ABSTRACT
The use of sniffer dogs by law enforcement forces has a centuries-long history, most notably the use of dogs for tracking prison escapees or criminal suspects. Despite its long history, this method was not well documented and therefore suffered from a lack of scientific credibility. Opinions on accuracy and reliability of tracking dogs were mostly a matter of popular belief, sometimes distorted and exaggerated by mass media. According to Prada et al. (2015), the first experimental studies on the ability of canines to discriminate individual human odor were conducted in 1887 by George Romanes, and the usefulness of suspect discrimination by dogs for practical police work was first demonstrated by Inspector Bussenius in 1903 in Germany (Schoon and Haak 2002).
