Odour Printing (Human Scent Discrimination)

In principle, the idea of odour printing is not that new. Fundamentally a scent discrimination exercise, but with a difference, the idea was first conceived by Karenswood (International) Ltd in 1962, but it was shelved on the grounds that it was too ‘FUTURISTIC’ to be accepted, at any rate in the United Kingdom, in those far off days. It was thought most unlikely that a citizen would be sent to prison on the basis of evidence substantiated by a dog. Over the years, however, the programme progressed and the significance of Karenswood’s research became increasingly more apparent, what began as just the embryo of an idea grew larger and was eventually transformed into reality  –  odour printing was born.

Fast forward to today and it is gratifying to learn that police forces around the world are using the ability of the dog to identify and discriminate in favour of a particular human odour  –  a proven and well established practice, where human scent discrimination tests, conducted by dogs, are being offered as ‘additional evidence’ by the judiciary.