Post by oksaradt on Oct 17, 2009 11:37:44 GMT -5
Vehicle Work
Vehicles are like building searches on a smaller scale with vehicles usually being much less air tight than buildings.
Vehicle HR searches came about because of the wide use of narcotics dogs on vehicles to get permission to search the vehicle. This became legal after several US Supreme Court cases stated it was ok for an officer to search your vehicle if he/she could see OR smell illegal substances from your vehicle. It goes along the lines of the “plain sight rule”, i.e. if an officer is searching a premises for one item and notices “in plain sight” another illegal substance that he/she had not originally intended to look for then that substance becomes fair game. So, if a law enforcement agency is performing “safety stops” with signs up-the-road announcing said safety stop and they just happen to have narcotics dogs available then they can run the dog around your car to check for drugs. The air and land around your vehicle is public property, so the narcotics dog has a right to be there. The dog gives an alert stating the scent of the substances it has been trained on is present and this gives law enforcement the right to search your vehicle down to the point of dismantling it. Considering some drug runners make gas tanks with hidden inner compartments, dismantling can even entail cutting up parts of your vehicle.
That being said, what are the pitfalls of using an HRD dog on vehicle searches?
A big one is that people can bleed for innocent reasons. So, if you train your dog on primarily blood (which a lot of search teams do) then your dog hitting on a vehicle only says that someone bled in there. If they bled out because of multiple stab wounds then there should be a lot of blood and the dog did good. If the driver fixed a flat tire and the lug wrench slipped off the lug nut causing him/her to bang knuckles on something metal producing some innocent blood, then the dog did its job, but the result can be more harmful than beneficial due to the legal system. This is one of the reasons that I argue against using my dogs as reasons to search a vehicle. If the officer wants me to search for remains they suspect are in the area, I’m happy to do it. They have to decide what to do with the results, i.e. if we find a car that the dog just loves the trunk….the car turns out to be stolen…OR….the car belongs to the suspect(s)….the car belongs to the missing person….these other reasons give them reason to search based on other Intel. My dog simply helped them locate the right car. If they ask me to run my dog in the vehicle and it gets very excited over the back seat then (we must have already had permission to enter the vehicle) they should bring in the CSI guys to check for evidence NOT go to court with my dog being all happy. If no evidence is found then don’t go to court. Dog teams that train their dog on a single drop of blood under carpet run the same risk as narcotics dogs that indicate on that hidden marijuana seed or smoked pot…..yea, the dog did good, but it will also be slapped with a “false indication” on its career if nothing could be found. It’s a grey area where every dog handler has to make their own call. Either way, someone should not be taken to court unless evidence can be found, documented, collected, chain of custody maintained, stored appropriately, have enough to share with the defense for analysis by both sides, yada yada yada. One drop of blood does not a murder make. NOW, if that one drop of blood is enough to get DNA analysis to suggest your victim was in the vehicle that is not their own and suspected of being used to transport them to a secondary crime scene THEN the dog has given you another piece of the puzzle, but one drop of blood is not enough for the court system.
So, with all that in mind, you do need to train your dog on vehicles if you want to certify with someone like NAPWDA. I like doing vehicles simply because it presents a lot of different scent scenarios for the dog to work through and learn. In twelve years, I can recall two vehicle searches with dogs that I was involved in. Both times dogs hit (found scent) and neither time was the find useful in a conviction. I’m sure for a dog that works primarily for a law enforcement agency that results differ.
OH YEA…caveat number two, narcotics dogs should not be cross-trained as HRD dogs BECAUSE a defense attorney will have a field day with them. The narcotics dog makes a hit on a vehicle, a search is made, drugs are found. They go to court. The defense attorney learns the dog is cross-trained….”So, Mr. Handler, your dog not only finds narcotics…..I believe it says here it is trained to find meth, ecstasy, heroin, and cocaine….you say that’s correct?....fine….fine……but, it says here that your dog is also trained on human remains?....excellent!......does that include blood?.....yes? you must be so proud……Did you realize my client’s girl friend was menstruating?....can you guarantee me that your dog won’t hit on tampons?......not with 100% conviction, aye?...that’s too bad……..YOUR HONOR, I stipulate the dog’s alert on my client’s vehicle was simply interest in my client’s girl friend and nothing more; THEREFORE, I request any substances found as a result of the search of my client’s vehicle dependent upon the actions of the dog be thrown out as “Fruit of the Poisoned Tree”…….Thank YOU, your honor…..and thank you, officer, I believe we are done here.”
