Read Any Trailing

or Tracking Dog
by
Understanding Negative Indications

Kevin Kocher
&
Robin Monroe
Read any Trailing or Tracking Dog
Copyright by Kevin J. Kocher & Robin Monroe

Illustrations and design cover by Mehndra Singh

All rights reserved.

No part of this booklet may be reproduced in any manner

without written permission from author. Permission is
granted to copy the book in its entirety only.

For additional copies of this booklet:

Four Paw Press
6916 Harrison Road
F r e d e ri c k s b u r g , V A 2 2 4 0 7
Email: NBTImail@aol.com

Copyright  1999
 Dedicated
with Great Appreciation
to

a great mentor

Garland Gilman
For his patience and commitment
helping a dog handler
get a start

To
Opal
For her support and commitment
helping
bring it all together

Copyright  1999
 Introduction

T here are basic movements all dogs make while trailing or tracking.
When you become familiar with those basic movements you will find an
ability to understand or read your K-9. We hope this book will help you
accomplish that goal.

HOW DOGS WORK A TRAIL

U nderstanding how dogs work in their natural element is the key to

reading a dog on a track or a trail. K-9’s don’t follow a trail such as a
ball on a string. While tracking or trailing a dog must actually eliminate
directions of travel in order to follow his prey. Since all dogs go through this
elimination process when following prey, they show the same basic
movements. These movements are called “Negative Indications” and are
generally subtle.

Using and understanding the negative indicators will help you “read” your
dog and understand the information he is giving you. If you cannot
accurately read your dog, you will not be able to help him when he is faced
with sorting out a tough problem. Remember, when working a trailing dog,
you did not teach him “nose to the ground.” You are working as a team,
helping him focus on the scent you want him to follow, but letting him do it
naturally.

By learning to read his natural instinctive movements when trailing prey,

you will form a tighter bond with your dog and learn to trust the information
he gives you while working. A patrol K-9 trained to track will not show the
“negative indications” as frequently as a trailing K-9. However, at some
point the dog will revert to his natural instincts while sorting out a problem,
which is when you will see the movements, mentioned above. The
confidence you gain from understanding the information your dog is giving
you, will lead to greater success when trailing or tracking.

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PUTTING THE KNOWLEDGE TO WORK

s you become familiar with the negative indications, you will be able to
A keep a running map in your mind of where your subject is heading, and
know with each indication you still have the trail. When you stop seeing any
of these indications, while the dog is just moving straight ahead and not
giving any movements of purpose. This is a good indication the dog has lost
his focus and possibly the trail. The joy is, by remembering the point of your
last indications, you will know where you last had the trail. Thereby giving
you a point where you should be able to recover the trail.

Another skill you will learn is being able to eliminate directions of travel by
reading the negative indications. With each indication comes more
information about where the trail is not. The result is narrowing down the
direction the trail could have gone. For example, let’s say you close on a
subject who has entered a building and has not exited. Understanding your
dogs’ negative indications will eliminate the area around the building, letting
you know the subject has not exited and is still in the building. Although, we
all train for the dog to indicate on the door the subject used entering the
building, we can use what indications the dog gives naturally to finish the
trail without the “Door ID”.

THE PRE-SCENT

Thescent”startmethod
is the most critical part of any successful trail. Using the “pre-
is the most effective way to help dogs begin the right
direction of travel. A harness can be a helpful equipment cue to let the dog
know it is time to go to work. It is not actually the harness that cues the dog,
but the motions you go through putting the harness on. Realizing that, I have
found, that if I let the dog smell the scent article at the beginning of those
motions, the dog will look for the trail before I get the harness on. This gives
the dog time to sort out the direction of travel before giving him the
command to start working.

As you harness the dog, after pre-scenting, watch his head, he will normally
tell you which direction he needs to go by glancing that way before you ever
finish getting him harnessed. As you become familiar with this technique,
you will be able to recognize when your dog is not focused on the task in the
first place. Being able to recognize when your dog is not focused will help
determine how much credibility this start should be given. If the dog is not
focusing on the scent in the beginning, the odds are you are not going to run
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a successful trail. So you “pre-scent, harness, and scent,” once more before
giving the command to find.

Teaching a new dog this method is simple. Have someone entice the dog to
follow as they run away. Do not let the dog follow them. Walk the dog
around until you see him loose his focus on the runner. Then take the dog to
the starting area and face him away from the direction of the runner and use
the pre-scent technique. He will focus towards the direction of the trail.
After a couple of runaways, use a scent article start and notice the dogs’
head as he searches for the scent. Older more experienced dogs may head
check without having to do the training exercise.

The “pre-scent” head indications

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THE BEGINNING CIRCLE

T he beginning circle movement is a positive indication. In this movement

the dog is moving slightly, and does not appear to be working. Next you
will see him change direction in a quick tight circle. This movement comes
when he has sorted everything and is ready to commit to the trail. You will
see this a great deal at the beginning of a trail, unless, you use the pre-scent
method. Understand what the dog has just told you. He has eliminated the
direction of travel that he was facing before the turn and showed
commitment to the direction the trail has taken. As a handler, you know the
trail did not go the direction your dog was facing and that he has found the
trail.

