Bomb-Sniffing

It isn’t all fun and games when you’re a dog. Some, like the canines featured in the Dog Heroes series, are trained professionals, using their keen sense of smell to aid military personnel, police officers, and search-and-rescue teams. In Bomb-Sniffing Dogs, readers learn that there are certain breeds best-suited to the task: German shepherds, Labrador retrievers, vizslas, and Belgian Malinois. German shepherds’ noses have 220 million sniffing cells, as opposed to the 5 million of human noses. Of course dogs aren’t born with bomb-seeking abilities, and this book details the training process, noting the tight bond that forms between dog and human partner. Pest-Sniffing Dogs turns its attention to the ever-pesky, and increasingly prevalent, bed bug. In order to detect pests like bed bugs and termites, dogs attend a training academy for two to three months and sniff pest-filled vials until they’re conditioned to the odor. Both volumes in the series offer true on-the-beat tales and put names with faces: for instance, Chocolat, a Belgian shepherd, detected explosives in a store in Afghanistan. With photos that run the gamut from cute (lots of snout close-ups) to downright impressive, this series should have wide appeal, not only for dog fans, but also for those interested in the military and action-adventure stories. A “Just the Facts” section concludes.