How to Train a Dog to Scent Discriminate and Trail
Is there a best way to train a bloodhound to trail?
Bill Tolhurst probably said it best on page 30 of his chapter on trailing training in The Police Textbook for Dog Handlers (1991): “The information in the following pages is offered to you only as a suggested method of training, not the only method. These procedures are time-tested and field-proven. However, if you have a procedure that works for you, don’t change it for anyone. I don’t believe in telling people how to do anything. I only offer these thoughts that have worked for me.” The bottom line always is whether as a result of the training the dog can trail the unique human scent you started him on until he finds the person giving off that scent or until you tell him to stop.
How to teach a puppy that its handler is boss?
(1) Teach the dog its name, to sit, to come, to stay, and to understand what “no” means. (2) Housebreak the dog as it will have to trail inside buildings and may be used in schools for demonstrations to make predator-resistant education less threatening and more memorable.
(3) Pick up your bloodhound often to develop a bond between you and your dog and to condition her, so she won’t squirm when she is bigger, when you have to pick her up to get her over a fence or into a helicopter.
4) Put a choke collar and harness on your puppy and walk him on a lead, so that he gets used to wearing a collar and working on a lead.
How do you teach a puppy to use his nose rather than his eyes to find people?
Play hide and seek with your bloodhound. Let him see you hide behind a bush. Call him. When he finds you, give him lots of praise. Make it more difficult by not letting him see you hide. Call him only once to teach him to use his nose.
How to teach a puppy to follow the unique scent of the individual his handler starts him on?
(1) Have whoever is going to lay your trail put into a zip-lock bag an article of clothing she has been wearing all day. Have her bring it with her to the training site. Pick the training sites for the types of terrain over which the dog will be trailing missing children.(2) Have the bloodhound’s choke collar on with the lead snapped to it. Put your bloodhound’s harness on. Lead your dog to your trail layer. Unhook the lead and snap it to the “D” ring of the harness.
(3) Have the runner stand directly in front of the puppy and shake the scent article with her scent on it. Have her give the dog a tidbit, while you the handler rub and pet your puppy to excite him.
(4) Step astride the bloodhound so that you can keep the dog’s attention directed toward your trail layer.
(5) Have the runner slowly back away calling the puppy’s name, until she gets six feet away from your puppy, where she drops the article with her scent on it, but continues to back farther away calling the dog’s name until she is 40 to 50 feet away, at which time she partially hides.
(6) Lift the puppy by his harness and take him to the scent article. Drop his head into the scent, saying, at the same time, “take scent,” “hunt,” “search,” “find,” or whatever word you want always to use to let your bloodhound know that this is the scent he is to look for. The word(s) can be anything as long as this command is distinctive from other commands.
(7) When your puppy finds the runner, have the runner give your dog several small pieces of a tidbit to make the pleasure of the reward last longer, and both you and the runner should lavish praise on the dog.
(8) After this, immediately change the lead from the “D” ring on the harness back to the choke collar.
(9) Have the runner precede you and the dog back to the starting point.(10) Repeat the whole process two or three more times, but each time in a different place, so that the scent from the first trail does not crisscross the other trails and confuse the dog. According to Leon Whitney, on page 82, of his book Bloodhounds and How to Train Them (1955), it takes very little training to communicate to a well-bred bloodhound that you want him to trail, as a male or female bloodhound can follow a trail “about as easily as a man follows a trail with his eyes if it leads through snow or sand where it is visible.”
Can you use more than one trail layer in any practice session?
According to Leon Whitney on page 76 of his book Bloodhounds and How to Train Them (1955), you should never change runners during any practice day, as it may cause the dog to think it is supposed to track the freshest scent, when usually you are going to want him to track one of the older trails, as, by the time you get there, everyone in the neighborhood and their dogs will have already tramped over wherever the child was last known to be.
What does the runner reward the bloodhound with when the dog finds him?
(1) The runner can give him pieces of boiled liver, hot dog, dog yummies, or whatever he takes out of his zip-lock reward bag. The bag must be zipped closed until the find is made.
(2) The handler should always praise and fuss over the dog’s accomplishments.
