Flutterby™! : Papieren bitte and drug sniffing dogs

Reason: America's Internal Checkpoints is about the 100 mile strip around the edge of our country which has essentially become a rights-free zone. But I found particularly interesting that that dogs are now being used as "probable cause" and an excuse to drag people from their cars and tase them.

Because...

Explosive- and drug-sniffing dogs' performance is affected by their handlers' beliefs: UC Davis study finds detection dogs may exhibit the "Clever Hans" effect.

“It isn’t just about how sensitive a dog’s nose is or how well-trained a dog is. There are cognitive factors affecting the interaction between a dog and a handler that can impact the dog’s performance.”

— Lisa Lit

ie: If a handler wants the dog to alert, the dog will alert. This is important to keep in mind as we are asked to serve on juries where police dogs may have been used to establish grounds for an initial search.