Hydration Challenges

Because we have such limited saliva and sweat sample from Donor 3, we are going to have to hydrate one half of the original before any testing begins.  This means that each single saliva gauze and sweat gauze will need to be cut in half (diagonally) prior to hydration.  One half of each will be reserved for non-hydrated testing.

We will follow the Scott Smith protocol for hydration:

1.  The scent sample is placed in 3 oz of distilled water, shaken and left for 15 min.

2.  The distilled water is then sprayed onto  new gauze (or cotton) pads which will be double bagged and frozen.

3.  The original sample may then be removed from the distilled water and used for training.

 Hydrate as many HC as the water permits.

Then the HP will be used for testing.

Refer to Dog 2 Testing: Days 4 - 6.  She was testing the HP.  What can we learn from that testing?  The sample is described as "soaked".  That was the residual distilled water remaining from the hydrating process.  How can we improve upon our procedure?

• no odor detected from frozen sample
• the sample became effective at room temp
• HC made from this HP were effective, as was the HP

The main question here:  How can we best utilize the "extra" water remaining in the HP and, in the process, minimize the amount of water remaining in the HP?

Another HP possibility:  What if we do NOT freeze the HP, but merely refrigerate it for storage and use it at room temperature for testing?

How can we extract the extra water from the HP without contaminating it?