Question 2 of 21

How is the domestic dog classified?

... The domestic dog is known as Canis familiaris and was the first member of the Canidae family to become fully tamed. It is believed that dogs descended from wolves, due to the similarities between the two species.

Question 3 of 21

In which way are dogs far superior to humans?

... Dogs have an exceptional sense of smell, far superior to that of humans.

Question 4 of 21

How many scent receptors do dogs have in their noses?

... Dogs have an average of 200 million scent receptors, while the average human has only 5 million. Experiments have found that dogs can detect a scent at one-hundred-thousandth of the concentration required for human to detect the same scent.

Question 5 of 21

A dog's sense of hearing is also more acute than that of humans. A dog can hear a sound about how many times farther away than a person?

... A dog can hear certain sounds at four times the distance away than a person can. Dogs are also able to turn their ears toward the source of the sound within about six hundredths of a second. A dog's night vision is also superior to that of humans, since their eyes have more rods. Their eyes are also spaced widely, allowing for more acute peripheral vision.

Question 6 of 21

Why are dogs preferred to other animals for working with humans?

... Pigs share a similar sensitivity of senses to dogs. However, working with a 150kg pig is much more difficult than with a 35kg dog. In addition, dogs display human-orientated behavior, cooperating with humans and allowing them to take on an authoritative role.

Question 7 of 21

Dogs are used to detect certain substances due to their acute sense of smell. Dogs are taught to detect a specific odor from up to _____ meters away.

... Dogs are trained to detect specific odors, such as cocaine in drug-detection or nitroglycerine in explosives-detection, from up to 2 meters away.

Question 8 of 21

What determines whether a dog is appropriate for the role of a sniffer dog?

... While breed, fitness, agility and learning ability do play a part in determining which dogs make good sniffer dogs, the qualities of the individual dog are the most important. A dog must be eager to please its owner, so that it will persist with the task at hand.

Question 9 of 21

Which breed of dogs is generally used for detecting illegal agricultural products brought into airports?

... Beagles are generally used for detecting items such as fruits, vegetables, plants and seeds, which have been banned because they harbor diseases or insects that may infect American plants or animals. Beagles are chosen for their excellent sniffing ability and because people tend to feel less threatened by them than other breeds of dogs.

Question 10 of 21

How can dogs be used to rid your house of termites?

... Dogs have been trained to detect the odor of termites and other insects. Termite inspectors have started bringing trained dogs, especially beagles, to help them detect the presence of termites or other problematic insects in the home or soil around the home.

Question 11 of 21

How did dogs help after the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995?

... German shepherds from the Rocky Mountains Rescue Dogs were brought in to search for victims who were buried in the rubble.

Question 12 of 21

What is the first part of training for search-and-rescue dogs?

... All dogs must pass a basic obedience course before going on to learn specialized skills for rescue, such as finding people and developing agility to enable them to perform tricky maneuvers that may be needed in an actual search.

Question 13 of 21

Why do dogs typically move back and forth across an area they are sniffing?

... A scent from a human is made up of dead skin cells, known as rafts, which carry bacteria and vapors unique to each individual. The rafts are carried away from people by wind currents and spread in a cone-shaped volume of air. Dogs are trained to detect this cone of scent as they move back and forth.

Question 14 of 21

Where do police dogs live?

... Police dogs live with their officer's family and work around the clock with their paired officer. This enables a social bonding which improves the working partnership.

Question 15 of 21

What is different about the training of a guide dog for the blind?

... Part of the training for guide dogs is to learn to ignore an owner's command if the dog realizes there is a danger that the blind person cannot see.

Question 16 of 21

Some dogs are trained to help people with hearing disabilities. From where are these dogs recruited?

... Dogs trained to assist deaf people are often adult dogs already living in homes or living in animal shelters. These dogs do not need to be large or strong, but they do need to be alert and quick to respond to specific sounds.

Question 17 of 21

What is unique about the training for a hearing-ear dog?

... Dogs trained to assist deaf people are trained to perform tasks without a command from its owner. Hearing-ear dogs perform tasks such as waking their owner when the alarm sounds, running to the door when the doorbell rings or alerting the owner if a baby cries.

Question 18 of 21

How many tasks dose a dog trained to assist physically disabled people learn to perform?

... A dog trained to assist the physically disabled learns about 60 to 80 specific commands over about eight months of training. Tasks include picking up items carefully, opening and closing doors and drawers, turning lights on and off and pulling wheelchairs.

Question 19 of 21

With which of the following conditions can dogs play a helpful role?

... Some dogs have the ability to sense an impending epileptic seizure. The dogs will display uncharacteristic behavior, such as whining for a dog that never whines, thereby warning the person of the approaching seizure in time to lie down safely. It is unclear how dogs sense the impending seizure, but it is thought they can detect an odor the owner produces before a seizure.

Question 20 of 21

What physical effect do dogs assisting the blind, deaf or physically disabled have on their owners?

... It has been found that assistance dogs help their owners to feel less stressed and lonely, reducing their heart rate, decreasing muscle tension and leading to regular, relaxed breathing. Owners also say it is easier for them to meet new people, because having the dog shows people that the owner has a disability, making social situations less awkward and stressful.

Question 21 of 21

In what year was the Canine Genome Initiative launched?

... The Canine Genome Initiative was launched in 1992, just two years after the Human Genome Project started. The initiative was created in order to understand the genetic material that causes different breeds of dogs to display different behaviors.