trailing standard - Page 1

Our SAR group is developing an Urban Trailing Standard. Just wondering if anyone out there uses a standard with their dogs and what their experience has been in the urban environment. Right now we considering a trail 3-5 hours old 1/3 to 1/2 mile long in a moderately to heavily contaminated environment (in a city). Dog has to determine direction of travel of the victim and must work through all of the urban obstacles such as cats, loose dogs, traffic, fences, road crossings etc. to get to the victim. The surfaces in the test must be variable using hard surface, dirt and vegetation about equally. Does anyone have any ideas or have any standards that are used in their areas of expertise?

with my bloodhound I found that work crews and food, and gross things such as spat tobacco and such were needed to work about too. mostly the loud startling noises of the machinery and the strong odorific atractive tidbits. hope this helps!

Sounds reasonable. I did a 3 hr. old urban track with my male at a LARGE University Campus (UBC) here in Vancouver. Lots of different surfaces, crosstracks, distractions, etc. He did great. I was truely impressed. We also had different articles that needed to be found (leather, cloth, tin, etc). 2 of my current pups are going to a SAR homes....I will see if the new owners have some ideas.

Those wonderful Bloodhounds, we have a very successful hound in our group. She smells out the grosses stuff a mile away and as soon as her nose goes over it disappears hopefully to come out the other end. A large campus is a good idea for training or a test. Our wilderness standard is 12 hours old 2 miles across difficult terrain. But it seems to be the contamination that is more difficult than age. The test we are looking at is similar to the AKC variable surface terrain test, which incidentally is much more difficult than the advanced SCH tracking tests- shame shame on us... Anyways BC must be a great place to track and trail due to the high humidity and low temperatures. I would be interested in your friends SAR group name and their urban standards. Thanks

Maxislooking, Try looking at the National Police Bloodhound Association's website. Might have something on it that can help you out.Also if you contact a gentleman by the name of Andy Rebmann, he has written a couple of books that you might like.I can't remember his website off hand but if you do a search I'm sure it will come up.Nice to see you,it's been a while.