As stated in the “Scent” page on our site, every person has a unique scent, to the exclusion of all other people, and this scent is deposited constantly as we go about our daily routines.
The mantrailing team takes advantage of this fact to follow this microscopic evidence left behind by the missing person.
The trailing K9/handler team will travel to the currently accepted Last Known Point (LKP). This will be a location where the missing person was most recently known to have been, based on the investigation to this point.
Starting a Trail
Handlers use a variety of techniques to start a trail. To the observer, two handlers starting the same trail may appear to take a dramatically different series of actions. This doesn’t mean that one technique is superior to another, just that that handler has found through experience that a particular technique give the best results with a particular dog. All are designed to help the dog and handler get a good start, which is essential to successfully following the trail.
Regardless of the technique used, the objectives are:
- Securing the dog to safely work the trail.
- Letting the dog get an overall scent inventory of the immediate area.
- Presenting the scent article to the dog.
- Signaling to the dog that it’s time to work.
The dog will usually briefly cast about with their nose to the ground to find the scent. Once they have located the desired scent, the team will start confidently following the trail. This is often referred to as the missing person’s “direction of travel.”
Sometimes there is no trail present, which can happen for a number of reasons. In the case of a “no trail,” the dog will let the handler know through their body language that there is nothing to follow from this start point.
Tracking vs. Trailing
People often use the terms tracking and trailing interchangeably, but there actually is a difference between the two, which can be very obvious along the trail.
Tracking dogs will typically keep their noses almost exclusively on the ground, following the scent trail very closely. A trailing dog will work a little higher, picking up scent from the ground but also the surrounding vegetation, the wall of a building, pavement or gravel, or anywhere else the scent can collect.
A following observer will probably notice that most dogs use both methods in combination to follow the subject’s trail.
Occasionally a trailing dog may overshoot a turn that the missing person made. Some dogs will self-correct, but if not the handler can usually tell this has happened by reading the dog’s body language or noticing a difference in the feel of the leash. The handler will back up to the last place the dog was confidently moving on the trail and let them pick it up again.
End of the Trail
As the dog gets closer to the missing person, they may even begin air scenting to home in on the subject.
When the dog arrives at the missing person, they will identify the subject by performing a “Trained Final Response.” This is a behavior that has been reinforced throughout the dog’s training to indicate to the handler that this is the person they have been trailing. The location is marked and the information will be relayed back to the Incident Command Post so that the missing person can be safely recovered.
On the other hand, a trail may end but the missing person is not there. Maybe the person was picked up by a vehicle or perhaps the scent trail was destroyed by something in the environment or some event that took place after the missing person passed through. If this happens, the dog will let the handler know through their body language that there is nothing to follow beyond this point. If so, the location will be marked and the information will be relayed back to the Incident Command Post as a clue to be investigated further.
Additional trails may be attempted and the search will continue until the missing person is located and recovered or the search is suspended until further investigation can provide additional clues with which to work .
See Also…
Watch Lily and Brian work a trail (from the handler’s point of view) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSXFPqEC5l4. Then check out the aerial view of the same trail at https://youtu.be/84skD2n6ltw.
There is a very good article that describes mantrailing (as a sport) in deeper detail on www.mantrailinguk.com.