The structure of a dog’s nose gives it a sense of smell that is 300,000-500,000 times stronger than the human nose, allowing them to follow a scent trail undetectable to humans, even breaking down specific scents. For example, humans can smell beef stew cooking, whereas a K9 smells individual ingredients like the onions, carrots, and thyme. Even when the K9 teams are not being used to search for suspects and narcotics, they are great to have as backup on a vehicle stop, pedestrian check or on any other call involving a person who may not want to cooperate with the police.