Can dogs smell gold?

[TerryC]

Wouldn't it be nice to be able to train a dog to sniff out gold?? They train them for drugs, bodies, explosives. I would pay good money to have a dog like that! Just think.... the money that a guy could make, if it is possible... for both the trainor AND the dog owner!! TTC

 

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[Astrobouncer]

Hey Terry, that's actually a good idea. I am working toward a degree in criminal justice and last semester I got to visit with the K-9 units at my local PD. They said most of the drug dogs can smell concentrations of parts per million. And bloodhounds/basset hounds can smell such tiny amounts as parts per hundred million.

 

[enamel7]

The only dog I can think of to smell gold was Snoop Massey. Too bad he thought rattlesnake smelled like gold.
HH
enamel7

 

[TerryC]

Naw, was a nice thought but probably won't happen. As soon as CA saw the holes they would be digging all over the Mother Lode, they would do an environmental impact study and the idea would go the same way as dredging! It was a thought, though. TTC

 

[Bumpstick]

My lab many years past was good at bringing home paper money. I would find it in the back yard after his piles would wash down. I did work with him on hunting for silver by wadding up my silver digs in a sock and playing catch and tug a war with it. I kept adding to it and wrapping it in a new sock. Some of my best finds where in my own back yard. I would do it again and believe it works.

 

[jog]

I had a lab that would find shed antlers on comand.

 

[Goldwasher]

sorry guys but, its been tried.......alot i bet..man has trained canines for thousands of years to do lots of things especially to use that nose of theirs......and when they are using their nose their smelling shed cells..organic matter....some thing that gold silver etc do not shed......if it were possible.....world leaders generals bandits cowboys rich bored dudes you and i would already have heard about the exploits of these wonderful..gold recovery devices......i cans just see the muddy comical atempts in the camps at night 1851 or so California...." come on boy see this nugget smell it please.....please smell it and tomorrow please please smell it in the ground cause this shovelin to bedrock is gonna kill us"

 

[dave wiseman]

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=gold+sniffing+dogs&btnG=Search&aq=f&aqi=g1&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai= I've asked this on many forums over the years.Everyone says no,I say why not.They may not find placer gold in a waterway,dry/wet but surely gold bearing quartz veins may be another story as pyrites/sulphides oxides and they surely have an odor.Believe I read many years ago of this being tried in Russia.So perhaps a young pup can be trained to find the yellow or a likely gold bearing quartz vein,perhaps on the Sheep ranch road.

 

[TerryC]

sorry guys but, its been tried.......alot i bet..man has trained canines for thousands of years to do lots of things especially to use that nose of theirs......and when they are using their nose their smelling shed cells..organic matter....some thing that gold silver etc do not shed......if it were possible.....world leaders generals bandits cowboys rich bored dudes you and i would already have heard about the exploits of these wonderful..gold recovery devices......i cans just see the muddy comical atempts in the camps at night 1851 or so California...." come on boy see this nugget smell it please.....please smell it and tomorrow please please smell it in the ground cause this shovelin to bedrock is gonna kill us"

No no no! Silver DOES leach into the surrounding soil. It is a commonly known truth that coinshooters rely on this phenomenon to find older silver coins. Once the coin is disturbed, though, the effect goes away.
DAVE! You on Sheep Ranch Rd? That's just down the mountain from me here at Murphys. I'm working on permission to work Coyote Cr. behind Irish Vinyards. Wanna go, if I get it?? TTC

 

[Caminochaos]

you know when you have fever when.....



I love this place

 

[dave wiseman]

Terry,fairly busy of late.I'm down the hill in Angels.I help out Mike Darby who has the little gold shop in downtown Angels Camp,cleaning,panning and evaluating his quartz gold samples.If you've the time I'm at my twice daily hangout,Rodz grille in Angels..5:45-6:30 A.M. and 1:45-2:30 afternoons if you want to B.S, gold stuff.At the counter.I don't get around good enough to do hiking and climbing anymore.....Dave.

 

[Goldwasher]

ore smell i might go for...? they smell bombs and gun powder right? whats up with that? maybe the thing to figure out about dogs is how to ground balance them

 

[TerryC]

ore smell i might go for...? they smell bombs and gun powder right? whats up with that? maybe the thing to figure out about dogs is how to ground balance them

My dog got "ground balanced" by the neighbor's John Deer Gator a few weeks ago. Rode over him! Dog's fault. Not hurt bad... just didn't stop running till he got a half mile away, on the other side of the property! Now I think he's afeard of the color green. Dave... I'll look you up... TTC

 

[bakergeol]

There was one oldtimer who had a dog- "Rusty" I believe was his name that
could sniff out and dig gold nuggets. He would visit tourist spots with a lot
of newbie folks out there panning for gold. He would tell them that Rusty could
sniff out nuggets. He would unlease Rusty and soon enough the little dog would sniff out a site and start to dig and out pops a nugget. Again he would unlease Rusty and after he had "pinpointed" a nugget- the oldtime would carefully dig out another nugget. Very quickly the "oldtime" was selling spots where "Rusty" had pinpointed to the tourists. After selling some spots the "oldtime" quietly left the area to the tourists and their newfound wealth.

Moral of this story.

Any dog can sniff and dig out gold nuggets as long as you put a piece of bacon
under them.

George

 

[Darshevo]

I do believe the only way to make gold nuggets better is to make them smell like backon

-Lance

 

[FiresEye]

Did anyone mention pigs? apparently they can be trained to find chunky Truffle mushrooms, which by weight are "worth their weight in gold"... Those silly chefs and the mushrooms.

Maybe if you named your metal detector dog, you could pretend .



BETTER IDEA: Make a false dog, which is actually a metal detector, but looks like a real dog, and use it to detect in top secret spot, cream of the crop type stuff. Modern robotics...

"Excuse me sir, nice dog!?" .........."Yes sir he's having problems, I'm just out walking the dog, good day to you"