Tracking Dog Fundamentals Explained

Tracking dogs are amazing animals that use their incredible sense of smell to follow a scent trail. They can cover a lot of ground and stay focused on the task at hand.

A good tracking dog needs to have a strong prey drive, which is the instinct to chase and catch prey. This drive is essential for a dog to be motivated to follow a scent trail.

Tracking dogs use their sense of smell to detect subtle changes in the environment, such as a change in temperature or humidity, which can help them pick up a scent trail.

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Dogs have an incredibly developed sense of smell that makes them perfect for tracking.

Their sense of smell is much more advanced than that of humans, thanks to specialized turbinate bones in the canine nasal cavity that increase exposure of chemical receptor cells to the air.

A proportionally large segment of the dog's brain is devoted to olfaction processing, allowing for enhanced smelling ability.

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Dogs can detect extremely small concentrations of specific scents and differentiate between odours.

Their accuracy is determined by the concept of scent groups, which refers to a specific mixture of scents that comprise the overall odour of an individual.

A dog's acuity to a scent group is so refined that they can discriminate humans by odour and even match certain scents to specific body parts of an individual.

Scent discrimination is most proficient while a human odour is fresh and becomes more difficult once an odour starts to fade.

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Dogs exhibit tracking behavior in three separate phases. The first phase is the Searching Phase, where dogs attempt to find a track by sniffing very quickly, often 10 to 20 times between inhalations of breath, at a frequency of 6 Hz while in motion.

In this phase, dogs are looking for a trail, and their sniffing behavior is intense. Sniff frequency is usually 6 Hz and occurs while the dog is in motion looking for a trail.

The Tracking Phase is similar to the Searching Phase, with sniffing behavior and walking behavior becoming quicker.

The searching phase is a crucial part of the tracking process. Dogs attempt to find a track during this initial period, sniffing very quickly ten to twenty times between inhalations of breath.

Sniff frequency is usually 6 Hz, which is quite rapid. This high rate of sniffing occurs while the dog is in motion, looking for a trail.

Dogs sniff the air very quickly, making it a key component of the searching phase. This behavior is essential for finding a track, and it's a skill that requires practice and patience to develop.

The Deciding Phase is a crucial part of the tracking process, where the dog is trying to figure out the best course of action. This phase is characterized by the dog halting and then proceeding to take smaller steps.

During this phase, the sniffing frequency of the dog becomes much longer, which is a telltale sign that the dog is in the Deciding Phase. This usually lasts around 3-5 seconds.

You might see your dog pause and sniff the air, trying to gather more information before making a decision. It's like they're weighing their options and thinking, "Do I go left, right, or straight?"

Dogs use different tracking methods depending on the environment they're in. They can detect scent trails using physiological methods.

A scent results from a person's individual odour or an environmental disturbance odour caused by their physical movements. This can vary depending on whether the individual deposits their scent in the air or on the ground.

An air scent is stronger than a ground scent, but the ground scent remains detectable for a longer period.

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Trailing is a fascinating aspect of tracking that involves following a scent trail left behind by an individual. Trailing dogs have a stronger affiliation for human scent near the trail they are tracking.

They can be observed deviating slightly from or crossing over the trail they are tracking. This is because trailing dogs heavily rely on scent, as the trails often don't have any visual cues for tracking.

In fact, trailing dogs are often used interchangeably with tracking dogs for police aid in human, suspect, and victim searches. This is because they are extremely proficient and well trained, capable of following human odor for great distances and over a variety of terrains.

A track scent is often a mixture of both air scent and ground scent being left behind by an individual. Dogs can determine a track scent by identifying a combination of both human odours and environmental odours released by an individual.

Trailing dogs, such as German Shepherds, Belgian Malinois, Bloodhounds, and Labrador and Golden Retrievers, are valuable assets to Police and law enforcement organizations in locating criminal suspects, missing Alzheimer’s patients, and lost children.

Point Source tracking dogs are specialized in air scent tracking and tend to ignore ground scents. They utilize increasing intensity of specific odours to identify and track a trail to a certain target object.

There are two separate classifications of point source dogs: detector dogs and discrimination dogs. Detector dogs are most often used to identify both non-biological and biological scents of a target object while ignoring other non-target environmental scents.

Detector dogs have a range of uses, including identifying explosive and mine identification, bacteria detection in buildings and homes, detection of human waste materials in storm drains, and search and rescue missions, recovering evidence from a crime scene, and locating drugs and explosives.

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Discrimination dogs, on the other hand, are most often employed by police forces to identify the scent of a specific individual being tracked. This differs from detection dogs because they are required to react to a scent that matches or differentiates between other ones instead of identifying that a certain scent is present.

Here are some specific uses of discrimination dogs:

Male dogs have been found to more accurately determine the direction of a trail than female dogs due to their superior olfactory ability, which was historically necessary for finding mates and marking territory.

Younger dogs tend to have superior tracking ability than older dogs because canine olfactory sensitivity diminishes with age.

Dogs with active and confident personalities tend to perform better during tracking activities, likely due to their ability to focus and respond to cues.

The mannerisms of the handler can also impact tracking ability, with unconscious signals being interpreted by canines while working with humans.

Variable Surface tracking is crucial for dogs to perform well in different environments.

Our dogs are trained to track and trail on various terrains, including grass, gravel, concrete, asphalt, sand, and wooded areas.

Teaching Variable Surface Tracking is an intensive process that truly prepares these dogs to be effective in the field.

These dogs are confident and proficient in working through difficult environments, such as city streets and alleyways.

We have placed many dogs that work in desert environments and tropical environments, and they perform well because of their training with variable surfaces.

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