I'd like to introduce you to a new company launched this year, K9 OPSBOX. K9 OPSBOX stands for K9 Olfactory Proficiency System of Boxes. K9 OPSBOX was created by Frank Romano, who has more than 3 decades of training and experience doing the job of working and training dogs for departments such as the US Army Military Working Dog Program and the California Highway Patrol K9 Program.
K9 OPSBOX takes the logistical issue of locating a place to train target odor daily out of the equation. A trainer can now train multiple dogs, with multiple target odors, in the same area every day, without the worry of contamination from previous training sessions.
Contamination can occur in many ways. One example is when target odor is placed in a drawer for a length of time. Target odor can linger there for days or longer depending on airflow. Target odor can also be absorbed by porous materials resulting in the lingering of target odor longer. K9 OPSBOX helps with contamination in a few ways. One way is the fact that K9 OPSBOX is made of aluminum which is less porous than many other materials. Another way is aluminum is easily cleaned.
Contamination isn't the only problem with training in the same area on a daily basis. Generalization can be a problem. Generalization can occur by training target odor in the same area with the hide in the same place or in the same object. Then when no target odor is present the K9 still alerts to a similar place or similar object. This also is no problem for K9 OPSBOX because our aluminum boxes are identical so the K9 is conditioned to hunt for target odor not a similar place or similar object. This is known as stimulus discrimination.
K9 OPSBOX is also lightweight, weighing in at less than 4 pounds per box. The K9 OPSBOX target odor box is hung on a rack or fence and is moved with the other identical blank and distractor boxes which stimulates the hunt drive for target odor only. K9 OPSBOX is also a great tool to proof a K9 off a particular odor