Gathering Scent Articles for Mantrailing Dogs to Search for Missing Persons

 Gathering Scent Articles for Mantrailing Dogs

Search and Rescue Dogs trained to follow the scent trail of a live human being are called Mantrailers. These specialty trained dogs use an article or item belonging to the person the dog will find to identify and discriminate that person from other people. 

No two people smell the same, even when they use the same perfume. Each person has their own unique personal scent signature. This, invisible to the eye, individual scent remains in indoor spaces we visit and on items we handle, touch or wear. 

We leave our scent signature everywhere.

Photo from Upslash.com

To give you an idea of how much our scent remains on everything around us. Let's take a look at all the items in the photo above. Everything pictured will be contaminated with the scent signature of that one person at the desk! 

Each thing on that desk is a potential scent article that can be used to lead a trained dog to that one and only person. The desk, chair and personal space around that person is a scent article too. I have scented dogs on items as small as cigarette butts, paperclips and my favorite scent article for success is a toothbrush because generally only one person uses a toothbrush. Dogs are scented on chairs, benches, cars, desks, rooms, anywhere a person has been and everything they have been close to.

Contamination or the mixing of scent signatures by another person's scent happens immediately when the second person gets close to the first person's item or personal space. 

Contamination also occurs when other natural and humanmade substances or odors get mixed. A contaminated scent article is the most common reason a dog fails to find a person. I will be writing more about contamination in future articles. Sign up for the newsletter or follow me to get the new posts and you can go to this page to read how to train your dog for tracking which is different than trailing.

Scent chemistry is a very complex subject I like to explain in simple terms for everyone to easily understand. So, if we think of a person's scent chemistry as a scent cloud made of invisible particles and flakes of skin, hair and whatever else falls off, such as germs and infectious viruses, like Covid19, we can better understand what a dog follows when they search for a person. The scent cloud is what a dog works with. 

Let's start with what the dog will start with, the Scent Article!

How-to properly gather and store scent articles for dogs to find people.

One of the easiest ways to find a lost person is to give a dog the person's scent and watch him find the scent. 

The dog is only looking for the smell and not for the actual person. 

The dog does not necessarily associate the scent with the person unless the person is somebody they know with that scent. 

copyright A.Higgins

In the photo, I'm giving a Bloodhound pup the scent article

 To a dog, a scent is a scent.

Therefore, the fastest and surest way to teach or ask a dog to find a person is to use the person's scent to show them who we seek and no two people smell alike. Everybody smells different and we smell different at various times during the day or if we are sick.

To teach your dog to search for a lost or missing person, including family members you have to prepare first by gathering a "scent article" then visit my free dog training lesson page to read how-to start a dog.

To find Family Members with your Dog

It is wise to gather one sock from each person you love or do not want to lose before you start training your family pet and to store these as instructed below for later use in training sessions or if a loved one is lost. Place one dirty sock from each family member in a one freezer bag each sock.  

Do Not Mix or touch the sock to anything, only the bag, use a hanger or stick to pick it up. Freeze the socks in case of a disaster where somebody is lost or gone missing. When you go hiking collect a article from each hiker before leaving in case somebody goes off the path and is lost. A search dog or a dog from the hiking group can find them if you let the dog smell the personal item.

Also you can collect a item from each family pet as well, a old collar or brush would do. Store this item as outlined below use it as a scent article for a dog to find the missing pet

copyright A.Higgins

To Find a Unknown Missing Person

When training your dog to find people who are unknown or not family members, you will be using a volunteer person to hide from your dog so you will collect a scent article from that person before the person goes hide. The scent article can be a face mask, a sock, hat or other small personal item nobody else has touched. 

  Gathering the Scent Article

Always handle every scent article, at all times, in training and in an actual search with the upmost care! NO OTHER PERSON or thing should every touch or breath on a scent article from somebody else. 