(3) An opposite opinion from handlers Peg and Hewitt Willis of North Ft. Myers, Florida: never use food as a reward: “the bloodhound makes the find, sits in front of the person, and then is petted and praised by the handler. For a bloodhound the true reward is the find. He is frustrated and depressed if he cannot make the find. If someone else gets there first, make every effort to let your dog complete the trail also. Besides, food items and wrappers are sometimes found along the trail, and we don’t want the dog to think ‘well, here’s my reward.’ We want him to concentrate on trailing, not on the food he is anticipating.”
What do you do if your puppy does not find the person he saw leave?
If your bloodhound does not find the runner, start him from the beginning again, and walk him along the trail your runner was directed to take until you bring him up on the runner, and praise and pet him, as if he did it all alone.
How to teach your dog to follow the scent of a person he didn’t see leave the starting point?
When your bloodhound is finding the runner he sees leave every time, without your guiding him, then, have the runner lay the trail and drop the scent material without your bloodhound seeing him start or drop the scent article. Just take your dog behind something that blocks his view of the runner until the runner disappears. Instruct your runner to throw the scent article away from where he is laying the trail, because you want to teach the dog to circle the area where he is started on the scent until he picks up the scent trail. Have your dog take scent on the thrown away scent article.
What exercises can you have your dog do to practice staying on the scent he is started on?
(1) Have the trail layer at some point along his way drop or plant a flag and have another person from the side cross the trail at the flag and continue out of sight. Tell your dog to “Take scent” or whatever your command is for telling the dog what scent to follow. Then, tell the dog to “find” or whatever your command is to begin trailing the scent the dog was started on. Proceed toward the flag. If the dog attempts to turn off, say “no” and bring the dog back to the trail. Give the dog time to work it out, and, if necessary, guide him at first along the proper trail. Repeat this exercise frequently during training. Complicate scent-crossing practice by having the other person cross the trail more than once and/or different people cross the scent trail the dog is following.
(2) Have your bloodhound see two people run away, side by side, but let him see only one drop a light colored garment about 20 feet away from the dog. Have the two people split up and fan out at least 50 feet apart to avoid overlapping of scents by the wind. Lead the dog by the collar, with the lead already transferred to the harness, up to the garment holding his head high, drop his head over the garment, and command him to “Take scent!” If the dog stays with the trail of the runner whose scent is on the garment, the dog is scent discriminating between the scent you started him on and the scent of the person accompanying the runner. This is called “staying clean.” The runner you scented your dog on may reward your dog with a tidbit if the dog goes to him first. See Bloodhounds and How to Train Them, by Leon Whitney (1955), page 77.
(3) Next, start your dog on the scent article you have of the runner without letting him see the runner and the person accompanying him leave. When the accompanying person turns another direction, have the trail layer drop a flag at that point, so you will know to redirect your dog immediately if he misses the split. Again, if your dog turns at the flag away from the trail layer’s path, say “no” and correct him. Repeat this exercise until he correctly continues to follow the scent he was scented on. Eventually increase the number of runners to four. Have them start off in single file and fan out as they walk. See Bloodhounds and How to Train Them, by Leon Whitney (1955), page 78.
(4) As your dog’s trailing skills increase, vary the pattern by having the person who left rejoin the trail layer, walk with him awhile, and leave again, or by having different people join, walk with the trail layer, and walk away from the trail layer in different directions. If these junctions are marked by a flag, you will know whether the dog is following the right trail, since you know the direction the trail layer agreed to take, and, therefore, you can correct the dog when he makes a mistake. Eventually, it is best if you do not know the path the trail layer is taking, as you do not want to unconsciously direct your dog which way to go. Only the bloodhound, not the handler, knows the way the scent trail goes.
(5) Place distractions along the trail to teach the bloodhound to stay with the scent you started him on. Try, for example, a group of laughing children, a lady with another dog, a cage containing a rabbit. If your dog turns toward these very tempting distractions, say “no” and insist that the dog stay clean.
(6) Remember if your bloodhound does something wrong, a quiet “no” is generally sufficient. When a bloodhound understands what the handler wants, the dog will do it. It is a rare bloodhound which requires more severe correction. Remember, too, always to praise the dog when it makes a find: “Good dog! Good dog!”
Why should you let your dog practice trailing on older, longer trails?
