Tracking Dogs

Dogs who follow the actual footsteps of a person as closely as possible. They are usually discriminating ground disturbance as the smell to go on - crushed vegetation, disturbed dirt, ect. Many law enforcement dogs are taught this way - i.e. �hot tracks�h.These dogs may or may not be taught to scent discriminate. They just go after the most recent, most obvious scent. You need to try and start at the PLS ( point last seen.)

Trailing dogs

Dogs who follow human odor due to the skin rafts drifting off, odors from those cells, ect. These dogs will follow the trail of several feet to several yards away from the actual foot prints, depending on where the wind has taken the scent. Most trailing dogs are taught to scent discriminate, so the handler can tell the dog WHICH persons scent to follow. Trailing dogs work out much older tracks that tracking dogs. You would try to start at the PLS (point last seen)

�

These dogs hunt for ANY human scent in a given area OR they can be taught to scent discriminate to look for a specific person. You usually try to have all the other searchers out of the dogs way , who runs off lead in a grid pattern. Indications that the dog has found someone range from a bark alert to a recall/re-find" which is where the dog located the victim and goes back to the handler, continuing this behavior until the handler reaches the victim.

�

Dogs taught to discriminate the scent of dead humans either above ground, underground or under water. Water trained dogs are placed in a boat and the navigator follows the direction of the dog nose. Indications for HRD dogs range from an  aggressive (dig or bark) to a  passive ( sit or down) alert. SDSRDA promotes and prefers passive alert dogs so that the scene remains as undisturbed as possible.

�

Dogs taught to search off-lead for live human scent through the rubble left from a structural collapse ( i.e. World Trade Center)

Dogs can also be trained to search other types of disasters, such as avalanches. Some dogs are taught to dig at the source of fresh human scent ( avalanche) and some are taught to stay at the source and bark ( disaster) until the handler reaches them.