effective means of learning individual odors, it may not be optimal for identifying target odors when mixed with other substances.

The study, conducted using odor detection methods with pet dogs at the University of Lincoln with support from the Defense Science Technology Laboratory, makes recommendations for trialing moving away from traditional sequential training methods, which present a target odor alone until the dog has learned it before moving onto the next target.

The innovative "intermixed" approach is where a detection dog is exposed to multiple different target odors within a single training session, giving the dog an opportunity to identify various scents concurrently, instead of one at a time in a sequential manner. The work is in the Journal of Comparative Psychology.

Anna Wilkinson, professor of animal cognition, explained: "This novel training approach made dogs better able to alert to slightly different versions of their target odor, something that is really important in working dogs who will come across lots of variation to the targets while working."

Findings from the study demonstrated higher rates of olfactory generalization in the intermixed group, which would indicate greater success in real-world scenarios, where there might be multiple variants of odors present. This approach contrasts with traditional sequential training methods, which may limit a dog's ability to adapt to new odor challenges.

The research underscores that it may be beneficial to shift training practices to ensure that detection dogs can meet the evolving challenges they face in the field.