When running tracks or trails there will be different times the dog will show
you a beginning circle other than the beginning of the trail. One example
might be when your dog has been running the fringe of a scent and comes
across the actual footsteps of the subject. The dog will start in one direction,
make a tight circle, and reverse directions to correctly follow the trail. This
movement alerts you to the same information regarding direction of the trail
and that the dog is firm on the trail. In another example, the dog has skipped
part of the track to cross a barrier such as a stretch of asphalt, and gives this
circle motion on the other side. At this point, you have recovered the trail
and the dog has eliminated at least one direction of travel. Reading this
negative indication will tell you at least two things, you have the trail and
you have eliminated direction of travel. Always remember the last negative
indication received from your dog to form a running map in your mind to the
direction the trail is headed. It is important to note that if you see this
indication with a change in animation in your dog, it is a good signal he has
gotten on the scent of an animal and needs to be checked.

The beginning circle

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THE TRAIL CIRCLE

Asthings;
the dog is running a trail and he makes a circle, it indicates one of two
he has lost the direction of the trail or the trail itself. Both are
negative indications. What is important is that the dog just told you he is still
focused on his job because a circle movement indicates he is still looking for
the scent. When your dog pulls out of the circle and moves in a direction out
side the circle, it is a positive. A positive response directly after a negative
one, lets you know he has recovered the trail. It is important not to line
check or hinder the dog while he is circling because he is reacting on
instinct. Once he has committed to a direction of travel, by tightening the
line back and pulling hard, you can line check him. The circles that a dog
makes are not necessarily symmetrically correct, so it is important to
recognize what the dog just did. At times, your dog might slow dramatically
before they circle, which makes the circles easy to miss. Occasionally he
may also do multiple circles following the trail. Remember not to hinder
your dog, be patient and wait for them to commit. When the dog pulls out of
its’ circle, you can eliminate the other three directions on the map your
keeping in your mind.

Arrows indicate trail of dog

Trail Circle

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 THE CLASSIC CUTBACK

Thehandlers
classic cutback is the movement most often seen when trailing. Many
think the movement occurs when the dog has reached the end of
the scent cone. I believe that to be correct, except the handlers have not
realized the information the dog gives you when he does the cutback
movement. Remember dogs must eliminate directions of travel while
following a trail. Applying that theory to this movement gives you two
important pieces of information. The dog just eliminated the direction he
cutback from and he still has the trail. The map you are making in your head
grows with each of these movements that your dog gives to you. By
eliminating the direction your K-9 turned back from, and remembering the
last indication, you will find yourself closing in on your subject.

Eliminated this direction

Eliminated this direction

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THE FLOWING NEGATIVE

T he flowing negative movement is very similar to the classic cutback.

The difference between the two movements is subtle. The dog turns
smoothly back, rather than abruptly. It is easier to miss or not understand
what the dog just did because it looks so natural or inconspicuous. Those of
you that have run urban streets have probably seen the dog give this
movement as you past some driveways. The dog will ease into the driveway
a little and ease back out in one constant flowing motion. That slight
variation in his directional heading lets you know he just eliminated a
direction of travel, via the driveway, and he is still focused. You also know
he still had the trail at that point. This movement is best described as a bow
in an otherwise straight line. Some dogs will do this constantly in tight
patterns. By watching for them and understanding the meaning of this
movement, you can always eliminate directions of travel in your running
map and be assured your dog still has the trail.

Solid lines with arrows indicate direction of travel eliminated

The flowing negative

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THE HEAD TURN

Thewehead turn movement is normally done when the dog passes over what
refer to as “trash scent” or scent that belongs to something other than
his prey. This is seen a lot when running your dog down store fronts in an
urban setting. The dog will lift and turn his head in the direction of the “trash
scent” and go back to the head down position without breaking stride. The
movement of his head lets you know two things. The subject did not go that
way and the dog is still working. When you see a double look, longer glance,
or the dog is no longer committed to a direction of travel, you will know
which direction the scent of your subject is coming from the same as you
would during the “pre scent” phase. It is important to observe the difference
in the head turns. For example, the dog intermittently keeps popping his
head to the left side of the road and lifting his head like when air scenting.
This is a good indication that you will find your subject on the left side of
the road, even though you may go through many turns and indications before
finally closing on your subject.

The Head Turn on Trail

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Those of you handling Bloodhounds, or similarly trained dogs, will at times
see your dog give the head turn indication as you pass by people. The dog is
telling you the same thing he would with the doorways and driveways.
Except now you know three things. It is not person we seek, I still have the
trail, and it is getting hot (fresh trail). Dogs running old trails do not waste
time doing a courtesy check or acknowledging decoys with a head turn as
they pass them. As the trail starts getting fresher, he may start to check
someone with the turn of his head. You will have to see how cold of a trail
your dog runs before he quits swinging his head towards decoys. This will
also change as the dog becomes more efficient in his work. Understanding
and recognizing this indication will also help you discern when your dog
was given a bad scent article and is working a fresh trail, and when the
person you seek has been missing for a substantial amount of time.