In actual abduction cases, the trails are usually at least a mile long and, by the time the child is missed and you are called in and get to where the child was last known to be, the trail is hours old. Over time a scent trail becomes fainter through the scattering or deterioration of the scent rafts. By practicing trailing, a bloodhound learns how to circle to find a temporarily lost scent trail and how to concentrate on the scent trail for longer periods of time. A bloodhound, whose handler has had him practice for 30 minutes at a time on a trail less than a mile long, when trailing a real missing kid lost his concentration and interest when the dog felt the trailing session was over.
Is there a best time for training runs?
Some people think it is best to trail before the bloodhound is normally fed, so that the dog associates quick and successful trailing with satisfying his hunger. Also, if you run your dog on a full stomach, some believe there is more risk of bloat. After a training run you should wait at least one hour before feeding your dog. Most handlers feed their bloodhounds in the morning and evening. Should you keep the choke collar on your bloodhound at all times?
Some handlers believe it is dangerous to keep the choke collar on the dog, as the dog may strangle itself if the ring collar gets caught on something. This happened to one of the bloodhounds given by the Jimmy Ryce Center, the dog’s collar catching on the gate post to its fenced yard. The choke collar really only has to be kept on during the trip to the scene, while trailing, and on the return trip home.
What exercises can you do to refine your dog’s trailing skills and keep them sharp?
(1) Increase the time between the laying of the trail and your dog’s running it. Jan Tweedie, in the table on page 93 of her book On the Trail: a Practical Guide to the Working Bloodhound and Other Search and Rescue Dogs (1998), suggests you go from fresh, hide-and-seek type trails to trails 15, 30, 45, and 60 minutes old; then, 2, 3, and 4 hours old; finally, to 6, 8, 12, and 24 hours old scent trails. It is important to keep working toward success on 24-hour-or-older trails, as the bloodhound team is often not called in right away as it should be when a child goes missing. Just remember not to move to a higher level until your bloodhound is successfully and consistently locating the runner at the prior level. If the dog is unsuccessful in trailing at a new level, go back to a prior step where he was working well, and do that exercise, until you are confident he can now try again for the next higher step.
(2) Increase the length of the trail. Jan Tweedie, in the table on page 93 of her book On the Trail: a Practical Guide to the Working Bloodhound and Other Search and Rescue Dogs (1998), suggests that you go from 100 feet for fresh trails, to 300 yards for 60-minute trails, to a quarter mile for 2-to-4-hour trails, to a mile or a mile-and-a-half for trails 8 hours or older.
(3) Have other human scents overlap and crisscross the scent trail of the person whose scent the dog was started on. Have the person who is laying your trail double back and circle on his own trail. Have others cross the scent trail. Anytime your bloodhound overshoots a turn see if the dog can work the trail out for himself, by circling to pick up the trail again. Or you can start the dog back at a place before he lost the trail to see if he can pick up the trail again. This is why, at first, you have to predetermine with the trail layer the route he should go. Or, you can have the trail layer mark the turns he makes. On pages 70-71 of his book Bloodhounds and How to Train Them (1955), Leon Whitney suggests it would be a good idea to check on the accuracy of your bloodhound’s trailing early on by having the runner tie strips of cloth to bushes, fences, and trees as he passes or drop squares of newspaper or cut off sticks from bushes and stand them in the ground with the freshly cut top pointing in the direction the runner has gone.
(4) Vary the number and kind of distractions along the trail. (5) Walk your dog on his lead (attached to his choke collar) through environments where the dog may someday have to trail, whether it is in the suburbs, in city traffic, inside buildings, along elevated rails, in marshes, up mountains, in elevators. If you familiarize your dog to different sounds and smells and different environments, he will not be distracted or cowed by them when you need him to concentrate on finding a lost or abducted kid.
(6) Practice trailing on different terrains, in different weather conditions, night and day, in town, parking lots, school yards, fields, woods, that is, in conditions where your dog may have to trail in a real missing person case. The idea is to let your bloodhound practice trailing by simulating different real-life cases. Go to a trailer camp in a county or state park and look for the adult trail layer who is pretending to be a child who has wandered away into the surrounding woods and is lost. Follow the scent trail of the adult trail layer who posing as a child is thrown with his bicycle into the back of an open truck.
