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The Usefulness of Tracking Dogs

By Matthew Mizzi

Often times, people get into debates regarding the existence of a creature commonly reported as sasquatch. One of the arguments used by skeptics sometimes asks why anybody hasn’t tracked one with dogs yet. Let’s look at that for a moment and explain how it is unreasonable to assume a person with dogs could easily track a sasquatch after a sighting.

Types of Trackers

First of all, tracking dogs are split up into three groups: the tracker, the trailer, and the air scenter. Each one is trained differently and follows scent in different ways. Most people would probably not even know this.

The tracker works closely with the footprints left by a subject and any odour left in those footprints.

The trailer works by following the general scent left by a subject.

Finally, the air scenter follows odours carried by air currents.

Training

 

Training is another issue. The dog handler, if he trained the dog himself (we really aren’t expecting the police canine squad to jump on “hot” Sasquatch reports are we?), may have inadvertently trained the dog in the wrong way. It is a very complicated process and takes a lot of time and effort, starting when they are still pups.

On the other hand, if the dog was trained in some sort of school for specifically that purpose, those problems would be reduced, but that does not guarantee handler mistakes during tracking, for instance pulling the dog off the track when the handler thinks the track goes one way contrary to what the dog is telling him/her. Another common handler mistake is letting the lead drop to the ground between them and the dog “which does several things, all bad:

1) it makes it easier for the lead to get tangled,

2) it eliminates direct constant communication with the dog, and

3) it often results in a jerky motion, which the dog might think is a correction.”

http://www.basset.net/craig9.html

As well, those schools cost anywhere from $250 a dog and up. When you add that in with the costs of the dog itself ($500-$1500) and yearly maintenance bills (vet costs, food, leashes etc $440- $75), all these costs add up and I doubt most people have the available cash to do this sort of thing, unless it was their job etc.

http://dogs.about.com/cs/rescue/a/aa031503b.htm

Other Problems

There are other problems associated with tracking. For instance, climate, wind, distractions, and ground cover.

Climate can affect the ability of the dog to follow a track, for instance certain temperatures and humidity levels will cause certain scents to increase and others to decrease.

Wind is a major factor. It can carry the scent in any number of different directions, and can also cause the scent to age much quicker than it usually would.

Ground cover can affect a scent in other ways, for instance, if there was very little vegetation on the ground the only place the scent may adhere to is the ground, on the other hand, if there is a lot of vegetation there could be a myriad of different scents that have adhered to the vegetation. The scent may also stay longer.

“When severe differences from your normal tracking area are apparent, then it behooves you to find an area as close to that you are going to for training. It may not always be possible in your local area, but anything you can do to approximate the conditions where you are going will improve your chances of passing.” (Green, 1993).

While this quote is talking about a challenge where people bring their dogs in a sort of tournament to test their tracking abilities, it raises a very good point about the usefulness of tracking dogs. If a dog is trained in a certain sort of environment, it will be used to tracking in only that environment, and taking it in to vastly different conditions could hamper the dog’s ability to track.

Even lawyers in criminal cases are starting to question whether tracking dogs are reliable. “On the day after the killing, a tracking dog focused on a bucket filled with clothes and red-tinted water on a nearby property, Leonida wrote. The clothes ended up having no value to the case. Investigators also rubbed gauze pads on evidence at the crime scene and sent the same dog and others out looking for trails leading to a suspect during the next several days, Leonida wrote. The dogs found nothing.” (Gerstman, 2007)

Misidentifications

A problem that people might not be aware of is how common footprints, and even the sasquatch itself, are misidentified. Sometimes a bear will bring its rear paws close to where its front paws touched the ground, causing overlap that can appear to be one long footprint, and so instead of the handler following a sasquatch, it’s possible they could be following a bear. Also along this line, since we don’t have a sasquatch body from which to obtain a scent, how would the handler know the scent his dog is following came from a sasquatch. At this present time there is no objective way to figure that out, so a tracking session could turn into a very fruitless wild goose chase.

Timing

There is another problem associated with scents. “In 85 to 90 degree temperature it is pretty difficult to follow 45 minute old tracks, but if its nighttime and cool, the track can be several hours old and no problem for a dog.” ( Frawley, 2006)

So, what this basically means is that within a day or two, the scent will most likely have disappeared. Why is this a problem you might ask? Well, for starters, the majority of sighting reports are not posted right after the sighting. Most people take at least a week before reporting their sighting, due to several reasons, which I won’t go into here. If the scent only lasts two days, and the sighting takes longer than two days to report, how can we be expected to track the sasquatch if there is no trace left to be tracked?

Green, Craig. “Variable Tracking Conditions” The Basset Hound February, 1994. 16 June, 2006 http://www.basset.net/craig2.html

Green, Craig. “Common Handler Errors” The Basset Hound June, 1994. 16 June, 2006

http://www.basset.net/craig9.html

Mifflin, Krista. “The Price of a Purebred Puppy: You Should Get What You Pay For” About N.D. 16 June 2006 http://dogs.about.com/cs/rescue/a/aa031503b.htm

Frawley, Ed. “Service Dog Tracking Problems: A Supervisors Dilemma.” Leerburg Video & Kennel N.D. 16 June 2006 http://leerburg.com/trackprb.htm

Gerstman, Bruce. “Dyleski lawyer questions tracking dog’s reliability.” Contra Costa Times 07 June 2006. 16 June, 2006

http://www.finographics.com/schutzhund/tracking/tracking.html

http://www.tombrenneman.com/train_public.shtml

http://www.uwsp.edu/psych/dog/Work2.htm