In basic level of Mantracking Classes I lead for Hull’s Tracking School, but also during workshops at Gatherings and Festivals, people often ask me if K9 and drones can represent a real – and consistent – aid to Trackers.
As in all the skills we have traded from the past, the addition of new “elements” to the tradition have some pros and cons. In this article we will disclose how and why they can either accelerate either slow down the efforts of the Trackers.
A foreword is more than legit: the art of Tracking has quite remained stick to her very own rules in thousands and thousands of years. Nothing seems to have really changed within her Nature since Primitive Era, as mentioned in my previous articles. Nowadays we learn how to track exactly in the same manner primordial men did, applying the equal level of awareness, observation, and, consequently, deduction based on what we see on the ground. We collect data from the tracks literally in the same way Indian Scouts did.: that is nuts and bolts.
So, why should we need additional aid in reading and following tracks?
The very essence of this answer lays down in one single word: acceleration. Simple truth.
Tracking, as lot of you may know, requires patience, dedication, shrewdness and.. time. Sometimes, a lot of it, especially if you are tracking on tough terrains, highly contaminated by the presence of other human, animal tracks, even tire tread evidence. Saying that, in these specific circumstances any additional help to cut the “time-distance” gap between you and the fugitive, or the missing person/s, means making the difference. Think, for example, of Search and Rescue volunteers: each minute counts. Trackers can save lives, but what if they find themselves in losing pretty often the trackline, considering the situation depicted above?
So, here comes the K9 as a remarkable protagonist, you might say. Highly trained dogs can find – and follow – even 2 days old (and more) tracks. They have been employed in that way before the famous Tracking Units in Vietnam, from SAR missions to Tactical scenarios, till Conservation projects. Let me mention you that some of our Rangers from Conservation Rangers Operations Worldwide have actually worked with K9 Units, being amazed by the responsiveness and the speed dogs demonstrated in locating and stopping poachers. This happens quite regularly in South Africa, for example, but also in Congo (Virunga National Park), Zimbabwe. The most common breeds are Malinois, Boerboel, Weimareiner.
Talking about SAR, I have personally taken part to a demo which inlvolved a “skilled” Bloodhound, back in Spring 2019. I have that day stuck in my mind: it was a pretty sunny morning with a quite total absence of wind. The dog took very few minutes to localize the person who played to be lost in a very contaminated scenario. The handler – who happened to be also the brewer, as often occurs! – was in equal manner very proud of his dog, and, in the same time, so dull towards the art of Tracking, He wanted to hear no reason why this skill could get benefits to his local SAR team.
Can’t hide you how I felt really frustrated as I truly believe that “unity makes strenght”, especially if you are committed to save lives. On my way back, I did a small report to Mike Hull, my mentor, who has gained a lot of experience with K9 Handlers: “Handlers rely totally on the K9 to do all the work while they should be assisting and setting them up for success.
To get a dog started they need a beginning point and hope for a scent article. Often that is not available.By teaching them to identify size, type and pattern of quarries shoe they can insure the right scent trail is that of their quarry.
By circling the contaminated area without the canine and locating sign exiting the area they can then lead the dog to that line of sign and deploy the canine on it and the K9 will identify with that specific scent.“.
A good friend of mine, Helene Jordan-Dodge, was a major contributor to and influential force for the Virginia search and rescue community for more than twenty-five years. She actually confirmed me Mike’s consideration on the role of K9 during rescue activities: combining the use of dogs with some solid tracking skills can’t be bad when it comes to locate missing subjects.
Thus, considering the pros, no doubts canine are faster than humans in following the trail, thanks to their incredible sensitive sense of smell: “[…] they possess up to 300 million olfactory receptors in their noses, compared to about six million in us. And the part of a dog’s brain that is devoted to analyzing smells is, proportionally speaking, 40 times greater than ours […]” (www.pbs.org)
Their ability in identifying the right tracks is certainlty more immediate than ours.
So, what about the cons?
They can fail if catched up in the following, negative conditions:
- no scent available
- very strong windy day/s
- heavy storms
- if the trackline is extremely old
All the above mentioned scenarios, infact, can cause a loss of their smell (and focus). Any handler should be extremely familiar with his canine. That’s why is of utter importance, for the handler, not only to be able to reckon that, but also to start looking for clues besides the performance of the dog, in order to collect data from the terrain and apply his/her Tracking skill in the heat of locating pursuit.
“We have two VA Game Wardens who are canine handlers and tracking instructors who make triple the cases than all the other canine handlers in their department because they do not rely totally for the dogs to do all the work.”
David Michael Hull
About The Author
Article by Kyt Lyn Walken. Official Representative and Instructor for Hull’s Tracking School and Certified Conservation Ranger for the NGO Conservation Rangers Operations Worldwide.
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