What are Detection Dogs trained on? So when we see videos of wonderful dogs sniffing out items hidden on baddies or stashed away in hidden corners of buildings or under car wheel arches, it is the result of many weeks and in some cases months of teaching the dog to find, a, drugs b, money c, explosives d, guns and in fact a dog can be taught to search out, using its nose, anything that has a scent, which, basically is everything, even if we mere humans can not smell it. The question then is what and how. Firstly, the 'WHAT' Many years ago when I first became involved with helping to train detection dogs it was indeed as Drugs detection dogs where we were asked to provide both Passive and Pro-Active dogs for different tasks. Passive- is where the dog will detect a smell that is targeted, as people walk past or the dog walks past, usually on a leash and either/or stand still/sit/lie down, indicating to the handler a find. Pro-Active- is where the dog will activ...