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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe Blood Hound
How could they not track a bleeding man??? Or maybe he wasn't bleeding?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloodhound
Human Trailing
There are many accounts of bloodhounds successfully following trails many hours, and even several days, old,[25][26] the record being of a family found dead in Oregon, in 1954, over 330 hours after they had gone missing.[11] The bloodhound is generally used to follow the individual scent of a fugitive or lost person, taking the scent from a scent article something the quarry is known to have touched, which could be an item of clothing, a car seat, an identified footprint etc.[44][25] Many bloodhounds will follow the drift of scent a good distance away from the actual footsteps of the quarry, which can enable them to cut corners and reach the end of the trail more quickly. In America, sticking close to the footsteps is called tracking, while the freer method is known as trailing (in the UK, hunting), and is held to reflect the bloodhounds concentration on the individual human scent, rather than that of, say, vegetation crushed by the feet of the quarry.[45][44] Having lost a scent, a good bloodhound will stubbornly cast about for long periods, if necessary, in order to recover it.[18][10][25] The bloodhound is handled on a tracking harness, which has a metal ring above the shoulders, to which a leash is attached, so that the hounds neck is not jerked up when the leash becomes taut, as it would with a collar. The leash is at least long enough to allow the hound to cross freely in front of the handler, some handlers preferring quite a short leash, giving better communication with the hound, others liking something longer, maybe twenty or thirty feet.[44]
hedgehog
(36,286 posts)I imagine they are trained to attack on command and/or to sniff out drugs, not people. For tracking purposes, a pack of beagles would have been better!
Chico Man
(3,001 posts)But a pack of hounds seems like it could have prevented the door-to-door stuff and brought the issue to resolution much quicker.
They had the car he was driving, they knew the direction he fled.
hedgehog
(36,286 posts)They might have done well to bring in rescue dogs which are trained to track, but events moved so quickly that that didn't happen.
bettyellen
(47,209 posts)explosives. They weren't sure he was shot, but they KNEW he'd been handling explosives.
Chico Man
(3,001 posts)And there are several around Boston.
bettyellen
(47,209 posts)someone who was handling explosives.
Chico Man
(3,001 posts)For escapees. Or maybe I've watched Shawshank Redemption too many times.
hedgehog
(36,286 posts)I suspect the use of tracking dogs never came up in practice scenarios, so events moved too fast to bring them in . Add in the problem of tracking one person among the thousands in a city, as opposed to one person cross country.
Chico Man
(3,001 posts)At least, hopefully this is how the practice it in the future. With all the technology, sometimes they should still go back to basics, and be ready for the possibility.
hedgehog
(36,286 posts)We can overspend as much on domestic security as against foreign invasion.
byeya
(2,842 posts)the most part.
I imagine a bloodhound could be trained to track blood, they do have the keenest noses as far as I know.
Chico Man
(3,001 posts)Plenty of dogs are trained to track wounded animals. In this case the animal in question is human.
byeya
(2,842 posts)odors.
It's expensive for a law enforcement agency to buy train and pay for a dedicated handler who is also an officer. To get the most return on their investment, LE agencies usually opt for a scent trained dog because it's rare to have a bleeding individual to search for. And, the bleeding individual also leaves a human scent for the dog.
FSogol
(45,357 posts)Real life does not equal tv programming.
Not sure what you mean?
This dog is famed for its ability to discern human odors even days later, over great distances, even across water. Its extraordinarily keen sense of smell is combined with a strong and tenacious tracking instinct, producing the ideal scent hound, and it is used by police and law enforcement all over the world to track escaped prisoners, missing people, lost children and lost pets.
FSogol
(45,357 posts)Chico Man
(3,001 posts)Or are you just trying to act smart?
This dog is famed for its ability to discern human odors even days later, over great distances, even across water. Its extraordinarily keen sense of smell is combined with a strong and tenacious tracking instinct, producing the ideal scent hound, and it is used by police and law enforcement all over the world to track escaped prisoners, missing people, lost children and lost pets.
FSogol
(45,357 posts)Don't you think if cartoon (or prison movie) bloodhounds worked in these situation, they would have some?
I was wondering why didn't they? They had the car, they had the general direction he was going... if he was bleeding it seems like they should have been able to pick up a trail (of blood, or perhaps even explosive scent).
I wasn't assuming I had any answer, just was wondering what people thought of that. And apparently, you think I watched too much TV as a child, so I guess I'll draw my own conclusions.
byeya
(2,842 posts)hounds are very impressive. It's my understanding that they still have to be trained to a specific type of tracking, be it scenting, detecting explosives or untaxed whiskey or blood. The bloodhounds that I assisted were human scent trained. I think that even if that person were bleeding, the dog would be following the body scent and not the blood.
Even bloodhounds need extensive training.
Chico Man
(3,001 posts)This makes sense, I appreciate your insight.
byeya
(2,842 posts)handler often needs ready assistance and I fulfilled that job many times. I also was a friend of a bloodhound owner/officer who was a tracker(along with his bloodhound obviously) and I asked questions and these were the answers I got.