……………………………sucks, don’t it? ......................... Don’t cross train narcotics dogs on HRD.
In late September, Ms. Guzman presented me with the opportunity of an impound lot. These are vehicles stored because of improper parking, arrests, motor vehicle accidents(MVAs), etc. As a handler wanting to use these to train your dog, you must first be concerned about cutting hazards, chemical hazards, and falling hazards. MVAs tend to produce a lot of glass many times. Most of the time it is tempered glass, but be aware of it as hazard for your dog. MVAs twist metal in all sorts of unique shapes, many of them sharp. Engines require coolant and that means anti-freeze which dogs love to lick and will kill them very quickly unless you can get them to the vet in time where the vet has to get them drunk on EtOH instead of ethylene glycol. Ethylene glycol produces really nasty crystals in the dog’s liver that kills them very fast. So, avoid dripping vehicles. Vans and trucks often are stacked with lots of equipment, boxes, whatever people want to collect. If your dog hits on a truck panel door that you haven’t examined up front then you may both be buried and/or struck by the contents if you open that door in your zeal to finish the find. When working vehicles, it’s best to walk around the vehicles you are setting up for another dog team or yourself. Think through all the possible paths the dog may take to get to the scent source to see if it will be safe. This is training after all. There is no reason to risk an injury to your dog or someone else’s on training. Other handlers lose trust in you and you quickly find no one wants to train with you. When handlers are working their dog, they often develop tunnel vision where all they see is the dog and not the torn van mirror support at neck high. Vehicles are full of live human scent, so yours isn’t going to be a big deal if you do a walk through.
(I did take photos, but trying with two different computers I wasted six hours trying to get photos on Photobucket and then gave up. I’ll just have to use the written word to put you there. )
We worked two different days at this impound lot. The first day we gave each other multiple blinds. The second day was devoted to mutual problem setting to challenge the dogs to expand their comfort zones. Part of training vehicles is getting the dog comfortable with invading the vehicle in pursuit of scent. Part is letting the dog solve where the scent must be coming from when it gets scent at a wheel well, a back bumper, or under the vehicle. Vehicles present great sun/shade problems. Add some wind and you find scent traps in the wheel wells of adjacent vehicles. Use a large blood component and you might observe scent traps across a driving lane under vehicles downwind. The dog has to cope with all of these issues in pursuit of the scent source. It’s not enough for the dog to simply tell you that scent exists. I often hear after a find, “Woo-eee, that smells so bad, I could have found it.” My stock reply is, “and so, why didn’t you?”
The tarmac of the impound lot was a mix of gravel, soil, and multiple chemicals from years of use. There had been rain in the area the week before, but the tarmac was mostly dry except for the occasional puddle in a wheel rut. The second day we had a decent wind of approximately 2-8 mph with gusts up to 14 mph. It was sunny. Air temperature was 71-75’F. Most of the lot is vehicles parked in diagonal rows with some vehicles stacked at the east end on racks. Vehicles ranged from 4-door sedans to pick-ups to vans to heavy trucks to moving vans and limousines. Some vehicles appeared pristine while others were crushed in multiple places with air bags deployed. On each vehicle was a grease pencil marking indicating how long the vehicle had been there. We stuck to vehicles that had been there for over three months just to avoid any complaints our hosts might suffer from owners wanting their vehicles back. I don’t believe we used any vehicle that was going to be reclaimed any time soon.
Oh yea, another caveat, when training in situations like this, it’s just like camping. Take out anything you brought in and leave anything that you did not bring with you. There’s a high trust factor here that only takes one stupid misguided act to destroy. These vehicles were other people’s property and should always be treated with respect regardless of how bad they might appear.
Scenario One: Moving Van
This was a large truck with a box on the back for moving furniture. It could easily hold the contents of a small house. The back door was unlocked, so (without dogs) we carefully opened it and found furniture and boxes in disarray. There was an alley through all the items. The roof had translucent material letting in sunlight. In the alley was some minor overturned shelves, some drawers with contents, a moving dolly, etc. Easy for humans to walk over, more of an obstacle for dogs. Near the front (towards the cab) was a large box on it’s side with sides up 18 inches with sheets spewing up and out. A decomposed neural tissue source was placed in the box. To get into the storage area, a two foot wide metal ramp could be slid out and down to walk up the moving dolly. We extended this ramp out and down with the intent that if the dog got a hit on the scent then it would be encouraged to navigate the bouncy ramp. The scent was left to diffuse for about 20-40 minutes depending on which dog worked it. The real goal of this problem was to help the dog become comfortable with 1) dealing with that very unstable ramp to pursue scent and 2) going into the environment of obvious live human scent filled with possible obstacles and threats.
