Can I train my dog to sniff out silver?

[cache finder]

SO dogs can smell drugs and such, can I train my dog to find silver? Silver has a distinct smell, at least in my mind it does... I have been trying to train him with half dollars and such but he has yet to find me any. lol

 

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[Jason in Enid]

silver itsself probably has no smell, but silver LOVES to combine with sulfur and I'd bet that silver sulfide does have an odor a dog could find. I would try some dug, but uncleaned silver coins and try some blind tests to see if the dog can accurately find them. If so, you may able to at least find the shallow stuff.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

If this could be done, then why mess with silver ? Heck, get a (drum roll ....) GOLDEN RETRIEVER breed

 

[Jason in Enid]

If this could be done, then why mess with silver ? Heck, get a (drum roll ....) GOLDEN RETRIEVER breed

Because gold doesnt react with most elements on its own.

 

[Nitric]

Good luck!! I'm having a hard enough time trying to teach ours to stop sniffing butts!

I bet you could train one to search out certain minerals!! Like mentioned above the silver oxide(?) (or whatever it is we smell on tarnished silver) smell.....

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Because gold doesnt react with most elements on its own.

Hmmm, well if that's true, why are they called golden retrievers, if they can't retrieve gold ? haaarruuumppphh !

 

[Jason in Enid]

Hmmm, well if that's true, why are they called golden retrievers, if they can't retrieve gold ? haaarruuumppphh !

 

[USERNAME IS VALID]

I trained my Austrailian shepard to find paper money, it only took about an hour and he was finding bills all over the yard that I had hidden and trading them in for treats. Of course I don't know if he was just smelling my scent on the bills or what but he did find all of them every time I told him to "get the money". One night we were walking in the park and my neighbors dog found a five dollar bill on the bike trail that my dog missed. I had to get rid of the dog when my son was born, too sketchy around babies. I gave him to a rancher and about a month later he showed up at my door, we think he followed the creek for more than 20 miles, I used to take him in the creek every night after dinner. Anyway, train him on bills, it's pretty easy.

 

[kcm]

Jason is correct. Neither silver nor gold have any smell whatsoever. Not even the finest hound could sniff out the pure metal. However, the impurities that are found in nature CAN have smell. There are reports of dogs finding sulfide veins as much as 30' below the ground. It is believed that the ground had enough minute fractures leading to the surface that the dog was able to catch a whiff of what it was trained to seek out - whatever that was!

Dogs can be an invaluable tool at times. Unfortunately, they aren't much help when it comes to mining. There are exceptions to the rule, but few and VERY far between.

 

[RustyGold]

I was a silversmith and silver caster for years and I believe silver does have an odor at least to me.

 

[kcm]

I was a silversmith and silver caster for years and I believe silver does have an odor at least to me.

At room temperature?!?!?

I can understand if heated to melting/casting temp, as there may be trace amounts of other odors along with that. ...Maybe flux? Maybe burning oxygen or ozone?

Gotta say though, I think it would be SSSOOOOO cool to be able to do that kind of stuff! Have thought about melting down some lawn mower engine castings and pouring into molds, but just haven't gotten set up for that yet. At the rate I move, I might be ready to try in say....maybe....hmm, don't think I can count that high.

 

[against the wind]

ABSOLUTELY, A dog can be trained to sniff out silver,, buuuuttt, you have to teach him to pull your finger first.

 

[Msbeepbeep]

Good luck!! I'm having a hard enough time trying to teach ours to stop sniffing butts!

I bet you could train one to search out certain minerals!! Like mentioned above the silver oxide(?) (or whatever it is we smell on tarnished silver) smell.....

Nitric you cracked me up.
One of ours had the same problem.

 

[Nitric]

Nitric you cracked me up.
One of ours had the same problem.

we actually don't have him anymore. I just wrote it that way to be funny.... But every time someone would come over that dog would not leave people alone..He was a black lab...and something wrong with him.. He would do it with force too! Like nudging people or something! Great dog other wise! Just had a ......Fetish I guess! Could not keep that dog out of the cat box either!!!! Anyone that has a dog and a cat....might understand that one...Vet said it was common.

 

[Msbeepbeep]

Ours was a German Shepherd.

 

[kcm]

we actually don't have him anymore. I just wrote it that way to be funny.... But every time someone would come over that dog would not leave people alone..He was a black lab...and something wrong with him.. He would do it with force too! Like nudging people or something! Great dog other wise! Just had a ......Fetish I guess! Could not keep that dog out of the cat box either!!!! Anyone that has a dog and a cat....might understand that one...Vet said it was common.

I think I'd best unsubscribe from this thread - before I start chasing MY OWN tail!!

 

[mendoAu]

They got dogs that sniff out truffles so why not....I got a dog, sweetheart Dalmation>>>MIX , but I can't even teach her how to bark. This thread gave me a laugh and reminded me of boarding a flight in Phoenex Arizona awhile back. The ol guy at the baggage check had an electronic wand searching my carry-on and looked up a me (I assume cause I looked like a pot smuggler)and asked "know why I'm doing this"....I casually replied "ya, cause ya don't have a good dog...."

 

[cache finder]

Jason is correct. Neither silver nor gold have any smell whatsoever. Not even the finest hound could sniff out the pure metal. However, the impurities that are found in nature CAN have smell. There are reports of dogs finding sulfide veins as much as 30' below the ground. It is believed that the ground had enough minute fractures leading to the surface that the dog was able to catch a whiff of what it was trained to seek out - whatever that was!

Dogs can be an invaluable tool at times. Unfortunately, they aren't much help when it comes to mining. There are exceptions to the rule, but few and VERY far between.

I have to disagree, my grandmothers silver has a distinct smell (I know its only 92%) and I have a bar of pure silver 999 and it too has a smell to it.

 

[kcm]

Pure silver tarnishes, and tarnish DOES have a smell Tarnish is a type of sulfide, if I remember correctly.

As I said, and to the best of "my" limited knowledge, the metal "silver" has zero odor. That said, pure silver metal oxidizes, and something about that process might give off an odor. Natural or raw silver does have some amount of odor as silver is normally found mixed with other elements. ...So it's not the pure metal, itself, that has an odor - but natural (non-pure) silver as well as any type of reaction to silver very likely can have an associated odor.

 

[Oddjob]

This is a current Counter Terrorism issue actually. In France currently every vehicle entering certain areas of hospitals are being checked with K9 units. They hit on every logistics delivery that has silver in it. No idea exactly what medically has silver in it but it is bad enough to where they have been reaching out to the international communities for help and some US based police who are K9 handlers have been sent to France to check into the issue. I think these guys came out of Fort Lauderdale Florida, somewhere in Florida near that area, they are known for having the best handlers in the world, so naturally when such an issue spring up they contact those SME's.

I did not read full details on the issue, just that everything goes into shut down mode and like 300 plus people show up when one of these K9's detects something.

Maybe what ever silver is in the medical stuff is some other sort of silver, who knows.