ple. I immediately got more interested in law enforcement cases, looking for crime scenes and human remains. I am currently on my 5th dog and dreaming of a new dog. Although I still do cold case work for law enforcement I try to focus only on historic and pre-historic burials.
ONLY trains the dogs for human remains, especially old burials. Dogs that train and work old burials work differently than dogs who have been trained to find live scent. Our dogs are many times used in conjunction with other types of technology. By combining different techQ2-I contacted you after nologies you get a better stumbling across an arti- "view" of what is under cle where dogs were be- the ground. There are ing utilized to find lost conditions and times burial sites and plots in where dogs are not the best tool.
We use a sit or a down as the dogs alert, the dog is never allowed to dig or mouth the bones. When the dog understands and is reliably finding the human bones we start them in historic cemeteries on known graves. The dog makes the connection that the imprinted scent is now in the ground. We have found that the scent from burials lays just on top of the ground surface, unlike live human scent that is carried in a cemetery. Can you the wind currents. Our share with our readers Q3-How does a dog's dogs work slowly with how these dogs can find sense of smell work what even our modern when locating old bones their nose to the ground.
day technology at times or remains found in an comes up short? unmarked grave?
Q4-What types of training and credentials does Like all tools there is the We start our young dogs a dog have to go through right or best tool for on old bones and teeth, in order to be able to acevery application. There they learn to find them complish such a great service? are unfortunately even in all kinds of locations dog handlers who do not train or specialize in old burials but figure "what the heck I will give it a try,� only to leave a poor impression. Our team
Volume 1 Issue 1
and places. We use a positive training technique rewarding the dog for finding and alerting at the location of the bones we have hidden.
January 2011
ICF Institute for Canine Forensics is the only organization that specializes in historic and pre(Continued on page 65)
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