A common mistake by handlers when working a problem like this is to add stress to the dog with the agility aspect of the problem. Some dogs can learn to associate this stress with the scent source. The handler has to become a support system in problems like this. The dog has to demonstrate a need to enter the area via scent behavior and then the handler can assist (however little or much is required) to overcome the agility obstacle. Porter did better at this with his major handicap being that his jumping tended to make the ramp bounce more, but he worked through it. Murphy was more cautious and I stepped in to steady him till he was able to walk up on his own. Again, in the future the goal is the dog has experienced this previously and deals with it on its own. Once inside the storage area, both dogs had to work through a large scent pool to reach the source, but did so fairly quickly with good alerts by both. Once rewarded, both dogs exited the van, down the ramp, on their own steam.
Scenario Two: Rapper Wagon. An SUV set up with a KICKER speaker in the rear (Speaker was pretty torn up already)…headphones lined up on the rear seat. SUV was a large White Chevy with three seats and a small cargo area in back with the speaker. Scent source was a dry cavity wipe with a adipose gauze strip in a suet cage placed in a crook between the rear wheel well and the speaker. Guzman/Porter had to work this blind. I knew where the source was, but Murphy had to locate this one on his own as well. SUV was in line with seven other vehicles. Dogs were run along vehicles and could go in and out. I prefer to let the dogs explore on their own, but if no hits will do a walk-around with the dog. When doing this the handler MUST maintain a steady pace and never stop. A lot of handlers cue their dogs by slowing down as they approach the source (or where they think the dog will find it) with some even stopping. This only trains the dog to cue off the handler rather than work scent. I just walk backwards at an even pace, such that I can watch the dog’s reaction. If the dog doesn’t get scent then it must not be there to get and you never slow. The dog causes the handler to pause, not the other way around. I can’t stress that enough. When I set this one up, I cracked the front vent window open ½ inch for air flow. Sun was out, so a heated vehicle becomes like a puffer bottle. Porter worked this from the front passenger door where the vent was open. Bonnie opened the door for him by his action (remember this was blind for her). Our rule was the dog had to tell the handler when a door needed to be opened. Porter climbed in and navigated through all the seats to locate the source in back. Murphy hit on the rear door, performing a touch on the bumper. I opened the rear door and he climbed in to also locate the source. Each of these problems discussed is to demonstrate different issues. This one is that there is no right way or wrong way to work a scent problem. The wind could have shifted. Porter walking through the vehicle could have changed the scent spread. Don’t expect every dog to work a problem identically. The dog is the scent expert, not us.
Scenario Three: This was known to both handlers. This was set up to intentionally be a difficult problem. Source was four historic level (devoid of any tissue) bones: femur, partial hip, long rib, mandible. Bones were placed on the mattress of an over-cab bed. This was an aluminum pick-up truck RV camper(truckless, resting on the ground) with walk-in door, sink, table, and overhead bed. The RV was in the process of being dismantled. There was an opening to the right wall just this side of the overhead bed. The bones were placed such that air flow from this opening would sweep past the bones, spreading their scent into the open area of the camper BUT making source location difficult. Basically there were two scent zones with a strong air current between them. The dogs had to work through the first scent zone with no source, past the clean air flow, to locate the sources on the other side. To do this, the dogs had to climb very unstable particle board shelves, sinks, etc. Both dogs entered the RV on their own as they walked past it. Both dogs stated there was scent, but exhibited frustration when being commanded to target. Both dogs had to suffer through climbing the unstable surfaces to locate the source. At one point, Murphy decided he was going to exit the RV through the hole blowing air through the right wall. This caused him to come into contact with the sources where upon he now knew where they were and could alert and target.
Again, problems such as this one and the moving van are to widen the dog’s comfort zone. Handlers have to reduce stress rather than try to build drive with frustration.
