Dry Side Dispatch • September 18th • Nathan Hall

We are proud to bring you our local radio show, The Dry Side Dispatch. All past episodes of the radio show are available on the Sandhills Area Research Association You Tube channel. You can also listen live via the YouTube channel on Friday's at Noon.

The Dry Side Dispatch is a West Texas radio show and media project from the Sandhills Area Research Association broadcast live on KRFE 95.9 FM. Hosted by Tillery Timmons-Sims, Andy Timmons, and Dusty Timmons, the program focuses on regional agriculture, land conservation, hunting, oil and gas, and local news

This episode of Dry Side Dispatch features Texas Tech associate professor Nathan Hall discussing the science behind dogs’ sense of smell and the work of the K9 Olfaction Research and Education Lab. Hall explains how researchers study and train detection dogs for jobs ranging from explosives and narcotics detection to wildlife work and identifying agricultural problems such as plant diseases.

The conversation also explores how breed, genetics, training, weather, wind, humidity, and learned associations affect scent detection, while challenging common assumptions about which breeds have the “best” noses. The episode closes with Hall discussing current research, the lab’s student training and animal-behavior programs, and its work rehabilitating and training shelter or working-program dogs before placing them in adoptive or working homes.