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Tracking Dogs

Chareen

Thinker
C
Joined
Aug 7, 2003
Messages
237
The other day I had a discussion with a friend in which I argued that bloodhound dogs could track the scent of an abductee taken in an automobile by catching the scent particles that have traveled through the exhaust. He, of course, doesn't believe me and would like to see documentation on the subject. I cannot seem to find any specific documentation of this on the Internet, though I've seen specials on TV about the subject.

Does anyone know about this? Can anyone point me in the direction to prove, or disprove my argument?
 
It doesn't make much intuitive sense, as the exhaust doesn't pass through the interior or the boot of the car so it's difficult to see how the abductee's scent would get into the exhaust system.
 
The abductee.

Perhaps it was the air being cycled by the airconditioner? Doesn't it take are from the interior and cycle it out of the car?
 
I've just done a quick search and come up with one website after another refuting the notion that bloodhounds are in any way exceptional tracking dogs when compared to other utility breeds. All of the websites I've come across so far dismiss the notion of bloodhounds being able to track people who have left the scene by car (voluntarily or otherwise) and point out that bloodhaounds are ground-sniffers not air-sniffers.

I'll keep searching.
 
Factoids I seem to have absorbed about dogs -

1. Their sense of smell is about 4,000 times better than ours.
2. The breed with the best "nose" is the otterhound.

So now I've got to go and check these out, I suppose.

BTW - in the UK the police and customs etc use various breeds of gundogs, mainly spaniels and labradors, for sniffing out drugs and explosives.
 
Chareen said:
The other day I had a discussion with a friend in which I argued that bloodhound dogs could track the scent of an abductee taken in an automobile by catching the scent particles that have traveled through the exhaust. He, of course, doesn't believe me and would like to see documentation on the subject. I cannot seem to find any specific documentation of this on the Internet, though I've seen specials on TV about the subject.

Does anyone know about this? Can anyone point me in the direction to prove, or disprove my argument?
Click to expand...

I do not think that sort of thing is possible.

While Bloodhounds do have a very, very highly developed sense of smell and they have often proven useful in tracking down escaped convicts, missing persons, and such, I do not think there has ever been one case of a person being tracked who has been riding in a car.
 
Crossbow - it's Chareen who's making this claim.

Chareen,

I found a description of an experiment with bloodhounds where a car was used to take transport the trail makers out of the way once they had finished - reading between the lines the dogs couldn't track the people in the car.

Link
 
Dragon said:
Crossbow - it's Chareen who's making this claim.

Chareen,

I found a description of an experiment with bloodhounds where a car was used to take transport the trail makers out of the way once they had finished - reading between the lines the dogs couldn't track the people in the car.

Link
Click to expand...
Ooops!

My bad and you are right! Thanks for the correction and I corrected the post accordingly.
 
Well, thanks everyone.

I know that I saw it on TLC or Discovery or something several months ago, but I can find nothing to back up the statement. It seems unlikely to me too, but it was a big deal on the program about how they tracked down some little girl who was abducted. I wonder if this is something that maybe has only been done a couple of times, therefore there isn't much information on it. Or the Discovery network has taken to fascist lies.
 
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