Sniffer Dogs: How Dogs (and Their Noses) Save The World

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Anyone who has ever spent time with a dog knows that dogs love sniffing! They sniff out hidden food, dirty socks, and the visitor who comes to the door.  But some dogs work with police officers, soldiers and even scientists to put their "sniffers" to work.  Sniffer dogs make use of the amazing biology behind their noses to protect people from bombs, catch criminals smuggling drugs, or help researchers locate a hard to find snail in a forest.      A dog's nose is so sensitive that if a human could see as well as a dog could smell, we would be able to see the small letters on an eye chart from four (four!) miles away.  Is it any wonder then that dogs can be trained to find missing people in piles of rubble or a certain flower blooming amongst hundreds or thousands of other smells?  In Sniffer Dogs you will meet many dogs and their handlers and learn all about their jobs. Some of these dogs are raised from birth to detect blood sugar levels in their owners.  Others are rescued from animal shelters and their boisterous personalities help make them excellent sniffer dogs. Featuring a balance between science and social science, Sniffer Dogs will appeal to dog lovers and science lovers alike. 

Lexile Measure: 1050 (What's this?)

Hardcover: 160 pages

Publisher: HMH Books for Young Readers (July 8, 2014)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 054408893X

ISBN-13: 978-0544088931

Product Dimensions: 7 x 0.4 x 8 inches

Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)

Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)

Best Sellers Rank: #716,870 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #89 in Books > Children's Books > Education & Reference > Law & Crime #344 in Books > Children's Books > Education & Reference > Science Studies > Anatomy & Physiology #440 in Books > Children's Books > Education & Reference > Science Studies > Biology

Age Range: 10 - 12 years

Grade Level: 5 - 7

Just finished looking through this book. Our grandchildren will be most interested in this. The oldest grandson, a teenager, has a diabetic alert dog (black lab), and the whole family is loving this dog. They will certainly enjoy reading about many other heroic dogs.

This is the review I wrote for the San Francisco Book Review:People casually speak about dogs being man’s best friend, but in fact there is a great deal of truth to that little phrase. Author Nancy Castaldo has written a wonderful middle-grade book that takes a close look at dogs and all they do for people. Young people will find this a fascinating overview of the many ways dogs help us. What makes dogs so special?As Castaldo explains in her book, one of the ways dogs are special is they smell the way people hear – everything that is there. Dogs’ noses have 300 million sensory neurons while humans have only 6 million. And dogs are smart. They can be trained to use their sniffers for many important duties. Some find living people buried in disaster areas such as building collapses or after storms. Some find corpses. Some are trained to find explosives or drugs or accelerants in arson fire sites. Others work with scientists tracking wildlife while some are trained in medical applications such as recognizing dangerous blood sugar levels in diabetics. Castaldo’s excellent research and lively writing along with great dog photos make this a book kids will love, and they won’t even suspect they are learning. “By that one sniff your dog can tell where you’ve been and what you’ve been doing. It might surprise you, but your dog probably knows more about your health than you do.”

For 4th-7th grade independent reading. Interesting content that may be unfamiliar to many readers - a dog that can smell peanuts and alert a child that has a peanut allergy? Nicely organized into types of expertise - dogs that find live missing persons, dogs that find remains of persons, dogs that sniff out bombs and so forth. Each chapter is tightly focused.The reason I gave this four stars is the text features were not as strong as they might have been - mostly pictures of dogs sitting. I wish the photographs had provided additional or supportive content. The diagram of the dog's nasal cavity on page 21 was weak; more labels like ones for "muscles in the nostrils," "scent particles," and where "deeper back into the nasal cavity" is exactly would have been helpful. There was only one other diagram in the book.Despite the weak features, I'd still book talk this with the students--read aloud the first few pages, share some of the photographs-- and then place it prominently in my classroom library for independent reading. You could prompt for some careful rereading by asking the students to respond in writing, comparing two types of dogs or asking students to think about the author's central message and how this is developed across the chapters.

I just finished pouring through all the details in Sniffer Dogs and I LOVED it! I'm so impressed with these special beings. And, the writing is captivating and well researched. Makes me want to become a handler! Give this title to your dog lovers, crime fighting wanna-be's, and reluctant readers. Well done, Nancy Castaldo.

I love this book! SNIFFER DOGS: How Dogs (And Their Noses) Save the World by Nancy Castaldo is an engaging, stimulating, well-written, and attractive book about the myriad ways dogs use their superior sniffing abilities to help humans. This exceptional book—for readers young and old—stretches one’s awareness about the diverse ways in which canines assist, save, rescue, and enrich human lives; and how, in return, humans treat dogs with increased respect, affection, and appreciation. One undeniable conclusion is that it is amazingly advantageous for both species—humans and canines—to work cooperatively together. Additionally, SNIFFER DOGS has ramifications for more mutually-beneficial relationships between humans and animals. SNIFFER DOGS makes me wonder if dogs can help humans in so many different ways, what other ways might they be helpful? And, might humans benefit further by creating cooperative relationships with other non-human species?SNIFFER DOGS, with its handsome design, colorful sidebars, and appealing photos by the author Nancy Castaldo, is a pleasure to read. Its information—from the science of dog sniffing, to stories about how dogs help humans, and who to contact for what and where—is fascinating. For example, 90% of live-find search dogs come from animal shelters after having been abandoned. These dogs go from being “on death row” to rescuing and saving people! Because dogs’ incredible sniffing ability can’t be replicated by machines or technology, sniffer dogs provide invaluable services to humans.Author Castaldo illustrates each type of sniffer dog with compelling stories. Consider some things I learned from this book: Search and rescue (SAR) dogs provide hope in dire situations because there is nothing better than a dog’s nose to find an injured, but alive, human! “Bone sniffers” or Human Remains Detection (HRD) dogs can locate human remains, including cremated remains, down to 6-9 feet! Dogs have been assisting in war since the Middle Ages—when dogs went to war in chain mail armor, just like the knights and their horses! We all know that dogs sniff out explosives, drugs, and other dangerous and illegal materials, including agricultural products, at international airports. But did you know that there are Eco-Sniffers? Conservation detection dogs assist with scientific research about environmental change by locating the scat of various animals around the world, including whales, moose, snails, tortoises, snakes, tigers, and cheetahs. There are also Medical Sniffers that can detect changes in blood sugar and blood pressure, as well as the presence of deadly allergens—thus saving lives. Bio-detection dogs detect harmful bacteria; and it’s hoped that dogs can be trained to detect cancer at early stages. That’s what I call invaluable!After you read this book, you’ll most likely better appreciate your pet dog, and also the invaluable services that sniffer dogs provide. And, you just might view the world in a slightly different way—as having significant potential for greatly improved interspecies—or at least human-canine—relationships!Highly recommended.

This book is all about dogs that use there sense of smell to do important things. One finds drugs, another can sense falling blood sugar levels in it's owner, one can find missing people and another can sniff our explosives. These dogs are amazing creatures. We enjoyed learning about their work and how they are trained.

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