Preservation and handling of a scent article is the most important aspect of using a dog to find a missing person. The main reason a dog will not work a trail or lose the scent of a missing person is because the scent article used was contaminated. We cannot see the contamination or smell any difference but a trained dog will smell and look for every smell that is on the article. 

If another person handles the article the dog will look for both people. Then a different type of search is needed to be used that will depend upon how well the handler reads the dog to come to the right conclusion. The dog will follow both persons scents and should be rewarded, although it may appear the dog is on the wrong person's trail. 

If a handler does not know a scent article is contaminated and gives the dog the scent article to use to find the missing person or shows the dog the last known location to start on that is contaminated. The dog will smell the missing person and the unknown subject or other substances (I will write about substances soon) the dog will look for all the scents on the scent article or at the person's last know location. For this reason, it's critical to safeguard and choose wisely every scent article used. 

Everything a person touches is a potential scent article, make sure it's only touched by the one person you wish to find.

Collecting the Scent Article

DO NOT touch the scent article yourself, have the person drop the personal item from their hand into a new brown paper bag (lunch bag size) or a plastic freezer bag ( zip lock natural non chemical bag is best) I prefer paper bags because paper is natural and organic to the dog's nose.

This is a post for beginners, you will learn more about scent article collection at a scene in other articles. 

Do Not Contaminate that scent article. 

Have the person fold the bag shut and drop the bag into another holding bag you will carry.

Reminder, Do Not Put 2 scent articles from different people together, each article gets its own bag and label the bag with the person's name, date and time.

If you are not using the scent article right away, store the bag in the freezer until a few minutes before use.

Write "Scent Article" for emergency on the bag (police dogs and search dog handlers will know what to do with this if you ever have to call them about a missing person.

My bloodhound Homer found 26 people and 1 mountain lion while working a 6 year career in law enforcement before semi-retiring from my mentor to me to volunteer and produce fine pups that went to work in several states, Canada and South America. 

The “scent article” tells your dog who they are looking for!

Handle with Care.

When you start the dog on the scent article, you will open the bag and ask the dog to smell inside to bag. Most dogs will out of curiosity, be sure to tell the dog the command "Smell" or "Take Scent" each time to teach the dog you expect them to smell the item.

You only need one item from the person as long as that item is not contaminated by any other odor, substance or person. 

Here's some ideas for the best personal items to use for K9 scent articles.

1. Clothing directly from the person-hats, socks, shirts, shoes, etc.

2. Personal hygiene items-hair bush, toothbrush, comb, bottles only the person touched, etc.

3. Bedding-pillows, covers, sheets

4. Toys

5. Tools

6. Office items-mail, pens, pencil, books, desk top, chair that only one person has used

7. Benches, chairs, table tops, gate handles, door handles, etc

8. Automobiles -seat, steering wheel, doors, inside and outside surfaces, items inside, floors

9. Daily use items- towels, dishes, eating utensils, pipes, walking canes, backpacks, etc

10. Electronics- Phones, computers, device cords, memory cards, device case, briefcase 

For online courses that teach you how to train a dog to search for missing persons, dead and alive visit my online dog training courses and dog lifestyle coach page by clicking here. There is an Obedience course and Family Disaster Dogs course I am finishing writing there, and the Cadaver course is accepting more students. 

     

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What is a Scent Article for a Search Dog?

by FamilyDisasterDogs.com

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"Find It " Train any Dog to Find a Person or Missing Family Member

" Find it " 

Train any pet dog to find family members in case the person goes missing

You can use your dog to find children, elderly or family after earthquakes or floods.


Only do this trailing/tracking lesson with your dog 1 or 2 times a week. Skipping a week is okay because we do not want your dog to get tired of playing this game. 


If you haven't already, read the first lesson of  "Getting Started" and the Scent Articles  continue as instructed after the overview.


This lesson can be done indoors or outside, with a dog on leash or loose depending on the dog and where you want to practice. I often start this lesson indoors with a loose dog and a child playing hide and seek for the first few weeks.

