I will tell you right now, I never stop learning. I cant. My dogs make sure I stay behind the curve. And just to make things more confusing, be aware that I also work mantrailing dogs. In addition to my own, Ive helped train dozens of them across a variety of breeds. And yes, I would be considered an expert in them too. Youve never indicated that you have had or worked a search dog. If this is accurate then what I see happening is that you are reading a great deal but lack the experience to put it into context. There are times when the dog does something and I dont know why. Then I read something and go Aha! thats why
. On the flip side I can read a paper and scratch my head in confusion but then I see the dog put the words into action and suddenly it all makes sense. You need both sides to make the whole.
First, I need to lay some groundwork and basic explanations so that other readers can understand what Im about to explain. Be aware that I am over-simplifying everything.
Mantrailing dogs are dogs taught to follow the scent of a specific human to the exclusion of all others. These dogs use a variety of odors to accomplish this. These odors can depend upon race, age, diet, chemicals ingested or applied topically, be generated: from the sebaceous skin glands, vapor pressure, eccrine and apocrine glands, skin cells, bacteria by-products on the skin (which in turn is sloughed off with the dead skin cells), and so-forth-and-so-on. Humans are shedding this odor and topical material constantly. Bathing can actually increase scent production due to temporary body temperature increase. Humans are nothing but a walking scent stick leaving behind them a cloud of skin dust and oil.
Sapphire, what you are confusing is the odor of the dead skin cells or skin rafts that are sloughed off by the living body during the normal skin rejuvenation process and are utilized by trailing dogs to assist them in following their subject. HRD dogs to define their human decomposition scent do not use these skin cells. Trailing dogs have their decomp scent. Cadaver dogs have their decomp scent. The two are not the same even though both odors are degrading human smells and the same chemicals can be present in both. The difference is learnt during training. And just to make things even more confusing, I can have a person take a walk. Along that path, I can lay out some HR material. Using anything that person has touched or handled, a trailing dog will follow that human using the dead skin cells, lipids, glandular secretions, etc - ignoring the HR material. Bring that same dog back, give him the command to find HR material and that same dog will ignore the trail of human skin cells, lipids, and glandular secretions and only work to locate HR odor.
Handlers in the U.S. are fortunate in that we are allowed to have human material. Even then very, very few have or even have access to a whole or mostly whole body. Instead they train on bits and pieces or gauze pads saturated with decomp odor. Even though they only have a limited selection these dogs can and do locate whole bodies. And the reverse is true too. We call them cadaver dogs even though we dont train them on cadavers (a whole dead body). One individual trained their dog for its entire career solely on the tip of one finger. And most of our stuff is collected from the living. We troll and solicit friends, neighbors, and co-workers in our quest for human material. Placentas from childbirth, tooth extractions, uteruses from hysterectomies, limb removals for various reasons, traumatic amputations. These items are removed from living bodies. Once you remove these items from a living body, they will undergo a normal decomp process.
Dogs tell me that the odor of human decomp is unmistakable (and if you ever get the chance be sure to take a good sniff and Im sure you will agree). There is no way I would EVER mistake it for a living human. When the one site you listed from Australia mentioned that dogs do not react to the tissue of a living human as they would to a dead one. The tissue they are referring to are the minute skin cells that humans shed by the millions on a daily basis. These are the cells that mantrailing dogs associate with a living human. Even though these cells are dead and undergo their own decomp process, HRD dogs do not associate these cells with human tissue/death decomp. Britt is correct that HR odor is, at this time, considered a generic odor and not indicative of any particular dead person.
In the U.S., the term cadaver dog is a general term and not meant to be an inclusive description. While they originally earned their name assisting with locating whole bodies, their job has become more all encompassing and complex while retaining their original name. In the U.S., the terms cadaver dog, HR dog, HRD dog are considered synonymous and interchangeable. The Cadaver Dog Handbook defines a cadaver dog as one specifically trained to find human decomposition scent and alert their handlers to its location.
They are used in a variety of forensic contexts, including the search and discovery of human cadavers, body parts, or body fluids.
Also the term cadaver, as it relates to K9 scent work, is a general term. In the U.S., we interchange, without regard to the actual definition of the word, the terms cadaver, human remains, and odor of death. For you the term cadaver has a specific meaning. in certain aspects of the medical field. In the K9 world, we are less picky. Just because I say cadaver, Im not talking about a whole body.
What I would recommend that reading books and stuff off the internet is nice and certainly extends the range of knowledge in order to understand you really need to get out and see this stuff in action under actual field conditions. By doing it, seeing it, working with it, it helps to put into context what is actually occurring. It will also help you understand what component of degraded human scent each discipline is using to get the job done. Get out and get involved with your local SAR team. A couple of hundred hours later it will make a whole lot more sense.
The web site
www.pawsoflife.org has a lot of very in-depth scientific articles on decomp, odor in general, and other topics. Books I would recommend include:
K-9 Suspect Discrimination Schoon & Haak
The Police Textbook For Dog Handlers Tolhurst
The Cadaver Dog Handbook Rebmann, David, Sorg
Canine Ergonomics: the science of working dogs Helton
The Silent Witness: scent Tolhurst
Handbook of Applied Dog Training Behavior Lindsay
Practical Scent Dog Training Button
