Confront Your Accusers... Tell them "sit", "stay", then give them a biscuit

Popular Science Magazine published an interesting article about how dogs are being used as witnesses (or not) in courts. As we tap into their nasal resources as a tool in crime detection, many legal issues come to mind:

How do you cross-examine a dog?
How can we distinguish independent dog identification of a scent as from the Clever Hans effect?
How can we verify dog training accuracy and reliability?
How can a defendant overcome the prejudicial "cute puppy effect"?


photo by Stephanie Martucci