These guidelines should be followed indoors as well as outdoors for the best results.


Start with a person your dog knows and only do this lesson with that person 2 to 4 times each session once or twice a week. 

After 2 weeks, if your dog is finding the person fairly easily then you can change people and scent articles and only then use a different person. If you change people or scents to early your dog could get confused and lose interest. 


If your dog ever loses interest then stop and play with them for a few minutes. Then do the lesson again step by step so your dog understands. The steps for this lesson will be posted on a separate page for easy reference.


Overview


Hold your dog by its collar as the person slowly runs and waves at the dog to a hiding place that is easy to find and only one turn away. 

Hold the scent article, the person's sock, to your dog's nose, say "Smell" and then turn your dog loose and say "Find so and so" use the person’s name, follow your dog to the person. More about the scent article below.

Your dog, no matter what age will attempt to find them.

If the dog does not start searching for anything and only stands there looking at you to find the person then encourage the dog to go with you and show the dog with excitement how fun it is to find the person. 


When you and your dog find the person, praise, praise, praise by you and have the person shower this dog with attention. Your dog will be so happy to do this again, you'll hardly be able to hold him.

Repeat the lesson a few times each day.

"Find It " continue on with this in mind..

It's okay for the hidden person to give your dog a treat if your dog is more inclined to work for food then love as long as you remember to replace the food with love in a few lessons.

Read lesson 6 " Making Trails" ( in the menu above you will find a lesson links page to this and all the lessons) to learn how the person should hide and how your dog will find them before your person hides to often. The dog can be easily confused and refuse to work if you ask them to think to hard at first or do to complex of a trail.


If you dog ever refuses to find a hiding person, go back to previous lessons and retrain until the dog is more confident and understands exactly what you are asking. Some dogs catch onto finding people right away and others take a little more encouragement.

Your dog must always find the person. 

Important

After your dog has found the hidden person a few times, sometimes with help from the person calling out or making a noise then have the person be very quite so the dog learns to work people who are unconscious.

Even if your dog passes a hidden person let the dog go on until it stops on its own to turn around, they usually will turn around and find the person if given the time to move out of the air scent cloud they are working. This scent cloud can be far from the person and the dog has to learn to work out the scent cloud for later search experiences. 

 Never let the dog think it has not accomplished this and it will always lead you to them in a real life emergency. You must learn to Trust your dog's natural ability to find its pack.

Your dog is always right.

If he led you to a blanket and then goes to the closet to find the person, then the person has at one point or another touched this blanket.

Period.

Trust your dog and follow him and he will lead the way. After all, didn't you notice him standing there next to you wondering how he can help?

After a couple of weeks of playing hide and seek inside and outside, you can have the person stay hidden for a longer amount of time.

Start with the person hiding for 3- 5 minutes, then 10 minutes, gradually go up to 30 minutes. 


Once your dog finds a person who has been hidden 30 minutes, you can have the person hide without your dog seeing the person run away to hide. Give the dog the scent article, say "smell" and "Find 'em" the dog will go find the person using only the sock and trail left by the subject. More on this in later lessons. (look at the lessons link page above)

Always praise.  


Even if you had to lead the novice dog to the person. 


Never ever scold the dog during this training or he won't want to help you. 
This is one area of training we can not make a dog do, they can refuse and you don't want them to do that !

If you ever have to call in a missing person's report, give the officer in charge your frozen scent article to use with the police or search dogs. They will be impressed that you knew this helpful clue in the investigation and it will save valuable time.

Take the scent articles with you when the family goes camping or on hikes, one never knows when the scent article may come in handy. Don't forget to take your dog camping with you; they could be a life saver if anyone wanders away from camp.

Remember your dog has lived with you a long time, he knows each family member's name so ask him to find them by name, and then if the sock isn't available he can still help you in real life disasters.

Make sure nobody else has touched the sock (scent article) except the person the sock belongs to. This means you too. Pick the sock up using a stick or hanger and place in a Freezer bag by itself. Use one scent bag for each person. Do Not combine two scents.

