Page 3 of "The UNKNOWN LINK"
Continuation of Training
Training never stops. In getting a dog "up to speed" I try to train two to four times a week (even more if I can find the time and other people to work with). Once the dog reaches working status, the training can be cut back, but never stopped. I try to always train at least once a week with each dog; no matter how many cases I may have worked in the days prior. There are a number of reasons to keep on training: the first is to maintain the dog/handler's level of expertise, the second is to maintain the handler's trust in the dog, and third is to monitor the subtle changes that occur in the way each and every dog works over time.
There is a saying that every working-dog handler knows; it is their mantra...TRUST YOUR DOG!!!! Probably nowhere in the dog field is this a more difficult feat to accomplish that when following mile after mile behind a bloodhound. The human brain can't seem to help itself from thinking thoughts like, "I wouldn't go there", or, "If I was this crook, I'd do...", etc. Your back-up are asking you, "Is that dog REALLY working?" We can't see, smell, or in any way detect what it is we train our dogs to follow, and we have to be able to follow for great distances with total blind faith. I have followed behind one of my dogs for 11 miles, with no hint if we were "on" or not, and ended up at the suspect's location. The way I build and maintain this trust is by training approximately half the time on "blind trails", and half the time on trails where I know EXACTLY where the person the dog is working went. "Blind trails" are trails where I do not know where the person the dog is working went, so I must trust the dog to get me there. In the early stages of working blind trails, always have somebody with go with you as you work the trail that does know where the person walked, and have that person verify what the dog is doing as it happens (or, if necessary, tell you when the dog goes off trail). You can then progressively work more trails without this back-up person, trusting solely in the dog. Training when you know where the person walked is to hone and maintain your understanding of "how your dog works", the dog's body language, what your dog is telling you, and so you can keep up with the changes in the dog's body language that do take place over time.
A must-do in training is the "negative trail". This is when you give your dog a scent pad to smell, but there is no corresponding scent trail for the dog to follow. The dog must be able to communicate reliably that there is no one to trail. This is a necessary foundation to a lot of advanced work.
FALSE ASSUMPTIONS. Never assume a dog can or cannot do something...train for it then test the ability and reliability...the dog will frequently surprise you in a very positive manner. When I first started working with bloodhounds it was commonly believed a dog could only work one scent a day...I at first believed this until I thought about it for a minute. If a wild dog followed a rabbit's scent, and caught it and took it back to its den for its pups, would it then be unable to hunt again until the next day? Nope. So I tried working my dog on multiple people, one right after another, and the dog had no problem. Not only that, but if I gave the dog the scent of a person that wasn't even there, but there was a scent trail from a person the dog had already trailed, the dog would still indicate "no scent". This proved to me the dog could not only work multiple people in one day, but would not fall back on a previous scent when presented with a scent pad with no matching scent trail. Almost everybody that worked trailing dogs used to believe that a scent trail would only last a few days at absolute best, and if one lasted a week it would be a virtual miracle. This one was completely dispelled by a detective who called me out on a case to identify if their suspect had been at the victim's house (the suspect stated he had never been there). The dog easily identified matching scent from the suspect's clothing to the house in question. When I was done, the detectives told me the murder had taken place over 4 WEEKS prior, and the suspect had been either out of state or in jail the entire time since. If I had known ahead of time, I probably wouldn't have even attempted this, but because I didn't know any better, I went ahead and had successful results. Now, I will try anything and if it works, it works. If it is on a case that I first run into something new, I will re-create the scenario later in training to make sure the results can be duplicated...that it wasn't just a fluke.
TRAILING vs. TRACKING. Many people use these terms interchangeably, but they are not the same. TRACKING dogs follow the smell of crushed and/or disturbed vegetation and ground litter (twigs, leaves, etc.). This "scent" is short lived, and is highly subject to contamination; if another person walks across the "track" they will leave a fresher, better track for the dog to follow, but they are both essentially the same other than age. Tracking is very difficult on hard or paved surfaces. Depending on how the dog is trained, there may be a component of human scent involved, but it is either not the primary focus of the dog, or it is generic human scent not a specific person's scent the dog is following. Tracking dog handlers are always very concerned about the track being contaminated.
TRAILING dogs on the other hand follow, or trail, the individual scent path left by a person as they walk (or run, or ride a bike, or, yes, even if they are in a vehicle). This scent trail is not subject to contamination because each person's scent is individual, and remains distinct from any and all other person's scent trails in the area. Well-trained dogs can follow their subject even though hundreds or even thousands of other people walked through the same area. Trailing dog handlers are NOT concerned about the trail being contaminated.
