Bloodhounds...

[sc_rufctr]

Damn these dogs are impressive at doing their job.

I was watching Myth busters the other night and the did a re visit of Bloodhounds and how to beat them episode... I thought their testing methods were very sound.

They tried using a hunting suit and then a sealed suit so as to not to leave a scent.
Adam showered and used some personal cleaning products that were designed be used by hunters to remove the smell of their bodies.
None of this seemed to make any difference to the dog.

Even walking down a small river didn't seem to make any difference. That dog had no problems finding Adam.

The only thing that came close to beating the Bloodhound was having 5 guys lined up in a field.
They simply let the dog sniff a shirt and set him off to do his job. The dog went to the guy who owned the shirt first but was a bit vague with the indication so he went to the other 4 one by one.

You gotta give it to these dogs. With all of our technology we have nothing that even approaches their level of skill.

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So how would you evade a bloodhound?

What if you calmly walked away? Not running but walked so you didn't break a sweat and left virtually no trail fort the dog to follow???

Has anybody seen these dogs work first hand?

The movie Cool hand Luke has a classic bloodhound chase scene were Paul Newman used all sorts of methods to try and beat these dogs.
Crossing fences, spreading pepper on the trails etc. All of these methods were debunked by the first Mythbusters Bloodhound episode.

At the end of the scene Paul Newman's character had managed run one of the dogs to death.
But to actually achieve this in real life you would have to run many many miles and stay ahead of the dogs... Sounds almost impossible to me.

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Locally... I do support work for the local Air Port. They have a sniffer dog as part of their security team. I don't want to say what he's trained to find but I've seen him in action and he's something else.
They had over 100 suitcases lined up for him to sniff and it took him about 30 seconds to find a suit case that contained the substance he's trained to find.
When they opened the suit case the substance was wrapped and well hidden within.

Apparently this dog has a bounty on his head although the claim was made years ago and nothing has ever happened.

[Jagshund]

Proper seasoning of a suit can virtually defeat dogs via smell and sight but wearing them full time becomes uncomfortable; also, a wife would probably not be too keen on her man dragging a jute-covered suit coated with matted-scat and piss inside the house. And after putting my hounds through the ringer I'm convinced that dog are not always at the top of their game.

[aigel]

I have spent significant time behind big game hounds and also blood tracking dogs, some of them my own. It is very fascinating. The dogs are direct descendants of the wolf, so it isn't terribly surprising that they can track well, it isn't a taught behavior ...

What you have to understand is that the dog follows a multitude of signals and puts them together to get the whole story - it is not all the scent of the animal. Experienced dogs will look for physical imprints of tracks and follow them with their eyes. They also do not need scent of the animal or human they follow to be present at all times - the ground and plant life is upset and squished by footprints themselves and this scent brought out is enough for the dog to follow. All it needs is a whiff every now and then to confirm it is following the right track. Literally a few molecules will suffice. Don't forget that any animal and human sheds pieces of skin and coat at all times ...

Dogs generally are able to also tell if they are going the right direction. They can age a track and will turn around if they notice that it is getting colder instead of hotter in the direction they are going. Smells are made up from substances of different volatility - the more volatile smell component will evaporate first - making the track smell older with time.

Another component you don't see is that the dogs can lose a track for quite some time. If they do, they generally range out from where they smelled it last and try to pick it up again, returning to the spot they smelled it last frequently. This is how they can easily get across any hurdle like someone walking in a river for a couple hundred yards or the track going across a very sunny area where it evaporated out more quickly.

Finally one thing I see a lot is that the dogs pick up the smell not from the foot track rather than the brush and tips of grass. These rub against the body of the animal / human which carries a lot more smell than the feet.

Cheers,

George

[sc_rufctr]

George

Thanks for the great info but...

"What if you calmly walked away? Not running but walked so you didn't break a sweat and left virtually no trail fort the dog to follow???"

Could this work? The reason I ask is because I was taught this during my basic training in the Army.

[aigel]

Peter,

You would still upset the ground and the plant life with your feet and rub against grass and brush. You certainly would leave less scent than when running full bore breaking a sweat and this would help the track to age faster. If it is fresh (less than 12 h), you are hosed either way if a good set of hounds is on your track.

For example here in the Western US cougars are often pursued with big game hounds. A cat has to be one of the smoothest and most quietly moving mammals out there. Successfully following a 12-24 hour old cougar track and connecting with the animal in cold weather is very common.

George