(7) As dogs do not usually look up, have the runner climb a tree and sit on a limb. If your bloodhound circles the tree and does not look up, have the subject call or whistle to your bloodhound to attract his attention. If you want to train the dog to place his feet on the tree to let you know the subject is above you, have the subject hold a tidbit out which the dog can only reach by putting his feet on the tree. Try to fire your dog up and get him to bark when the subject is above him, so you will be warned in time to avoid the suspect’s jumping on you.
(8) Never jerk your bloodhound to correct a fault or error when the lead is hooked into the “D” ring on the harness. If he considers your jerks on the lead as punishment or correction for an error, should you fall and sharply jerk the lead in a real hunt, the dog may believe he has done something wrong and stop trailing.
(9) If you are with law enforcement and expect to use your bloodhound to trail suspects who may be armed, you need to teach the dog not to be distracted by gun shots. Have the dog sit. Then, walk fifty feet away while she watches and take out a cap pistol and fire it. Call her to come to you and reward and praise her. Do this three times during each training session until the sound no longer disturbs the dog. Using blanks, gradually increase the caliber from a .22 to a .32, a .38, a .45. Decrease the distance between the gun and the dog. Next, have the person laying the trail and the person backing you up fire the blank shots. In a real life situation, the bloodhound handler has his/her hands full with a 90 to 130 pound bloodhound pulling him/her along. It should be the back-up which is armed and has the gun out, not the handler. Can bloodhounds really be trained to trail in a city across asphalt streets and parking lots?
Despite the fact that the air is filled with carbon monoxide from vehicles, which can desensitize somewhat a dog’s nose, and despite the wind currents between buildings and from cars moving the scent around, New York City has successfully used bloodhounds for years to trail suspects. One scenario you should practice is having the trail layer cross parking lots and inside shopping malls.
How to train a bloodhound to select the scent of a missing subject from other scents?
(1) To train a bloodhound to choose the scent of a person who is no longer at the scene out of a number of other scents there, have three people get in a car and drive to a secluded spot. Have the driver lay a trail away from the car while the others sit in the car. Bring your bloodhound to the car and let him sniff the people in the car. Then take him to the driver’s side and tell him to take scent off the driver’s seat and immediately order him to hunt.
(2) Next, have an officer bend in over the driver’s seat as if to turn off the car. Have the driver lay a trail. Have the officer who bent over the driver’s seat stand by the front fender of the car, and let your bloodhound sniff him. Then, take your dog to the driver’s seat in the car, and let him sniff the seat, while you give the command to take scent and the command to trail or hunt. He should follow the scent going away from the car, as obviously he is unlikely to believe the handler wants him to find the guy staying right there in plain sight.
(3) If you are able to find out all those who have searched a car before you got there, you can line these people up and let your dog sniff them and the car. Then, when you command him to hunt, he will follow the scent of the missing person going away from the car. This is known as the missing-member exercise.
How does a handler learn to read the signals a particular dog gives?
(1) As a result of the time the handler spends with the dog practicing trailing, an observant handler eventually comes to understand what a lift of the dog’s head, a twist of his tail, a whimper, or a heavy tug on the line means. This is one reason it is good to know, in the beginning at least, where the runner is going to lay the trail, in particular, where he turned, stood for awhile, circled back, so that you can observe what your bloodhound does, when he loses the trail, when he is hot on the trail, when he finds pooled scent, when he is near where the runner is.
(2) You can also learn from other handlers what types of things to look for. Usually bloodhounds go faster when they have a good trail. If they lose the scent, bloodhounds turn round in circles looking for the scent. If the quarry has stood in one place for awhile, bloodhounds check the area where the scent has pooled and spread out in all directions until they find where the scent trail goes out from the edge of the pooled scent. Remember to drop something to alert the evidence technician that the suspect stayed for awhile in that spot and may have left evidence behind. All other things being equal, the larger the circle of pooled scent, the more time has passed since the subject stopped at the place. Some bloodhounds signal the find is near by swinging their tails around and around in a circle, whining, jumping up on their hind legs, barking, or urinating. With Tolhurst’s bloodhound Cinnamon K, picking up the pace and casting with her head high meant she was getting close to the subject.
Should you let other handlers work your bloodhound?
