Post by oksaradt on Feb 19, 2009 23:17:57 GMT -5
As the Texas seminar is coming up, I just couldn't avoid it any longer and decided to start reclaiming my teeth buried in Late May in those 12-14 inch holes. I got my money's worth out of them with an added bonus of ice/snow work. The point of this post is to stress some points for those that set up these problems for themselves.
1) Using the outer flags for string line cross references was essential to GET CLOSE.
I get razzed by some of my handler buddies as to how anal I can be on expecting my dogs to be very precise in their targeting. From past experiences, where the dog targets can make the difference between finding the remains and "this dog don't know squat...."
Having a dog that you can bring out when the hole you've dug doesn't seem to have anything in it comes in mighty handy. Having a dog that checks the walls of your hole and then does a touch in the right direction....priceless.
2) One of my email students asked me once why I put the same number of teeth in every hole of a problem set. I KNEW there were supposed to be seven teeth in each hole, but as you sift between dirt with gloved fingers and then sift through all the dirt that came out of the hole with a screen......doubts can creep in...(maybe I just put six in this hole....maybe just five....) KNOW, without a doubt, how many sources you have in your buried locations because recovering them can be a real pain.
3) Screens are a must for recovery. All the dirt that came out of each hole after 8 inches down went into a screen. ALL the dirt out of the hole went into a wheelbarrow...just in case. Did I mention a gopher decided to create its own cloverleaf pattern over my burieds? So far, the screened basket has recovered five teeth I didn't feel as I brought the dirt out by hand. Oh, did I mention that clay tends to like to clump around teeth...nasty effect, hard to see the little buggers, digging by feel is much easier.
Oh, molars are much easier to find than those slim little incisors that can feel just like a twig.
4) Remember that soil never goes back in the way it came out. You can probe around with your fingers into softer soil than the undug dirt. This is important unless you want to turn a 6 inch diameter hole into a 2 foot diameter hole.
5) Remember that roots won't be re-established into your hole in 8 months, so you can stop at the roots. This is also an important fact when working clandestine graves.......Heavy roots located where they want you to dig or the dog got excited is probably not the right spot....maybe the roots lead to the scent source, but 1 inch diameter roots won't be over a recent clandestine grave.
6) Most of all, remember that the time laying out the flags, putting down string lines, measuring, digging, placing sources, etc. is nothing compare to getting those elusive teeth back out of the ground. I know some people will place the source in a bag with a string and run the string up, but then the string becomes a scent wick and it's not real life training. Estimated time to recover each hole's bounty was an average of 30 minutes. Real life recovery work takes hours, days, weeks to get the remains out of the ground, so 30 miinutes isn't that bad.
7) With digital cameras making taking photos so easy to store, consider taking a photo of all your dug holes and the sources in each hole. If nothing else, you can stare at the photo to convince yourself that you really did put those teeth down there.
Hope this helps prevent lost sources and frustration down the road.
Jim
1) Using the outer flags for string line cross references was essential to GET CLOSE.
I get razzed by some of my handler buddies as to how anal I can be on expecting my dogs to be very precise in their targeting. From past experiences, where the dog targets can make the difference between finding the remains and "this dog don't know squat...."
Having a dog that you can bring out when the hole you've dug doesn't seem to have anything in it comes in mighty handy. Having a dog that checks the walls of your hole and then does a touch in the right direction....priceless.
2) One of my email students asked me once why I put the same number of teeth in every hole of a problem set. I KNEW there were supposed to be seven teeth in each hole, but as you sift between dirt with gloved fingers and then sift through all the dirt that came out of the hole with a screen......doubts can creep in...(maybe I just put six in this hole....maybe just five....) KNOW, without a doubt, how many sources you have in your buried locations because recovering them can be a real pain.
3) Screens are a must for recovery. All the dirt that came out of each hole after 8 inches down went into a screen. ALL the dirt out of the hole went into a wheelbarrow...just in case. Did I mention a gopher decided to create its own cloverleaf pattern over my burieds? So far, the screened basket has recovered five teeth I didn't feel as I brought the dirt out by hand. Oh, did I mention that clay tends to like to clump around teeth...nasty effect, hard to see the little buggers, digging by feel is much easier.
Oh, molars are much easier to find than those slim little incisors that can feel just like a twig.
4) Remember that soil never goes back in the way it came out. You can probe around with your fingers into softer soil than the undug dirt. This is important unless you want to turn a 6 inch diameter hole into a 2 foot diameter hole.
5) Remember that roots won't be re-established into your hole in 8 months, so you can stop at the roots. This is also an important fact when working clandestine graves.......Heavy roots located where they want you to dig or the dog got excited is probably not the right spot....maybe the roots lead to the scent source, but 1 inch diameter roots won't be over a recent clandestine grave.
6) Most of all, remember that the time laying out the flags, putting down string lines, measuring, digging, placing sources, etc. is nothing compare to getting those elusive teeth back out of the ground. I know some people will place the source in a bag with a string and run the string up, but then the string becomes a scent wick and it's not real life training. Estimated time to recover each hole's bounty was an average of 30 minutes. Real life recovery work takes hours, days, weeks to get the remains out of the ground, so 30 miinutes isn't that bad.
7) With digital cameras making taking photos so easy to store, consider taking a photo of all your dug holes and the sources in each hole. If nothing else, you can stare at the photo to convince yourself that you really did put those teeth down there.
Hope this helps prevent lost sources and frustration down the road.
Jim