Scenario Four: This was an easy one, but I didn’t want handlers to think all had to be a challenge. This simulated a rotting corpse in the trunk of a vehicle. A source representing death of two months was placed in the trunk of a four-door sedan. Dogs had to search ten vehicles in pursuit of scent. Both dogs stopped at the right trunk with alerts. The trunk was opened. The dog was allowed to enter the trunk to target. Murphy stood up on back feet to target from outside. Porter, a very cool dog, jumped up into the trunk to target.
Scenario Five: Strong bloody source behind the seat of a king cab compact truck. Back window was slid open. Bed tailgate was closed, but could be opened on dog’s alert/indication/suggestion. This source proved complex as it was upwind of another problem such that the dogs had to work an overlap of this source while locating another. The nose of the vehicle was into the wind. Porter requested to work from the bed of the truck and located the source by putting his nose in the back window and down behind the seat. Murphy went to the passenger door and pawed. I opened the door and he placed his nose behind the seat where upon he turned back to me and alerted. I asked for a show me and he stuck his paw behind the seat. Again, these were both valid responses by the dogs.
Scenario Six: I located a totaled crew cab truck with the passenger side obliterated while the driver’s side was in good shape. Both front and passenger side air bags deployed. Blood was poured into a container then covered with a t-shirt and the rear driver’s door was closed. There were no passenger windows left. Both dogs stopped hard at this vehicle. This was a blind for Bonnie. The point of this was the source was never seen by the handler and she had to go by what her dog told her. The dog requested the rear driver door be opened. The dog entered and targeted the shirt. The shirt looked pristine. To Bonnie’s credit, she took it. When I showed her the container, she couldn’t tell from looking at it what it was until we put it out in the sun as the blood had seeped down inside the container and dried. Blood has a very strong diffusion rate. The truck seat was not stained. We left it as we found it. Murphy had similar results. Again, the dogs had had to work around eight vehicles with one having a source in it.
Scenario Seven: This is the overlap I mentioned previously with an added bonus. When working areas like this, one has to understand that there might be HRs already there from MVAs. A handler has to give the dog some credit when it is indicating on a vehicle not in the problem set. The problem was some teeth with dried tissue on them with water poured over them in the rear of a totaled van on carpet just behind the passenger wheel well. The van had opening rear windows which we intended to leave one open, but it turns out any vibration on this van caused this window to close on Its own. We had cracked a vent window open as well. Upwind was the bloody source in the compact truck. This van was one vehicle of six to work. When Murphy worked this he did show me scent in the direction of the compact truck and I acknowledged that telling him we’d found that one and to find more. He continued working. As he was moving through vehicles he went to the next row just behind the van and indicated on the passenger door of another vehicle. I thought this might be wash from the blood, but my style is to open the door and let the dog investigate further with the intention that the dog would find no source and go back to work. Instead, Murphy located body fluids on the foot panel and mat on the passenger side of this vehicle. I rewarded him and then told him to find more. He located the teeth via the wheel well underneath, crawling under. Porter ended up doing the same thing as the scent was dropping down under the teeth. When asked to get closer, Porter again chose his front passenger door and Murphy chose the back door. Both dogs located the source, but in two entirely different styles. Both were right.
Scenario Eight: Enclosed trailer used to transport vehicles for racing. Back door was a ramp that we opened and left down. Floor inside was slick linoleum with some oil on it in places. A large collection of decomp sources were placed on top of a mechanic’s bench that ran the width of the front of the trailer. Covering the sources was a tarp that had already been there. Difficulty here was the floor surface as both dogs wanted to rise up to the top of the tabletop and both began slipping when they did this. Both had handlers that appeared to be oblivious to the situation, so they figured a way and were able to target the sources appropriately.
Scenario Nine: Wooden enclosed trailer with particle board back door that was ripped off and resting on the floor of the trailer such that it tipped this way and that when walked over. Source was a white sheet with lots of dried blood on it hanging from the trailer rafter such that to some dogs this would present an imposing figure. Dogs were to overcome unstable door and imposing figure to determine the figure itself was the source. Both dogs exceeded our expectations and did this easily.
Ok, that’s enough. We did more problems, but this is a nice gamut to demonstrate how versatile vehicle searching can be and how to address it. Training should be just that. Don’t talk your dog into anything, but don’t stress it out. By this point in the dog’s training, the scent itself should be a major inducement to enter strange areas. The dog needs to be taught how to be cautious but also how to overcome precarious environments to do its job. I was able to reproduce these problems from my logs as we wrote them down after the end of each training…..
Regards,
jim
Vehicles are like building searches on a smaller scale with vehicles usually being much less air tight than buildings.
Vehicle HR searches came about because of the wide use of narcotics dogs on vehicles to get permission to search the vehicle. This became legal after several US Supreme Court cases stated it was ok for an officer to search your vehicle if he/she could see OR smell illegal substances from your vehicle. It goes along the lines of the “plain sight rule”, i.e. if an officer is searching a premises for one item and notices “in plain sight” another illegal substance that he/she had not originally intended to look for then that substance becomes fair game. So, if a law enforcement agency is performing “safety stops” with signs up-the-road announcing said safety stop and they just happen to have narcotics dogs available then they can run the dog around your car to check for drugs. The air and land around your vehicle is public property, so the narcotics dog has a right to be there. The dog gives an alert stating the scent of the substances it has been trained on is present and this gives law enforcement the right to search your vehicle down to the point of dismantling it. Considering some drug runners make gas tanks with hidden inner compartments, dismantling can even entail cutting up parts of your vehicle.
That being said, what are the pitfalls of using an HRD dog on vehicle searches?
A big one is that people can bleed for innocent reasons. So, if you train your dog on primarily blood (which a lot of search teams do) then your dog hitting on a vehicle only says that someone bled in there. If they bled out because of multiple stab wounds then there should be a lot of blood and the dog did good. If the driver fixed a flat tire and the lug wrench slipped off the lug nut causing him/her to bang knuckles on something metal producing some innocent blood, then the dog did its job, but the result can be more harmful than beneficial due to the legal system. This is one of the reasons that I argue against using my dogs as reasons to search a vehicle. If the officer wants me to search for remains they suspect are in the area, I’m happy to do it. They have to decide what to do with the results, i.e. if we find a car that the dog just loves the trunk….the car turns out to be stolen…OR….the car belongs to the suspect(s)….the car belongs to the missing person….these other reasons give them reason to search based on other Intel. My dog simply helped them locate the right car. If they ask me to run my dog in the vehicle and it gets very excited over the back seat then (we must have already had permission to enter the vehicle) they should bring in the CSI guys to check for evidence NOT go to court with my dog being all happy. If no evidence is found then don’t go to court. Dog teams that train their dog on a single drop of blood under carpet run the same risk as narcotics dogs that indicate on that hidden marijuana seed or smoked pot…..yea, the dog did good, but it will also be slapped with a “false indication” on its career if nothing could be found. It’s a grey area where every dog handler has to make their own call. Either way, someone should not be taken to court unless evidence can be found, documented, collected, chain of custody maintained, stored appropriately, have enough to share with the defense for analysis by both sides, yada yada yada. One drop of blood does not a murder make. NOW, if that one drop of blood is enough to get DNA analysis to suggest your victim was in the vehicle that is not their own and suspected of being used to transport them to a secondary crime scene THEN the dog has given you another piece of the puzzle, but one drop of blood is not enough for the court system.
So, with all that in mind, you do need to train your dog on vehicles if you want to certify with someone like NAPWDA. I like doing vehicles simply because it presents a lot of different scent scenarios for the dog to work through and learn. In twelve years, I can recall two vehicle searches with dogs that I was involved in. Both times dogs hit (found scent) and neither time was the find useful in a conviction. I’m sure for a dog that works primarily for a law enforcement agency that results differ.
OH YEA…caveat number two, narcotics dogs should not be cross-trained as HRD dogs BECAUSE a defense attorney will have a field day with them. The narcotics dog makes a hit on a vehicle, a search is made, drugs are found. They go to court. The defense attorney learns the dog is cross-trained….”So, Mr. Handler, your dog not only finds narcotics…..I believe it says here it is trained to find meth, ecstasy, heroin, and cocaine….you say that’s correct?....fine….fine……but, it says here that your dog is also trained on human remains?....excellent!......does that include blood?.....yes? you must be so proud……Did you realize my client’s girl friend was menstruating?....can you guarantee me that your dog won’t hit on tampons?......not with 100% conviction, aye?...that’s too bad……..YOUR HONOR, I stipulate the dog’s alert on my client’s vehicle was simply interest in my client’s girl friend and nothing more; THEREFORE, I request any substances found as a result of the search of my client’s vehicle dependent upon the actions of the dog be thrown out as “Fruit of the Poisoned Tree”…….Thank YOU, your honor…..and thank you, officer, I believe we are done here.”
……………………………sucks, don’t it? ......................... Don’t cross train narcotics dogs on HRD.
In late September, Ms. Guzman presented me with the opportunity of an impound lot. These are vehicles stored because of improper parking, arrests, motor vehicle accidents(MVAs), etc. As a handler wanting to use these to train your dog, you must first be concerned about cutting hazards, chemical hazards, and falling hazards. MVAs tend to produce a lot of glass many times. Most of the time it is tempered glass, but be aware of it as hazard for your dog. MVAs twist metal in all sorts of unique shapes, many of them sharp. Engines require coolant and that means anti-freeze which dogs love to lick and will kill them very quickly unless you can get them to the vet in time where the vet has to get them drunk on EtOH instead of ethylene glycol. Ethylene glycol produces really nasty crystals in the dog’s liver that kills them very fast. So, avoid dripping vehicles. Vans and trucks often are stacked with lots of equipment, boxes, whatever people want to collect. If your dog hits on a truck panel door that you haven’t examined up front then you may both be buried and/or struck by the contents if you open that door in your zeal to finish the find. When working vehicles, it’s best to walk around the vehicles you are setting up for another dog team or yourself. Think through all the possible paths the dog may take to get to the scent source to see if it will be safe. This is training after all. There is no reason to risk an injury to your dog or someone else’s on training. Other handlers lose trust in you and you quickly find no one wants to train with you. When handlers are working their dog, they often develop tunnel vision where all they see is the dog and not the torn van mirror support at neck high. Vehicles are full of live human scent, so yours isn’t going to be a big deal if you do a walk through.
(I did take photos, but trying with two different computers I wasted six hours trying to get photos on Photobucket and then gave up. I’ll just have to use the written word to put you there. )
We worked two different days at this impound lot. The first day we gave each other multiple blinds. The second day was devoted to mutual problem setting to challenge the dogs to expand their comfort zones. Part of training vehicles is getting the dog comfortable with invading the vehicle in pursuit of scent. Part is letting the dog solve where the scent must be coming from when it gets scent at a wheel well, a back bumper, or under the vehicle. Vehicles present great sun/shade problems. Add some wind and you find scent traps in the wheel wells of adjacent vehicles. Use a large blood component and you might observe scent traps across a driving lane under vehicles downwind. The dog has to cope with all of these issues in pursuit of the scent source. It’s not enough for the dog to simply tell you that scent exists. I often hear after a find, “Woo-eee, that smells so bad, I could have found it.” My stock reply is, “and so, why didn’t you?”
The tarmac of the impound lot was a mix of gravel, soil, and multiple chemicals from years of use. There had been rain in the area the week before, but the tarmac was mostly dry except for the occasional puddle in a wheel rut. The second day we had a decent wind of approximately 2-8 mph with gusts up to 14 mph. It was sunny. Air temperature was 71-75’F. Most of the lot is vehicles parked in diagonal rows with some vehicles stacked at the east end on racks. Vehicles ranged from 4-door sedans to pick-ups to vans to heavy trucks to moving vans and limousines. Some vehicles appeared pristine while others were crushed in multiple places with air bags deployed. On each vehicle was a grease pencil marking indicating how long the vehicle had been there. We stuck to vehicles that had been there for over three months just to avoid any complaints our hosts might suffer from owners wanting their vehicles back. I don’t believe we used any vehicle that was going to be reclaimed any time soon.
Oh yea, another caveat, when training in situations like this, it’s just like camping. Take out anything you brought in and leave anything that you did not bring with you. There’s a high trust factor here that only takes one stupid misguided act to destroy. These vehicles were other people’s property and should always be treated with respect regardless of how bad they might appear.
Scenario One: Moving Van
This was a large truck with a box on the back for moving furniture. It could easily hold the contents of a small house. The back door was unlocked, so (without dogs) we carefully opened it and found furniture and boxes in disarray. There was an alley through all the items. The roof had translucent material letting in sunlight. In the alley was some minor overturned shelves, some drawers with contents, a moving dolly, etc. Easy for humans to walk over, more of an obstacle for dogs. Near the front (towards the cab) was a large box on it’s side with sides up 18 inches with sheets spewing up and out. A decomposed neural tissue source was placed in the box. To get into the storage area, a two foot wide metal ramp could be slid out and down to walk up the moving dolly. We extended this ramp out and down with the intent that if the dog got a hit on the scent then it would be encouraged to navigate the bouncy ramp. The scent was left to diffuse for about 20-40 minutes depending on which dog worked it. The real goal of this problem was to help the dog become comfortable with 1) dealing with that very unstable ramp to pursue scent and 2) going into the environment of obvious live human scent filled with possible obstacles and threats.
A common mistake by handlers when working a problem like this is to add stress to the dog with the agility aspect of the problem. Some dogs can learn to associate this stress with the scent source. The handler has to become a support system in problems like this. The dog has to demonstrate a need to enter the area via scent behavior and then the handler can assist (however little or much is required) to overcome the agility obstacle. Porter did better at this with his major handicap being that his jumping tended to make the ramp bounce more, but he worked through it. Murphy was more cautious and I stepped in to steady him till he was able to walk up on his own. Again, in the future the goal is the dog has experienced this previously and deals with it on its own. Once inside the storage area, both dogs had to work through a large scent pool to reach the source, but did so fairly quickly with good alerts by both. Once rewarded, both dogs exited the van, down the ramp, on their own steam.
Scenario Two: Rapper Wagon. An SUV set up with a KICKER speaker in the rear (Speaker was pretty torn up already)…headphones lined up on the rear seat. SUV was a large White Chevy with three seats and a small cargo area in back with the speaker. Scent source was a dry cavity wipe with a adipose gauze strip in a suet cage placed in a crook between the rear wheel well and the speaker. Guzman/Porter had to work this blind. I knew where the source was, but Murphy had to locate this one on his own as well. SUV was in line with seven other vehicles. Dogs were run along vehicles and could go in and out. I prefer to let the dogs explore on their own, but if no hits will do a walk-around with the dog. When doing this the handler MUST maintain a steady pace and never stop. A lot of handlers cue their dogs by slowing down as they approach the source (or where they think the dog will find it) with some even stopping. This only trains the dog to cue off the handler rather than work scent. I just walk backwards at an even pace, such that I can watch the dog’s reaction. If the dog doesn’t get scent then it must not be there to get and you never slow. The dog causes the handler to pause, not the other way around. I can’t stress that enough. When I set this one up, I cracked the front vent window open ½ inch for air flow. Sun was out, so a heated vehicle becomes like a puffer bottle. Porter worked this from the front passenger door where the vent was open. Bonnie opened the door for him by his action (remember this was blind for her). Our rule was the dog had to tell the handler when a door needed to be opened. Porter climbed in and navigated through all the seats to locate the source in back. Murphy hit on the rear door, performing a touch on the bumper. I opened the rear door and he climbed in to also locate the source. Each of these problems discussed is to demonstrate different issues. This one is that there is no right way or wrong way to work a scent problem. The wind could have shifted. Porter walking through the vehicle could have changed the scent spread. Don’t expect every dog to work a problem identically. The dog is the scent expert, not us.
Scenario Three: This was known to both handlers. This was set up to intentionally be a difficult problem. Source was four historic level (devoid of any tissue) bones: femur, partial hip, long rib, mandible. Bones were placed on the mattress of an over-cab bed. This was an aluminum pick-up truck RV camper(truckless, resting on the ground) with walk-in door, sink, table, and overhead bed. The RV was in the process of being dismantled. There was an opening to the right wall just this side of the overhead bed. The bones were placed such that air flow from this opening would sweep past the bones, spreading their scent into the open area of the camper BUT making source location difficult. Basically there were two scent zones with a strong air current between them. The dogs had to work through the first scent zone with no source, past the clean air flow, to locate the sources on the other side. To do this, the dogs had to climb very unstable particle board shelves, sinks, etc. Both dogs entered the RV on their own as they walked past it. Both dogs stated there was scent, but exhibited frustration when being commanded to target. Both dogs had to suffer through climbing the unstable surfaces to locate the source. At one point, Murphy decided he was going to exit the RV through the hole blowing air through the right wall. This caused him to come into contact with the sources where upon he now knew where they were and could alert and target.
Again, problems such as this one and the moving van are to widen the dog’s comfort zone. Handlers have to reduce stress rather than try to build drive with frustration.
