There was an interesting article on NPR (National Public Radio for those on the other side of the pond) The Boston police have trained Labs to find electronics, specifically the chemicals that are used on circuit boards so they can find: Phones, Cameras, Computers, CDs, Floppy discs, Thumb drives etc. The dogs they used were Guide dog drop outs, who were too active and and too food driven. Apparently a bad combo for guide dogs but good for sniffer dogs, since they were easy to train with treats. They trained one for their own use and subsequently trained several more for other police forces and the FBI.
I'm not surprised their noses can be trained to sniff those things. Our Conservation Officer (game warden) friend had a Detector Dog who was a Seeing Eye Dog reject because of her enthusiastic energy. The list of things she was taught to sniff was amazing. Different firearms use different ammo and smell different. Game smells different fresh than frozen. The stories he told of items (and people when loaned to Police) she found and how a dog can speed up ground work were incredible.