(1) According to bloodhound guru Bill Tolhurst, it is best never to let another person work your bloodhound, because your dog learns by repetition. Since no two people have the same tone of voice or do things the same way, it is better not to confuse the dog.
(2) If your bloodhound gives the same signal in a particular situation, to ensure no signals are lost or misunderstood, it is best that the person who trained the bloodhound and usually handles the bloodhound work the bloodhound in actual cases.
(3) However, while you should never, especially during early training, let anyone else work your dog, after your bloodhound is mature and well trained, you may let him get accustomed to another handler who can step in if you are ill or out of town. At any rate, don’t ever let just anybody handle your dog. If the original handler plans to leave the department or the canine unit, there should be a period of intensive practice with the replacement handler under the supervision of the original handler. Nothing destroys a bloodhound’s trailing reliability more than downtime until another handler is found. This is especially true if the new handler is not familiar and comfortable with the original command words and has to learn from experience what the bloodhound’s signals are for the proximity of the suspect, pooled scent, lost trail, and so forth.
Why is regular weekly training of a bloodhound best once he reaches an acceptable performance level?
Perhaps Leon Whitney, on page 66, of his book Bloodhounds and How to Train Them, said it best: “A Bloodhound is an animated precision instrument, capable of attaining results, when in competent hands, obtainable by no other means. Like every other fine instrument, it has to be kept in good condition and constantly and carefully used.” Any piece of sensitive equipment must be kept finely tuned, as a sensitive microscope must be carefully calibrated to produce its magic.
Does a bloodhound handler need someone to go with him when trailing an abducted or lost child?
Although all sexual predators may not be armed and all woods may not have bears or poisonous snakes, it is best not to go alone without back up for your own and your dog’s safety. As a handler, you will have your hands full holding the lead, keeping up with the dog, reading the dog’s signals, and dropping flags to show the evidence technician where the suspect may have dropped evidence. An officer walking behind you with a hand free to wield a gun, perhaps even with an attack dog, is a great comfort. Besides, if you fall and break a leg or arm, or knock yourself out cold on a limb, it is always good to have someone with you. Hopefully, the department will use its bloodhound team not only to find missing persons but also to catch violent felons and lock them up where they cannot hurt anyone else. Besides, using the bloodhound team in cases other than missing persons cases provides more real-life practice for the dog and increases the likelihood that the team will become a permanent and important part of the canine unit. How can you protect yourself from being mistaken as a prowler when trailing?
Wear identifying clothing and call out what you are doing. If you are working with the police, you may want to carry a police radio so you can turn it up if you are challenged, as this should convince most people you are with the police.
Can you rest during trailing without having to re-scent the dog?
(1) You may think you will need to rest only after your dog is successfully running long trails, but the heat or terrain may require frequent rests after only a short period. When either you or your bloodhound need to rest, you can stop your bloodhound without having to make her take scent again, but just be sure your dog has a good trail when you stop her. Simply say “Rest.” Unhook the lead from the “D” ring on her harness and snap it back to the choke collar. Sit down yourself, and encourage your dog to sit or lie beside you. You both may want to drink a little water.
(2) When you want to continue, get up, hook the lead back into the “D” ring on the harness, and say “go” or “hunt” or “find” or whatever word you regularly use to command your dog to search. Do not say the term you use for taking scent as this would lead your dog to think you are starting a new trail. For short stops, it is usually enough just to hook the lead back into the “D” ring and ask your dog “where did he go.” Although normally it should not be necessary to re-scent, carry the scent item with you just in case, but make sure it is in a sealed bag, so that your bloodhound does not smell the scent behind and in front of him.
(3) Increase the length of your rests, so your dog is ready to trail 15, even 30, miles, over several days, with hours-long stops to sleep.
Can a bloodhound really trail a child taken away in a car?
To prevent people from being asphyxiated by carbon monoxide from leaky mufflers, starting with 1978 vehicles, fans are required in American cars to operate when the motor is running. This allows some of the millions of scent rafts falling off each person in the car every minute to escape from the vehicle through the ventilation system, even if all the windows are closed. Some well trained bloodhounds have good enough noses and stamina, on their best days, to follow the faint trail of a child carried away in a closed-up vehicle. In a child abduction case, where the risk to the child is so great, it is always worth trying to trail the child, as often the child is not carried far because the predator is so eager to have sex with the child.