Scenario Four: This was an easy one, but I didn’t want handlers to think all had to be a challenge. This simulated a rotting corpse in the trunk of a vehicle. A source representing death of two months was placed in the trunk of a four-door sedan. Dogs had to search ten vehicles in pursuit of scent. Both dogs stopped at the right trunk with alerts. The trunk was opened. The dog was allowed to enter the trunk to target. Murphy stood up on back feet to target from outside. Porter, a very cool dog, jumped up into the trunk to target.
Scenario Five: Strong bloody source behind the seat of a king cab compact truck. Back window was slid open. Bed tailgate was closed, but could be opened on dog’s alert/indication/suggestion. This source proved complex as it was upwind of another problem such that the dogs had to work an overlap of this source while locating another. The nose of the vehicle was into the wind. Porter requested to work from the bed of the truck and located the source by putting his nose in the back window and down behind the seat. Murphy went to the passenger door and pawed. I opened the door and he placed his nose behind the seat where upon he turned back to me and alerted. I asked for a show me and he stuck his paw behind the seat. Again, these were both valid responses by the dogs.
Scenario Six: I located a totaled crew cab truck with the passenger side obliterated while the driver’s side was in good shape. Both front and passenger side air bags deployed. Blood was poured into a container then covered with a t-shirt and the rear driver’s door was closed. There were no passenger windows left. Both dogs stopped hard at this vehicle. This was a blind for Bonnie. The point of this was the source was never seen by the handler and she had to go by what her dog told her. The dog requested the rear driver door be opened. The dog entered and targeted the shirt. The shirt looked pristine. To Bonnie’s credit, she took it. When I showed her the container, she couldn’t tell from looking at it what it was until we put it out in the sun as the blood had seeped down inside the container and dried. Blood has a very strong diffusion rate. The truck seat was not stained. We left it as we found it. Murphy had similar results. Again, the dogs had had to work around eight vehicles with one having a source in it.
Scenario Seven: This is the overlap I mentioned previously with an added bonus. When working areas like this, one has to understand that there might be HRs already there from MVAs. A handler has to give the dog some credit when it is indicating on a vehicle not in the problem set. The problem was some teeth with dried tissue on them with water poured over them in the rear of a totaled van on carpet just behind the passenger wheel well. The van had opening rear windows which we intended to leave one open, but it turns out any vibration on this van caused this window to close on Its own. We had cracked a vent window open as well. Upwind was the bloody source in the compact truck. This van was one vehicle of six to work. When Murphy worked this he did show me scent in the direction of the compact truck and I acknowledged that telling him we’d found that one and to find more. He continued working. As he was moving through vehicles he went to the next row just behind the van and indicated on the passenger door of another vehicle. I thought this might be wash from the blood, but my style is to open the door and let the dog investigate further with the intention that the dog would find no source and go back to work. Instead, Murphy located body fluids on the foot panel and mat on the passenger side of this vehicle. I rewarded him and then told him to find more. He located the teeth via the wheel well underneath, crawling under. Porter ended up doing the same thing as the scent was dropping down under the teeth. When asked to get closer, Porter again chose his front passenger door and Murphy chose the back door. Both dogs located the source, but in two entirely different styles. Both were right.
Scenario Eight: Enclosed trailer used to transport vehicles for racing. Back door was a ramp that we opened and left down. Floor inside was slick linoleum with some oil on it in places. A large collection of decomp sources were placed on top of a mechanic’s bench that ran the width of the front of the trailer. Covering the sources was a tarp that had already been there. Difficulty here was the floor surface as both dogs wanted to rise up to the top of the tabletop and both began slipping when they did this. Both had handlers that appeared to be oblivious to the situation, so they figured a way and were able to target the sources appropriately.
Scenario Nine: Wooden enclosed trailer with particle board back door that was ripped off and resting on the floor of the trailer such that it tipped this way and that when walked over. Source was a white sheet with lots of dried blood on it hanging from the trailer rafter such that to some dogs this would present an imposing figure. Dogs were to overcome unstable door and imposing figure to determine the figure itself was the source. Both dogs exceeded our expectations and did this easily.
Ok, that’s enough. We did more problems, but this is a nice gamut to demonstrate how versatile vehicle searching can be and how to address it. Training should be just that. Don’t talk your dog into anything, but don’t stress it out. By this point in the dog’s training, the scent itself should be a major inducement to enter strange areas. The dog needs to be taught how to be cautious but also how to overcome precarious environments to do its job. I was able to reproduce these problems from my logs as we wrote them down after the end of each training…..
Regards,
jim