During the first 2 weeks of training, use only one person a day for your dog to find or the dog may get confused. Once he has the idea, you can change scent articles and people in the next lesson.

 Never ever scold the dog during this training or he won't want to help you and this is one area of training we can not make a dog do, they can refuse and you don't want that.

A scenting dog is not trained by you, they do this naturally. Do not expect them to do so just because you tell them to.

Actually the dog is already scenting and following each new scent that comes their way. 

All you have to do is watch and follow the dog. This is especially apparent during an emergency. Never forget your dog’s unique scenting abilities or their abilities to find their pack members. 

Practice makes Perfect..use the Training Goal Page to judge your progress.


Be careful to avoid K9 Burn Out. ( read the article in the lessons page) 

Just like people who overwork, dogs can experience "Burn Out" and not feel up to preforming the job. 


If your dog loses interest then take a few weeks break and go back to training only one day a week at the most. Working actual tracking courses like discussed above every two weeks works well for most dogs. 


If some dogs are worked to often the fun goes out of the game for them, so the less often they get the chance to play or hunt the more excited they get when the hunt is on again.

Once your dog gets the idea and is finding people you can ask the person to hide for longer time, gradually make the time longer until you can have the person take a walk the night before and ask the dog to follow the person's scent trail the next morning.

For instance, the person is a friend or a child goes to spend the night at a friends, they leave your home the night before to walk to their home and the next morning before people have walked on the same path have your dog smell the person's scent article and start at the doorway to follow the scent trail to the friend's house...Praise the dog well, make this a very happy reunion and your dog will find them every time! 

Good Luck! 

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Lesson 25: Area Search Training

Lesson 25

Area Search Training

Teaching your dog to do an Area Search

Now that you’ve learned the fundamentals of scent and how a tracking dog works you can train your dog to do an area search when the LKL (Last Known Location) of a person is not known.

You might have wondered when you read the tracking dog lessons, how do you start your dog on tracking a person if you do not know where the person was last standing or sitting?

This is where air scenting and area search can play an important part in tracking a person who is missing. Not only then but when you do not know for sure or from where they entered or even if they are in an area or building.  Sending a dog in to clear the area or building saves time.

You do not have to train your family dog to do tracking or trailing in order for the dog to do an area search. You can use this lesson to train your dog to only do air scenting without any tracking experience.

Many detection dogs that air scent or area search work off a leash to cover more ground. Obedience training and good response to your directions while off leash will help you and your dog work together better while doing detection or air scenting.

However, if your dog does not work well off a leash you can still train on a leash. The lesson is the same.

There are two methods you can use to train your dog for air scenting.

Hide and Seek Method

The Hide and Seek Method trains your dog to do air scenting and area searches without a scent article. You have your helper person hide from your dog in an open area then you ask your dog to search the area.

Your dog may or may not follow the person’s foot print trail; your dog’s nose may or may not go to the ground. Most often your dog’s nose will be held high seeking the scent in the air.

At first, the best place to train is in an open field with high grass. Have the person run off with the dog watching. The person sits down in the grass and holds still. You release your dog or run with your dog on leash asking your dog to find them.

Follow the dog, if the dog does not go then have the person make a noise and you tell your dog to find it again.

Continue making noise or calling the dog until the dog gets the idea.

Praise your dog in big ways and they will remember what to do next time.

This can be done indoors with family members running off to hide behind doors then asking your dog to find them. The dog usually will consider this a great game to play and learn quickly that when you say “find them” somebody is hiding.

The dog gets praise or a treat upon finding the person and will look over and over again until every person in the area is found.

The Second method is the Toy Method.

The toy method is used to teach a dog to find any live human scent or a particular scent such as the scent of a bomb, drugs or a cadaver (dead person). A toy the dog enjoys playing with is usually associated with that specific scent.

Police dogs and bomb detection dogs are generally chosen for training if they have a high play drive and desire to play ball or chase an object because this makes training the dog easier, saves time and funds.

