# How do you beat the dogs?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-beat-the-dogs/58677>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 20, 2001, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-beat-the-dogs/58677 "2001-03-20T05:08:59Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 14\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Askia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Askia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askia)\
**Post date:** [March 20, 2001, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-beat-the-dogs/58677/1 "2001-03-20T05:08:59Z")

</div>

I’m watching ‘Nightline’ – they’re doing a piece on ‘Traffic’ and the drug wars – and they’re talking about customs agents’ reliance on drug sniffing dogs, X-ray machines and their own instincts as primary weapons in detecting smuggled loads.

X-rayed items can be disguised with effort, and agents’ instincts can be led astray, I think - but how can you beat the dogs? Are there chemicals that can mask certain odors to dogs’ olfactory senses? Or repel dogs entirely?

What about those old prison break movies where, like, a prisoner is on the run in the woods, the hounds are chasing him, so he throws cayenne pepper / sneeze powder on the ground to shake off the dogs’ scent? Does that actually work like the movies depict? What about walking in a stream, can you really throw off dogs that way?

If I invented a cologne/perfume that had an “underscent” that mimmicked the smell of cocaine – not strong enough for the average human to detect, but enough to make drug-sniffing dogs react by giving a lot of false alarms – how many millions am I looking at, marketing it in Tijuana?

If you made cats – or if you prefer, female dogs in heat – swallow condoms filled with cocaine and smuggled them across the border, and the drug-sniffing dogs picked up the scent, how would you know what the dogs were reacting to?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Trucido](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ea5d25/32.png) [@Trucido](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trucido)\
**Post date:** [March 20, 2001, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-beat-the-dogs/58677/2 "2001-03-20T05:40:32Z")

</div>

I don’t know about the rest of y’all, but I’m not answering without a guaranteed cut of the profits.

I would posit this, though. I have seen a lot of stuff on artificial corpse scent for training dogs. The difficult, and therefore interesting, part was figuring out which compounds elicited a reaction from the dogs. Seems simple for cocaine, as it’s a single compound rather than the complex potpourri of, say, another dog’s urine. You might not get that cocaine smell without the compound itself (then again, maybe you could try some closely related but legal compound).  
Let’s say you use something intense like vanillin or capsaicin(sp?) to throw off the dog. He’ll still react to the package, which is the handler’s cue that funny business is afoot.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Badtz\_Maru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e36b37/32.png) [@Badtz\_Maru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Badtz_Maru)\
**Post date:** [March 20, 2001, 6:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-beat-the-dogs/58677/3 "2001-03-20T06:35:39Z")

</div>

I’ve heard that since coffee was found to be an effective masking material (put your stuff in baggies, which are then put in containers filled with coffee grounds) that dogs are now trained to alert on coffee and other substances used to mask it.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Enola\_Straight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dec6dc/32.png) [@Enola\_Straight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enola_Straight)\
**Post date:** [March 20, 2001, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-beat-the-dogs/58677/4 "2001-03-20T06:48:54Z")

</div>

You’d think that running through a stream would through off the scent, but its the cool, damp environment which actually holds the sent…oftem for as long as six months!

Concrete or asphalt, baking in the summer noonday sun, won’t hold onto scent for more than 10 minutes.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![occ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8c91f0/32.png) [@occ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/occ)\
**Post date:** [March 20, 2001, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-beat-the-dogs/58677/5 "2001-03-20T15:46:32Z")

</div>

> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by enolancooper \*  
> \*\*You’d think that running through a stream would through off the scent, but its the cool, damp environment which actually holds the sent…oftem for as long as six months!
> 
> Concrete or asphalt, baking in the summer noonday sun, won’t hold onto scent for more than 10 minutes. \*\*

I thought the point of the stream was that the rapidly moving water would quickly wash away the scent. While a cool, damp environment (like, I dunno, a basement) might hold the scent, it seems like a stream would quickly wash it away.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\
**Post date:** [March 20, 2001, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-beat-the-dogs/58677/6 "2001-03-20T16:29:40Z")

</div>

Just stopping by to point out that this–

> [@](#):
>
> a prisoner is on the run in the woods, the hounds are chasing him,

–is fiction, you know. 😉

I’ll go find a tracking dog cite later if you want me to, but basically tracking dogs (bloodhounds, etc.) work much, much more sloooowwwwlllllyyyyy than that. That whole “baying hounds chasing the escaped prisoner” isn’t really the way it works. Bloodhounds are really marvelously gentle (not to say dim-witted 😃 ), and, far from biting a chunk out of his leg, are always perfectly delighted to meet up with the person they’ve tracked down.