How can a bloodhound be used to pick out which person was at the crime scene or handled the weapon dropped in flight?
Request that all the persons in the lineup start from one point in the parking lot or field or warehouse and walk out 200 feet, at angles, like the spokes in a wheel. Bring the scent material--say a hat or coat dropped at the crime scene to the spot where the subjects in the circle started. The handler commands his/her bloodhound to take scent off the scent article. Then, the handler commands the dog to hunt or whatever word the handler regularly uses to search for the thing giving off that scent. The bloodhound should have no trouble trailing to the person who wore the hat or coat. This wagon-wheel scent-identification method is better than the usual lineup for human witnesses who rely more on sight to ID suspects than scent. When subjects are standing next to each other, each’s scent pools, and the longer they are standing together, the more each’s scent spreads out. When the scent pools overlap, this increases the likelihood that the bloodhound will identify the wrong person.
Is the unique scent of a person in all his or her body fluids?
Your unique scent is in all your body fluids—your blood, urine, feces, sweat, semen. If whoever does the rape kit on the victim make a gauze pad with some of the semen on it and with gloved hands places it in an evidence bag and labels it, the handler can scent his bloodhound on it, and the dog will quickly tell you whose semen it is if you use the wagon-wheel scent-identification procedure. Of course, you will want to corroborate identification with DNA testing, but it should give you probable cause to hold the man until the testing is completed. Even if the rapist wore a condom, his scent still should be all over the victim, as the rapist bent over the victim for a considerable time. This was the case when one of the bloodhounds the Jimmy Ryce Center gave to local law enforcement was scented off the dead victim and trailed the rapist blocks away around the corner of a building right up to where he was still washing the victim’s blood off of his bicycle and his arms.
Can you train your bloodhound to be a cadaver dog?
In 1977 Bill Tolhurst said he trained probably the first multi-purpose bloodhound, when he trained his bloodhound Tona not only to trail but also to find cadavers. See chapter IV, the Cadaver Dog (Land), page 56, in his book The Police Textbook for Dog Handlers (1991). Mr. Wood, former president of the National Police Bloodhound Association, opines that, as many breeds of dogs can be trained to look for decaying bodies, “only after you have trained your bloodhound to be the best man trailer that it can be and if you still have time left over, should you try cross training. ” Frankly, if a bloodhound handler has time to use his dog to find cadavers, the team is being underutilized for trailing missing persons and violent suspects. A bloodhound trailing team best spends its time man-trailing in all kinds of cases. Tolhurst admitted that “Most any breed can do the job” of looking for dead bodies if properly trained. See chapter IV, the Cadaver Dog (Land), page 57, in his book The Police Textbook for Dog Handlers (1991).
What is the procedure Tolhurst suggests for training a dog to be a cadaver dog?
(1) Take a hard plastic bottle with a 2-inch-wide mouth, with two tops, one that fits tightly and seals in odor and one with holes drilled in the top so odor can escape. Put human body tissue and bones into the bottle and seal it with the tight fitting cap. See pages 56-57 in Tolhurst’s book The Police Textbook for dog Handlers (1991) regarding how to get the scent material.
(2) Have someone take the body bottle and hide it. The person should not remove the tight cap and replace it with the cap with holes in it until the bottle is in place. Have the person take the tight cap far outside the hiding area. Wait 20 minutes for the odor to pour out.
(3) Bring your bloodhound 50 feet away from where the body bottle is hidden. Tell the bloodhound to sit. Slip a leather collar over his head to signal this is going to be a hunt for a body. If the dog was going to trail, you would put the harness on him.
(4) Gesture in the direction of the bottle, and give the command “go look.” As soon as he picks up the putrid odor and goes to investigate, say whatever is going to be your command for “body search,” so he will associate the command with the odor. Repeat the command to him while he sniffs the bottle. Do the big fuss-over-and-reward routine.
(5) Have the bottle capped and taken to a completely new area. Repeat the exercise. (6) Refine the bloodhound’s skill in looking for bodies by burying the body bottle deeper, hiding it in the trunk of a car, or burying it for weeks before letting the bloodhound search for the body. Repeat these refinement exercises four or five times a week for six to eight months. Even after the bloodhound is a mature dog, periodically have refresher classes to keep the dog sharp.