If your dog loves to play with a toy then follow the instructions below to train your dog using the toy method of training.

If your dog does not care to chase a ball or toy then use the hide and seek instructions.

Toy Method 

In order for your dog to learn what scent you want them to find you have to associate the scent with something they enjoy, like a toy. In order to do this you have to make the toy smell like the scent first.

The toy has to be saturated in the scent of what you wish to find. The dog actually looks for the toy and not the person, drug or bomb. The dog is thinking about the toy and the play reward afterwards.

To make your dog’s toy smell like live human scent or one of your family members you will place your dog’s training toy in a sealed container with clothing from the person.

If you want your dog to find any live human scent then you can mix different people’s objects but if you want your dog to find a person by name then use only that person’s clothing. Dirty socks and hats work great.

Set the sealed container to soak up scent in a warm, dark place for 2 weeks. The store it in a freezer for future use.

When you are not using the toy for training, keep the toy in the sealed container or the toy will be contaminated with other scents. Only you can touch this toy. Do not let anybody else touch this toy.

Your dog can have other toys to play with; this toy is a training toy only.

After your dog has learned one person’s scent by name because you always used the name when asking your dog to search  then you can add another person to your dog’s memory by doing the lessons with the other person’s scented toy and using the person’s name. Be careful not to confuse your dog by asking them to find more then one or two people a day.

Once the toy is saturated with the scent you will hide the toy and ask your dog to find the toy. The dog naturally uses its nose to find the toy consequently finding the scent you asked for. You play with your dog with the toy as a reward.

After multiple lessons or play sessions of finding the scented toy, the toy is replaced by the person or object (drug or bomb smell) of scent the toy has been saturated with. The dog is asked to find the toy and uses its nose to find its toy thinking of the play afterwards.

When the dog finds the scent they find the person. You, the handler, have carried a toy to reward your dog with a play session after they find the person. An unscented toy is fine for reward and play, you can save the scented toy for training or to use if you do not have a person to hide.

The person who hides should carry a toy to play with the dog too. Especially if the dog is not on a leash because your dog will reach the person before you do and you want the dog rewarded as soon as possible upon reaching the person.

You can hide objects from the person who scent you are working if the person is not available to hide. This works well when you age the search area for training in case a person is missing for hours or days.

The toy and person can be hidden indoors and outdoors where you can play with your dog. A variety of locations and settings will teach you and your dog what to expect in different situations.


You do not have to make a training course as we did in the tracking and trailing lessons but doing so will make the training easier for you and build your confidence in your dog's ability.

You simply have a person run or walk swiftly away from you and your dog to hide then turn your dog loose or follow on a leash until you find the person.

At first, do this in a small area, making the area larger as you learn more.

At first, when the person runs to hide they keep your dog’s attention until they are out of sight.

Your dog’s nose will be high in the air or working the ground as they follow the person in pursuit. If you make this fun and enticing most dogs love this game.

Some dogs are hard starters and need more excitement to get going. Food treats might help if you have an older dog that is not interesting in chasing anybody. By using a command your dog is learning to do as you ask and not to chase but to follow.

After the first few sessions, once your dog has the idea, the person will walk to hide and hide without your dog watching. You do the lesson the same, tell your dog to find them and follow your dog. If your dog does not go then the person comes out of hiding to entice the dog until the dog does go to look.

With both methods, once your dog is finding the person, you will age the area after a person or object is hidden beginning with a 10 minute wait to begin the search then adding 15 minutes after a few sessions until your dog can find an object or person who is hidden 24 hours in different locations.

Be sure and read aging the training course to learn how your dog can find a person who is missing for days.

Always allow your dog to use its natural scenting ability to find the person. When your dog finds the person, play with your dog like they are the best dog in the world.
 
Cadaver Scent will be discussed in the next lesson.

Miss Lilly 

Be sure to read Lesson 24 before you do this lesson.