How New K9 Science and Standards will impact you!

Wednesday

Aug 27, 2025

5:00 pm

7:00 pm

Instructor(s):

Dr. Kenneth Furton

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Class overview

This talk will how new scientific discoveries are dispelling common K9 odor myths and how new national standards incorporating these discoveries will impact detection teams particularly when you are asked testify in the courtroom. Some examples of recent discoveries include the ability of dogs to differentiate hemp and marijuana and the impact of marijuana training aids used including pseudo scents. The talk will also discuss the ability of dogs to be trained to locate mass storage devices from the unique volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in cellular phones, hard drives, CDs, thumb drives, SIM cards and electronic controls. The talk will also describe the development of canine detection calibrants and the potential impact on improving the reliability of detection teams. Finally the talk will describe national standardization efforts over 20 years which have culminated in approved Standards by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) for Detector Dogs which began in 2016 evolving from SWGDOG best practice guidelines which began in 2004, through OSAC Dogs & Sensors guidance documents which began in 2014 There are currently dozens of approved and under development national standards and this talk will conclude with how you the attendees can get involved through the International Commission on Detector Dogs (ICODD).

This session explains:

how new scientific discoveries are dispelling common K9 odor myths and how new national standards incorporating these discoveries will impact
Some examples of recent discoveries include the ability of dogs to differentiate hemp and marijuana and the impact of marijuana training aids used
The talk will also describe the development of canine detection calibrants and the potential impact on improving the reliability of detection teams.
Finally the talk will describe national standardization efforts over 20 years which have culminated in approved Standards by the American National

Light beige paper texture background with subtle fibers and creases.

About the instructor

Dr. Kenneth Furton

Dr. Kenneth G. Furton is Provost Emeritus and Distinguished University Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry and Executive Director of the Global Forensic and Justice Center. He is a world-leading scholar in olfaction and dogs and sensors research since 1994. He has supervised the research of more than 160 students and received more than $20 million in grants. He has 34 patents, 761 presentations, 3 books and 341 peer-reviewed publications He is a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors and Fellow of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences. In 1998 he developed one of the first scientifically validated canine trainer and detection team certification programs in the US that has evaluated over 2000 teams. He was the founding chair of the Scientific Working Group on Dog and Orthogonal Detector Guidelines (SWGDOG) in 2004, the founding chair of the Organization for Scientific Area Committees (OSAC) Dogs and Sensor subcommittee in 2014, the founding chair of the Dog and Sensors Consensus Body of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences Standards Board (ASB) in 2016 and the founding Director of the International Commission on Detector Dogs (ICODD) since 2025. His dogs and sensors research has researched the detection of live and deceased humans, drugs, currency, accelerants, explosives, mass storage devices, invasive species, corrosion and medical conditions. He has testified as an expert witness in dozens of civil and criminal trials.