The Dog¹s Best Friend: Visual Trackers

Anyone who has worked with dogs on a human pursuit probably has many stories
to tell. Many of the stories will reflect the skill of the handler and the
determination of the dog to stay on the trail no matter how challenging the
conditions. Hopefully they end with a successful find. Regardless of how
many successes they have had, there may be a time or two when things did not
go so well. Dogs are a tremendous asset on a search, but they are not
infallible. Even when the search ends well one can always ask: could we have
been faster, more efficient?

Utilizing Visual Trackers

Utilizing visual trackers with dog handlers can reduce time on trail, and
create opportunities to stay on the trail when conditions are less than
optimal. They also give the handler confidence and reassurance that they
are in fact, on the correct trail.

The Limitations of Dogs as Trackers

A dog¹s tracking abilities are limited by several factors. One is the level
of training the dog has undergone. A second is the sensitivity of the
handler to the dog¹s tells in other words, how well the dog and the
handler work together. These two factors are completely controllable
through proper training prior to a tracking situation.

The most significant factor in the success of a dog-tracking situation
revolves around the conditions of the trail. Trail condition is probably
the biggest uncontrollable factor in any tracking situation. The age of the
trail, the amount of vegetation, the wind conditions all play heavily into
how successful the track down will be.

A dog¹s ability to follow a scent trail will be limited by the age of the
trail. The older the trail, the harder it will be for the dog to follow.
Less than two hours old, and you have a pretty good chance of success. More
than four hours old, and the chances of the dog staying on the trail to
completion drops significantly.

Tracking dogs do better in heavily vegetated areas. The vegetation holds
the scent close to the ground, and keeps it from being dispersed by wind or
evaporated by heat. As the amount of vegetation decreases, so does the
dog¹s ability to track. Dogs have a more difficult time on hard, dry
surfaces that may be exposed to wind and sunlight than on surfaces covered
with vegetation with high humidity.

Finally, wind is a big factor in the ability of the dog to stay on the
trail. Certain areas are more prone to wind. These areas will be where the
dog has the least chance of staying on the trail. Vegetation sometimes
protects the scent from wind, allowing it to pool. However, wind can clear
large sections of trail from scent particles or disperse them so far, that
the dog has a very difficult time following.

In all of these situations, the alert dog handler has a repertoire of
techniques to pick up the trail again. Casting for scent, running the dog on
a spiral, and other techniques will eventually get the dog back on the
scent. The problem is that they take time. And time is the enemy of a
scent-tracking dog.

Having dog handlers trained as visual trackers or having additional trackers
along with the dog handler can speed the process of pursuit. Whenever the
dog comes to a place where conditions are less than ideal, the visual
trackers can come up and take a look. The conditions that are bad for dogs
are typically favorable for the trackers. Dry, dusty roads provide a good
tracking medium for the visual tracker. The visual tracker can quickly
verify that the quarry is still moving in a particular direction, and that
can free the dog to vector the quarry, or seek him in a particular direction
rather than having to search in a full 360š circle for the scent. Then the
dog can resume the search, once the trail returns to favorable conditions
for the dog.

A Typical Scenario

Imagine a scenario set in the deciduous woods of an eastern state. A child
has gone missing. He was last seen in the area about three hours before.
Your team has been called out to do the hasty search. As you arrive on the
scene, you circle the PLS trying to pick up a scent. Finally you find a
solid scent cone and begin following. The trail leads back into the forest.
You follow for several hundred yards. The trail emerges onto a dirt road.
As soon as the trail emerges onto the road, your dog signals that he has
lost the trail. At this point you freeze everyone, and call the trackers up
to do a quick check. They move onto the road and determine that the child
turned left, walked down the road about a hundred yards, and then cut back
into the woods across the road. Could your dog have determined the same
information? Almost certainly. But it would have taken precious time. You
would have had to work the dog in both directions on the vegetation along
both sides of the road until the scent was found. If you are lucky, that
would only take a few minutes. However, it could take much longer. The
trackers were able to quickly pick up the trail and make rapid progress on
the track. Once the track returns to vegetation, the trackers back off and
the dog takes the trail again. By utilizing the strengths of both the dog
and the visual trackers, you can save a considerable amount of time. My own
research indicates that using dogs and trackers together resulted in a
decrease of time on trail by 20 25%. Conditions always vary, but any
increase in efficiency is always welcome.

Other Scenarios

There are other situations where having visual tracking skills will be of
similar value. Many times, in the process of developing a working
relationship with your dog, you may be unsure of whether he is responding to
the actual scent of the quarry or phantom scent, perhaps made by an animal¹s
passing. For the dog handler to be able to do a quick visual survey and
determine by the tracks that the dog is actually on the trail is an
invaluable tool to prevent the dog from being conditioned to follow phantom
trails.

Learning Visual Tracking

It is not difficult for dog handlers to learn visual tracking.. It requires
someone with expertise in the area of both dog tracking and visual tracking.
It will likely require a few days formal training in visual tracking. With
the basics under your belt, this type of training can be integrated as a
regular part of your training routine. There are a number of schools that
teach visual tracking. There are few that teach visual tracking
specifically for dog handlers. While you will learn to track with the
former, the obviously preferred recommendation is to go with someone who
understands both.

Using dog handlers as visual trackers can both speed the dog tracking team
down the trail and it can give the handler confidence in his dog. Using
visual tracking to increase training effectiveness also means a faster time
down the trail. As a wise dog tracker once told me, its not about tracking,
its about finding. And in the shortest possible time. Any advantage you can
gain will only help make that statement true. Using visual tracking along
with dog tracking can be one such advantage.

About the Author

Kevin Reeve is a visual tracker with an unusual perspective. While many in
the visual tracking community do not appreciate the value that can be added
by having dogs and trackers on the same trail, Kevin is a strong advocate
for getting visual trackers and dog trackers working together. He runs a
tracking and survival school in New Jersey and can be contacted at
609-668-5384.