Where can I go to get more information on training my bloodhound?
(1) The National Police Bloodhound Association (NPBA)-- at www.npba.com – provides information on upcoming field meets for law enforcement bloodhound teams.
(2) The Law Enforcement Bloodhound Association (LEBA)-- at www.leba98.com -- provides information on upcoming seminars and schools. It sells a 100-page manual for $33.
(3) You can get training information at the website www.bloodhoundtraining.com You can pose questions via e-mail to manhunters@comcast.net.
(4) The website www.bloodhounds.com provides information on breeders and supplies.(5) The Bloodhound Bunch-- www.bloodhounds.com – provides pet stories and a store.(6) You can subscribe to the American Bloodhound Club bulletin. www.bloodhounds.orgAre prison bloodhounds good enough to trail missing children?
It depends. Prison bloodhounds are sometimes bred with dogs of other breeds to increase their ferocity or baying voice, and in the process they lose some of the famed bloodhound nose. If the bloodhound has not been trained to scent discriminate, that is, follow the unique scent of the person whose scent the dog is scented on, the dog is no good following the scent of a particular kid. Often prison bloodhounds are trained for one job only-- to pick up the institutional scent of inmates going outward from the perimeter of the prison grounds. Correction bloodhounds usually run free and fast and are taught to tree or hold down escapees. Therefore, the handler has less control over the dogs, and the communication between the handler and the dog is diminished. Because most prison dogs do not have AKC papers or practice records, there are going to be problems at trial getting into evidence the handler’s testimony interpreting the dog’s actions. It is no good pretending we are giving our abducted and lost children the best chance to be found alive if we short change them by using mixed breed bloodhounds or bloodhounds not properly trained to scent discriminate. If a prison bloodhound has been taught to scent discriminate, not just take freshest scent or follow the institutional scent, it’s better than no bloodhound, and if it is all you have, give it a shot at finding the missing person or the violent fleeing felon.
The James Earl Ray escape is a case in point. Bill Tolhurst, in Manhunters! on pages 185-196, tells how in 1977, when James Earl Ray went over the wall with a number of other inmates from Kentucky Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary, the correctional bloodhounds, when the trail split, were unable to tell which way Ray went, as some escapees went up and some down the mountain. As there was, of course, intense pressure to recover Ray, one of the penitentiary handlers, after two days of tracking, asked F.B.I. handler Bob Swabe to bring in his bloodhound J. Edgar. Swabe obtained reliable scent material from Ray’s bunk, and in the dark the bloodhound picked up the now 48-hour-old scent trail of Ray, despite the fact that it was overlaid by all the scents of the prison dogs and handlers. The bloodhound led Swabe and the SWAT team following him through brush, high weeds, over steep terrain, about a quarter of a mile to where the trail split. J. Edgar, trained to scent discriminate, turned down the mountain and, like a bird dog, figuratively pointed the way Ray had gone. Within hours, James Earl Ray was back in his cell.
What is the difference between a good and a great bloodhound?
In Manhunters! on pages 209-211, Bill Tolhurst tells how he and his bloodhound Tona, in 1981, were called in by the Lockport (N.Y.) Police, after they spotted a car stuck in the mud with the same license plate as that of a car which left a gas station without paying. Tolhurst scented Tona on the seat on the driver’s side. Trailing the suspect who fled on foot, Tona led Tolhurst through mud ankle-deep, weeds shoulder high, a couple of hundred yards to a lumber yard, where a black German shepherd stormed out of a dog house. Tona’s growling over the shepherd’s interfering with her trailing backed the shepherd off. Tona dragged Tolhurst across a field and a road into another field, where she crawled under tree branches growing down to the ground until she found the suspect leaning against the trunk of a tree. In Manhunters! on page 209, Tolhurst concludes, “There are times when the success of a case depends not only upon the nose of a good bloodhound, but upon her character and determination in owning her line, refusing to be deterred by man or beast.”
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©THE JIMMY RYCE CENTER FOR VICTIMS OF PREDATORY ABDUCTION, INC./JRC
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Fox Valley Training Center Instructor for the U.S. Department of Justice
Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention
Scent Discrimination Trailing