Now if you’re talking baying German shepherds on the end of a leash held by a Gestapo agent, or the Rottweiler/Doberman/security guard scenario, that’s a little different, because in the storyline, the scent is very hot, the escapee is right there directly ahead of the dog, so the dog has no trouble in following him. But give the scent a few hours to grow stale, and normally German shepherds/Rottweilers/Dobermans have trouble following it. Only tracking dogs, like bloodhounds, have the talent to follow an old scent, and they do it at a walking pace. (Now I’m gonna get jumped on by all the folks with I Heart German Shepherds/Rottweilers/Dobermans bumper stickers on their cars… 😃 )

And P.S. bloodhounds don’t bark (or bay) while they’re tracking, either. That’s foxhounds that do that.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ticker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d07c76/32.png) [@ticker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ticker)\
**Post date:** [March 20, 2001, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-beat-the-dogs/58677/7 "2001-03-20T17:12:22Z")

</div>

> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Askia K. Hale \*  
> **I’m watching ‘Nightline’ – they’re doing a piece on ‘Traffic’ and the drug wars – and they’re talking about customs agents’ reliance on drug sniffing dogs, X-ray machines and their own instincts as primary weapons in detecting smuggled loads.**

Actually most big seizures are the result of intelligence and prior investigation rather than a lucky hit with a dog. If customs believe you have the stuff on you there is nowhere they won’t look to find it.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Askia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Askia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askia)\
**Post date:** [March 20, 2001, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-beat-the-dogs/58677/8 "2001-03-20T17:18:44Z")

</div>

Thanks for the reply, Duck Duck Goose! So is the whole cayenne-pepper-on-the-scent-trail-to-shake-the-dogs thing, a fake, too?

and ticker: not to get too far off-topic, but is prior intelligence how they found out about that underground mile-long tunnel that went under the border that was built (and maybe never even used) to smuggle drugs?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\
**Post date:** [March 21, 2001, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-beat-the-dogs/58677/9 "2001-03-21T00:30:07Z")

</div>

How to confuse a bloodhound who is on your trail.

You can drag a red herring behind you.

[http://www.csmonitor.com/durable/1998/01/12/home/home.4.html](http://www.csmonitor.com/durable/1998/01/12/home/home.4.html)

> [@](#):
>
> Chasing a red herring  
> If anything smells stronger than a herring, it’s a red one - that is, one that’s been smoked. In Old England, hunters dragged red herrings across a fox’s trail to test their hounds. The herring’s strong odor would divert many dogs to a false trail. The most talented pups would dismiss the herring as a false clue and advance to real chases. Clever 17th-century crooks would try to confuse pursuing bloodhounds by dragging the fish behind them to destroy their scent.

Here’s a whole message board full of suggestions, including red pepper, black pepper, skunk scent, garlic, ammonia, and a bitch in heat (“stops all dogs”). But beware: strong-smelling things like gasoline are unfortunately apparent to the handler, too, and he’ll just take the dog around it.

[http://dnausers.d-n-a.net/prepared/skills/eludedog.txt](http://dnausers.d-n-a.net/prepared/skills/eludedog.txt)

Or, if all else fails, and you don’t happen to have a bitch in heat, you can drop dead.

