[Patrick Cheatham]

Man Tracking

Jose Alberto Reanto wrote:

The scenario is let's say, four friends got seperated and got lost in the woods. How would one track them all alone with a dog?

Edwin de Vries wrote:

In this situation it's more convenient to do area search with the dog, but I think it's not the answer to the question.

In this case an area search could be done using a dog trained in air scenting. He would not pickup on one trail but would work to find the human scent within a desired area. Most air scenting dogs are not scent discrement and the dog would work to the strongest human scent within its search area.
If your dog is trained to track or trail using an item from one of the victims, this dog should follow that persons trail. This works best when you know the last known point of the lost subject. We require our dogs to be scent discerment so my dog would only trail the scent of the article I presented her with. The ideal situation is to have both dogs so you can air scent the outer perimeter and the trailing dog work the place last seen. Hope this helps.

 

[Patrick Cheatham]

I would tend to agree with what Bob said, didn't mean to imply that one handler would work two dog's at the same time. Just that these are some of the types of dogs that may be used in the situation given.
IMO a good scent specific trailing dog will only follow the scent commanded to trail. We run our trailing dogs off lead using a refind alert from the dog once the victim is located.
Let me also add that even a very good tracking/trailing dog will at times air scent.

 

[Patrick Cheatham]

Bob pretty much hit the nail on the head! The only other things I would add is. I have found that its better not to try and train all the different things that go along with tracking/trailing in the same session. ie.. practice a recall seperate, don't move from one scenario to another untill the you and the dog have it down. I use a refind with my off lead dog because she ranges out of sight at times. So when she locates the victim she comes back and alerts me by jumping and placing her paws on my waist. At that time she will take me back to the victim, should I not be right there when she locates. This to is taught seperate from the tracking/trailing and worked in later.