Scent in Training Police Dogs? - Page 3

We also teach tracking first then air scenting.  A good nosed dog while tracking if crossing the scent cone the head will come up go straight to the find even without air scent training at a decent distance away.

gshprdsrul-And it's some sort of mystery why people see LE as abusing their situation? If I'm innocent you need to control your damn dog so it doesn't cause unnecessary damage. If I'm not innocent you need to control your damn dog so it doesn't cause unnecessary damage. Last time I checked, it's the citizens that are protected under the Constitution.  You answer to us-we don't answer to you. Can you say "probable cause"?

I'm not going any further with this. There are certain LE on this board who have earned my respect by the way they have handled themselves and I am not going to start a LE bashing thread. I've gone well out of my way to point out that I'm not painting all with the same brush.

If you want to paint yourself in the light you just did, that's up to you.

DR-what you are saying lines up almost exactly with what I have been taught so far. I didn't mean to imply trailing was more desired, just that I've been told it is better to teach it first. Of course, the ideal is to do both, like your female.  One problem with the air scent dogs here is the winds change dramatically at different times of the day, esp. in the foothills because of the changes in air temp during a few hours. It is my understanding that a dog well versed in both types of scenting finds it easier to deal with that. 

regards,

dawgs

dawg,

I never said I was a K-9 handler. I worked the street and honestly more cops get bitten by mistake then citizens. I jumped in on the conversation because I had talked to a K-9 guy and he said they use ground disturbance to track. The reason why I was interested is I have a dog that has a nose that can beat the best. I wanted to know how to train her for search and rescue that is if my back can hande the training, I got hurt on the job and have a disc fusion which has turned to arthritis throughout my spine,. I also thought it would be fun to train her to smell dope as I have a lot of teenagers coming in and out of my house. I am retired and my friend since you never acted as a police officer, never been shot at, never had to decide to shoot someone, or been in a high speed pursuit or 3 riots, you shouldn't monday morning quarterback. Plus do it all and make it home alive to raise my kids. Civilians have no idea what cops go through. I have had my children and family threatened by a drunk I arrested. I have been called every name in the book (don;t care bout that). By the way I am a 5'3" 110 lb female and I have also been told what they would like to do with me. And I have been tried to be killed by a drunk that I woke up and was going to give a ride home. Lucky for him his friends were able to hold him off till my help got there or he would be dead and buried by now cause he was 6' 3 and 250 and everything I tried didn't work including whacking him in every body part I could with a night stick, Remember I was just trying to give him a ride home and made that abundantly clear to him now he has an assault on 2 police officers on his record along with drunk in public. But that makes cops bad. What makes cops look bad are people like you that have no clue what it is to live in their shoes for the crappy money they pay and do we care NO because it is in the blood, The selfless heros.  My 18 year old is joining as soon as he finishes college. God Bless him I am proud of him but wish he chose a safer career, Are there bad cops Hell yes they are and we hate them because they make it that much harder to do our job, You want to know when the bad cops hit my department I can only comment on mine is because I was there to see it, it is called reverse discrimination and the lowering of standards to get hired. End of conversation.

dawgs..your are correct about the air currents but it also effects the trailing dog too. i have tracked in 20 mph wind and the gsd work down a 20 ft wide path going from the ground scent to the end of the rafts zig and zagging down the trail.

If you train air scenting first then you may have problems getting your gsd to keep his head down to do trailing or tracking.

Plus a air scenting dogs smells for anyone while you want the trailing dog to stay on one person's trail. Ususally if someone gets lost you have alot of people searching the area looking for a SAR dog is called for, so you have alot of trails and scents in the area.