Canine sense of smell efficiency at police workforce

Abstract

Worthy of exceptional olfactory sense, dogs have long been employed in Police work. Understanding the olfactory process, environmental influence, physical, physiological, emotional and functional factors involved in this process in the basic tool to enhance the results of animal work, strengthening the relationship of this binomial. In the Police work the breed and its anatomy is a decisive factor for a good performance of the tasks attributed to the hound. The act of smelling, in a professional manner, implies in the training of the canid for such activity from a young age, and from the Police officer who will accompany it, it is expected to have a strong mastery of the hound’s temper, which must be appropriate to the type of activity to be performed: search and rescue, drug lords, explosives and others. The present work aims at carrying out a literature review from national and international sources, in order to highlight the aspects of greater influence for these animals’ efficiency when facing the Police work demands, mainly of sniffer dogs.