A trailing dog.

Thirteen month old Riley is being trained as a general purpose search dog for both trailing and cadaver.

A trailing dog is a dog trained to follow where someone has walked..

We use an uncontaminated scent article ( generally something the person has worn and no one else has physically touched)

What is scent...rafts... dead skin cells we shead constantly, this is what the dog follows..

We always start the dog at the definate LPS (last point seen)

A trained trailing dog will give us the direction the person walked in..

Where they went..they will tell you where a trail has ended..ie the person entred a vehical..

They can save lives..

It's vital that all training is carried out correctly from day one.

It has to be fun and rewarding for the dog with no pressure put on them.

Their are many factors to take into concideration when going out on a search..

Environmental contamination:

The wind blows the rafts

Anyone/anything that has walked on the scent will carry it away with them... the same for vehical tyres..

Trainee GP trailing/cadaver dog k9 Riley,

12 month old springer girl.

She completed a fantastic training trail today.

Two people left a public house at 12 am Saturday night and walked 2.7k.

The trail age was 35 hours long.

Two people walking together is more complicated for the dog.

You only use one of the persons scent articles and make sure they are at the end of the training trail to give the dog massive praise and rewards (this is what they are working for...their reward)

The challenges:

The trail was 2.4k long.

The age of the trail due to contamination.

The wind blowing the scent away.

Where we started was at a pub door and their's also a busy take away there.

We passed a secondary school and a petrol station..lots of traffic and foot traffic ect..

Environmental education:

Riley stopped at unusual piers with big ball shapes on top and had a bark at them..

They didn't move 😅

A spooky barrell along the road.

Young cattle in a field.

The dog needs to look and learn with no pressure or time pressure on them so they can gain confidence and grow.

Thank you for taking the time to read.

Please spread the word as the more people who have an understanding of how vital dogs are in this roll..

They will be utilised more..

All K9 team training is supported by

K9 Detect & Find Ireland.