Abstract
Canine olfaction has been leveraged across the globe for a wide variety of detection tasks, including medical, explosives, narcotic, and wildlife. The applications and usages of detection canines have grown substantially since the 1970s; however, technology to improve canine training and testing has largely lagged. Despite nearly 50 years of detection canine advancement, there have been few advancements in tools to present a controlled odorant to the canine for training. As such, wood containers, plastic boxes, and a wide variety of commercially available home storage containers remain popular odor delivery vessels. However, evidence suggests these methods may be non-ideal for odor presentation as there is no mechanism to provide standardized odor delivery, controlled odor concentration, or reproducibly create odor mixtures as might be required for canine olfactory testing or training. Nonetheless, based on advancements in human and small mammal olfactory testing, a small, but growing body of research on canine olfactory detection over the last 20 years has developed more advanced tools to provide standardized and controlled odorant delivery for the purposes of canine training and olfactory testing. These tools can largely be categorized based on use (for training of detection canines or research understanding canine olfaction) and technique (manual passive/diffusion odor delivery or olfactometer active delivery). As the tools and practice of detection canine training advances, there is increasing overlap between the tools leveraged in the laboratory and those used for training in the field, but this review will highlight the range of odor delivery vessels that are utilized in both the field and laboratory with a focus on tools that provide a controlled and measurable odor to canines on demand, namely olfactometers. We will also discuss the various training and assessment paradigms that can be used in conjunction with odor delivery tools and the benefits and limitations of each paradigm.
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Aviles-Rosa, E.O., Gokool, V., Hall, N., DeGreeff, L. (2023). Canine Olfactometry: Tools, Techniques, and Procedures. In: Lazarowski, L. (eds) Olfactory Research in Dogs. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-39370-9_5
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