[http://leerburg.com/missing.htm](http://leerburg.com/missing.htm)

> [@](#):
>
> Let’s discuss scent and just what the dog is doing when you are searching for a missing person and the person is alive. A live subject is constantly giving off human scent. This scent is there and available to the dog and therefore easy for the dog to locate and indicate if he/she is properly trained. While the person is alive this giving off of human scent is also saturating the clothes that the person is wearing. So now we have a walking, talking article full of human scent.
> 
> While you are alive the human scent factor is at it’s peak. The second that you die your body starts to decompose. The rate of this decomposition varies with the body location and climatic conditions it is exposed to. (Something to keep in mind). Once you start decomposition the body starts to give off an animal scent. Now keep in mind that 1) we are animals 2) when you die for lack of a better term you are just human meat.
> 
> Once the body dies the human scent factor starts to drop and the animal scent factor starts to rise. The rate of this will depend on the rate of decomposition. But the two factors are inversely proportionate to each other and over time they exchange places. After time the animal scent overpowers the humans scent.
> 
> So having trained our dogs to indicate human scent through all their training, corrected them for indications on live animals (cats, wildlife, other dogs, etc.), dead animals (cats, wildlife, other dogs, etc.) and animal urine and feces spots. You can see where a problem can develop with a missing person search and you are dealing with dead body.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Askia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Askia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askia)\
**Post date:** [March 21, 2001, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-beat-the-dogs/58677/10 "2001-03-21T01:10:33Z")

</div>

I strongly suspected that the “bitch in heat” thing might work. Thanks for the corroboration.

Seriously, can you make a mule of a dog and beat the DEA?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Ross](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e274bd/32.png) [@Ross](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ross)\
**Post date:** [March 21, 2001, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-beat-the-dogs/58677/11 "2001-03-21T02:40:19Z")

</div>

I guess it must have been tried but why not just spray the drugs bag with that repellent stuff they give you to drive cats and dogs away from prized family heirlooms?

Because they don’t work, perhaps?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![hapaXL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/94ad74/32.png) [@hapaXL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hapaXL)\
**Post date:** [March 21, 2001, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-beat-the-dogs/58677/12 "2001-03-21T19:33:17Z")

</div>

I’ve heard that fabric softener beats the dogs.

Don’t ask me where.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\
**Post date:** [March 21, 2001, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-beat-the-dogs/58677/13 "2001-03-21T20:57:10Z")

</div>

Eh, don’t bet the farm on it.

[http://www.brugerforeningen.dk/bf.nsf/engelsk/int112](http://www.brugerforeningen.dk/bf.nsf/engelsk/int112)

> [@](#):
>
> Agents say the dogs have sniffed drugs out of almost every substance smugglers use to mask the odor of their cargo, including ammonia, motor oil, coffee beans, mustard, fabric-softener sheets, bushels of fruit and the ubiquitous vacuum-sealed, grease-slathered plastic bags.
> 
> Pena said the dogs are rarely fooled by such attempts to confuse their noses because they are able to smell multiple odors at one time. “They smell like we see,” he said.

[http://www.k9fleck.org/nlu09.htm](http://www.k9fleck.org/nlu09.htm)

> [@](#):
>
> United States v $141,770 U.S. Currency (157 F. 3d 600 (1998) Eighth Circuit  
> In a civil forfeiture action, there was probable cause to connect currency to drug trafficking due to:
> 
> • dog alerted to seized monies;  
> • vehicle had come from drug source state;  
> • vehicle was coming back from a drug destination area with a large amount of cash;  
> •currency was hidden in ceiling panel and wrapped in scented fabric softener sheets and sealed in three layers of bags.

[http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread630.shtml](http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread630.shtml)

> [@](#):
>
> Anne Arundel police found nothing, but as they were leaving the establishment, they saw a Roadway Express truck pull up, police said yesterday. Police said that they were granted permission to search the truck and that a drug-sniffing dog “alerted” on eight packages.
> 
> Police opened the packages and found marijuana, which was wrapped in dryer fabric softener sheets and then in cellophane in an apparent effort to throw drug-sniffing dogs off the scent.

The trouble with spraying stuff on the bags is that the dog’s handler can probably smell it, too. “Hmm, why does this luggage smell like Windex?”

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Askia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Askia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askia)\
**Post date:** [March 21, 2001, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-beat-the-dogs/58677/14 "2001-03-21T21:52:00Z")

</div>

Okay. I’m doing my own research into the OP, and while I haven’t found any instances in using “bitches in heat” to smuggle condom-filled drugs, I have seen a site where[boa constrictors](http://www.smuggled.com/repdru1.htm) were used… Euw! How do they squeeze `em back out?

More if I find it!