How do dogs become drug sniffing dogs?

You start with a dog that has over the top hunt drive for a toy, the dog will do anything to get that toy, he would rather play with it then eat or sleep, that is called "drive".

You test the dog to make sure he has no environmental problems that would prohibit him from working in loud places, around a lot of people, cars, buses, planes, malls, etc.

A dog is no good if he cannot function in the reality of the every day world.

You show the dog that every time he sticks his nose in a certain box, his toy will pop out and he will get to play.

Over a period of about 3 weeks you have a dog that has achieved odor recognition over whatever target odors you placed in the box.

Once that has been achieved you intro the alert you want, passive, sit, or aggressive, bite and scratch.

From that point on the dog has to become more accurate and more proficient in detection and then he learns search patterns which are practiced in a training location.

After that, he needs to go out in the real world and search and find the target odor, regardless of what distractions are present.

This is a nutshell case of what it takes to train a detection dog. It is a process that takes about 3 months for the official training and then real world experience has to happen.

For obvious reasons I will not go any further into explaining or giving more details on this particular type of training here on an open forum.

Hope I helped.

Yes, of course they do! I believe there is a "school" or classes that dogs can get put in to be trained to do this. Almost any hunting dog like the Bloodhound or the Beagle could be trained to sniff for drugs. Most commonly it is the German Shepard, this breed is smart. You would be amazed at how smart certain dogs are.

Yes- Extensive training. Dogs use their sense of smell the way we do sight- it's their primary way of identifying things.

They don't know the drugs are 'bad' per say- what they DO know is that they will be rewarded for finding them! :)

The dogs that sniff out mines are taught to sniff out the explosives IN the mines. For example you aren't going to find dynamite laying around every street corner. :)

They teach them by rewarding them when they find a certain scent. They soon learn when they detect that particular scent to signal because they will be rewarded. It becomes a game of hide and seek for them. They obviously have the brain capacity and their ability to detect scents is far beyond anything a human can do.

Many drug dogs can detect several different kinds of drugs, so they have the capacity to learn to look for several different scents. For the dog, it's all about getting a reward when they find the scent - usually a favorite toy.

Yes dogs have the brain capacity. Dog's noses are so advanced, we don't know what we're talking about. How are they trained? The trainer associates the smell of drugs with bad memories, the dog will know it is bad. Simple as that.

The Greek Dude is correct. AS far as the dog knowing it's "Bad"....NO, he doesn't know it's bad....he's just been trained to signal when he finds it. Actually, the dog would more likely associate it with a GOOD thing. Reward time.

Dogs do not know that smells are "bad".

They are trained to recognize certain smells, and to alert the trainer to their presence. The trainer rewards them for recognizing the smells.

the dogs have been trained to snuff out drugs for example the guys who trains them get a sample of drugs and lets the dog snuff it then the trainer hides it and he makes the dog go get it!!!

the police expose them to drugs so that they know the smell, and then they just train them to search for smells

Go threw alot of training, classes