This is a video of a second trailing dog brought in to run an older a trial of a subject who had previously run two other trails from the same start area for another K9. The age of the trail was about 45 minutes old with the first trails being approximately 30 minute prior. I stated that these types of trails are tough and that most dogs have a propensity to gravitate to the stronger Elephant trail with three people and another K9 versus find the correct trail and follow it out. In this case the dog made the correct choice out of three. However, there is visible body language changes around the older elephant trails and this is what we need to read. The theory that one trailing K9 can verify the trail of another and that the dogs are independently working the subject scent versus following each other is common in SAR but rarely tested or trained for. My belief is that the average K9 will always jump to the bigger scent trail if given the opportunity and the average handler would be none the wiser for it. I have tested this theory over an for many years and found that having multiple K9 running trails and verifying each other is tantamount to simply verifying each other most of the time. However, this can be trained for and dogs can perform properly in some conditions but not all. The key is producing a K9 that has never been allowed to follow any dog or animal scent through excellent foundation work. Even after all of that, the huge mix of human and other working dog odor can pull even the best dog off the correct track. This does not always work and it is important to know this and be prepared for it. Just because a dog goes somewhere does not mean it goes where the subject went. If we do not find true corroborative evidence or the person we are searching for, all that we did is purely circumstantial and the trail must be vetted; not simply taken for granted. In this video, Dia made the correct choices and it is very easy to read with her body language. youtu.be/AQ0cxT3e9SQ
Posted on: Thu, 08 Jan 2015 23:08:04 +0000
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