TY - JOUR A1 - Fischer-Tenhagen, C. A1 - Johnen, D. A1 - Heuwieser, W. A1 - Becker, Roland A1 - Schallschmidt, Kristin A1 - Nehls, Irene T1 - Odor Perception by Dogs: Evaluating Two Training Approaches for Odor Learning of Sniffer Dogs T2 - Chemical Senses N2 - In this study, a standardized experimental set-up with various combinations of herbs as odor sources was designed. Two training approaches for sniffer dogs were compared; first, Training with a pure reference odor, and second, training with a variety of odor mixtures with the target odor as a common denominator. The ability of the dogs to identify the target odor in a new context was tested. Six different herbs (basil, St. John’s wort, dandelion, marjoram, parsley, ribwort) were chosen to produce reference materials in various mixtures with (positive) and without (negative)chamomile as the target odor source. The dogs were trained to show 1 of 2 different behaviors, 1 for the positive, and 1 for the negative sample as a yes/no task. Tests were double blind with one sample presented at a time. In both training approaches, dogs were able to detect chamomile as the target odor in any presented mixture with an average sensitivity of 72% and a specificity of 84%. Dogs trained with odor mixture containing the target odor had more correct indications in the transfer task. PB - Oxford University Press KW - dog training KW - herbs KW - reference materials, KW - scent dog KW - smell KW - training model PY - 2017 UR - https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-bam/frontdoor/index/index/docId/40786 AN - OPUS4-40786 SN - 1464-3553 SN - 0379-864X VL - 42 IS - 5 SP - 435 EP - 441 AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany