There are 3 different ways to train a dog to
locate a person.
Tracking, Trailing, and Airscent.
Tracking is where a dog follows the footprints of a person, right where they walked. AKC and other working dogs clubs have Tracking events where a dog can be tested for a title in Tracking.
Trailing is very similar to tracking, but it is not so controlled. Generally, dogs work with their heads higher when trailing a person, but still close to the ground. They follow the rafts of skin each of us slough off and use that as a trail to follow. These dogs follows the scent where a person walked, but not specifically a footprint. Bloodhounds are best known for trailing, but many other breeds can do this as well. Training a trailing dog is one of the hardest things to do. It takes much more time to train and maintain a good trailing dog, than an Airscent dog. Why would this be the case? Because trailing dogs use scent discrimination and are usually worked in urban areas, where scent contamination is everywhere. Think about having to find a trail that is 4 days old, and follow it to the source after 100s of other people have crossed or walked on that trail. Mind boggling that a dog can do that, but they can, with correct training and dedication. Both Tracking and Trailing dogs are usually worked on leash.
| Airscent is a totally different way to train a dog to find people than the above mentioned. You don't follow a trail or a track. You are give a search area and are asked to "clear" it. Depending on wind and weather, you set up a path to search, crossing the wind at a 90 degree angle. The dog is looking for a scent of that person on the WIND, not the ground. They work with their heads up in the air, checking for the smell of a person. You try to work the area in such a way to help your dog find the scent quickly, leading you to the person much faster than a Tracking or Trailing dog would. |
(Foreground-from left to right- Merlot/Becky, Jester/Janet, Darcy/Scully-behind her, Brent |
Airscent dogs can cover large areas in a small amount of time, usually work off leash, and will generally be trained to go into the lost person, return to the handler, and take the handler to the lost person (this is called a re-find). An Airscent dog can be trained to work both Live or Cadaver problems, on land and water.
Airscent is what the majority of the dogs in our group work, including my boy, Merlot.
