Detecting Scent Dogs

I think your best bet for a reasonable answer to your question would be your local County Sheriffs office. They can put you in touch with their K9 units, and chat with them about it. Another good source are search and rescue teams that train dogs for cadavers, and trail scent (bloodhounds). All the good ones are being used in the mountains right now, or are returning from Haiti.

I knew an agent in Arizona.....actually he ended up being a convicted felon who wanted to be a big bad bounty hunter.......brought his dog out on a skip one night. The dog was about 2 yr old, Sheppard.....total waiste of time. Unstable, unable to obey simple commands, owner let him off his leash and he spent an hour trying to ge him back on it, and the dog threw up all over the back of his Expidition. Serves the fool right. Dont know what your doing and you f it up for everyone involved, including the dog.

Ive only been doing this for 2 yrs, but in my experience there has never been a time when a K9 would have gotten the fugitive. Informants, good information and relationships usually do the trick. Although I can only imagine the amount of drugs the dog would have found in a home or car that I missed getting to.

Anyhow, make sure you get good advice, and insurance. My opinion.

S O'Connell
www.FRSofAZ.com

I can definatley see the pros and cons of the ordeal. Ours are two black and tan coonhouds. They are smart as heck but not vicious by any means. When we finally got done with all of our FR training, I went and talked to the local LE in this town and let them know what we were doing. I think at the moment they are leary of anyone because the Chief just got in alot of trouble and is currently on bond. I'm pretty understanding and susceptable to any situation but it was a pretty intense ordeal.

Anyways, it was more my ponder as to why you never really hear anyone except K9s during a recovery. I can see why the agent you were just speaking of got in trouble and that's unfortunate. I hope that we will always have the best judgement when it comes to doing what we do, however, I also do realize that we are going to make mistakes and the best thing I can say is we will have to learn from them and pray that none of them are crucial. There was a massive thought process that went into even going into this business before we even started training. It wasn't a wake up one morning and said "hey I wana be a BEA today". Even though we have gotten all of our main training down, there is still alot of stuff that I don't know yet. And I know that probably some of the questions I ask sound ridiculous, but I don't really know how to direct questions in the right way because I am more of a hands on learner. But in the mean time, you never know the answer to a question til it's asked.

I really do appreciate anyone's opinion! I truly do! It really helps me! So thank you!

I did my search on here about the scent dogs but couldn't find very much info so that's why I asked. I did seem to find alot on everyone's favorite "dog" on here. There is only one thing I have to say about that ordeal...He has nothing on Joe Dirt! "Business in the front, Party in the Back!!!"