The key to seeing a lot of information beyond the negatives listed, is

watching the dogs’ head. Like seeing the dog sight in on some vegetation on
the other side of the parking lot or other barriers. You will know he is “skip
tracking” that barrier, although the trail probably heads in that direction. If
he cannot recover, you know where he started the skip, and can react
accordingly.

THE RECOVERY TRAIL

Thescentrecovery trail is run when your dog is not completely focused on the
or is on the verge of totally losing the trail. The dog will be
working a trail, but is not really sure or displaying confidence in it. This type
of trail is where you, the handler, will have to assist the dog. The trail
requires you look at the lay of the land, wind direction, etc. It is important to
do these things without hindering the dogs’ movement, because he is
moving strictly on instinct. Most handlers will find themselves not knowing
or recognizing what is happening because the majority of trails they run are
strictly following the dog. Watching your dog closely, you may notice him
glancing numerous times like discussed in the head turn section. If you see
the glance and have not seen any indications or movements of purpose in the
immediate area, react to it. Cast into the glance and watch for more
indications. You can also look at the lay of the land and with very little
knowledge of scent, almost bet where the actual trail will be. Let the dog do
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the work, your job is to keep the map in mind as to where you may need to
go for complete recovery by remembering which areas we have eliminated.

THE NEGATIVE ID

Our dogs are taught to tell when the scent we seek is not in the area. I
accomplished the negative ID by rewarding my dogs for jumping on me
when the scent is not in the area. It is a simple process of not allowing the
dog to cast to far for the scent in the training process and enticing him to
jump up on you when he has looked in all the directions within the area and
has not lied to me or taken a direction of travel. My training area is
approximately 40 ft every direction from the scent article. My dogs normally
tell me in seconds now, if there is a trail leaving the area.

What is interesting about teaching this identification is I generally can tell if

the scent has been in the area or not by the way my dog checks the area for a
trail. For instance, when I work scenes where the subject has gotten into a
vehicle and left the area, but their scent is in the area, my hound checks the
area more thoroughly for the trail. When the person has never been in the
area my dog checks quickly, usually with a swift circle or two, a couple
turns of the head and then will give me a negative ID.

Some dogs will give this indication to you naturally when they have lost the
trail and are confused. This technique is not going against any natural
instinct the dog has. The important thing to look for, is a difference in the
behavior of the dog when they jump up on you. To know if the dog has
simply lost the trail, or the trail ends. When it is a definite end of trail, you
will see confidence in their demeanor. If they have just lost the trail, you will
notice the dog is hesitant to indicate. If you teach this negative ID to your
dog, it is important to study their mannerism to understand which one they
are saying; so you can react properly.

THE CAST
When you have lost the trail and need to recover it casting your dog is an
effective technique. During the training process when the dog has lost his
focus and left the trail. We have stopped the dog and verbally corrected him
then worked him back onto the trail by a circular motion rather than walking
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back to the trail. Hold firm on the lead and correct him if he gives any
attempt to pull until you hit the area of the trail. Then, give praise when he
takes the trail again. Example, you are out on a case running a trail and the
dog indicates he has lost the trail. You have been keeping a running map in
your mind of where you last saw the negative indications, and know you can
head back to that area in hopes of recovering it. Before you do that, we have
found it best to cast beyond the point the dog has indicated he lost the scent.
Normally, it appears that something has happened to the scent at these
points. If you cast the dog beyond that area, he normally will recover and
finish the trail.

The important part of casting is to keep it a steady fluid motion, and to make
sure you cover all avenues of escape. I have found keeping the lead
somewhat taunt helps the dog stay true until you pass over the trail. What
you are watching for is the dog to drop his head and commit to a direction of
travel. When that happens you know you have recovered the trail. Until your
dog gives that positive indication, you can take his non-committing as a
negative indication that the trail did not go the directions you are covering
with the cast. If you are working an intersection that the dog is having
trouble with, use the four corners as your markers, cast the dog to each
marker and watch for a reaction. If you do not see any reaction move on to
the next marker, do not stand around waiting for one to appear.

The dogs’ non-indication, was a negative indication the trail did not go
there. The same principal applies in all terrains. A dog that has not been
taught to hold true on a cast may do false bursts during the cast. When you
see short trails during a cast followed by periods when the dog appears to be
meandering around, not giving you movement of purpose, this is a good
indication he has not held true for you. Go back to the area you were casting
and finish covering the avenues of escape. When you have finished casting if
he still has not picked up the trail, work the dog back towards your last
negative indication while watching him for any head swings, head drops,
and trail commitments that will indicate a recovery.

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PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

This diagram below is putting some of the movements of purpose together to

give you and idea of what a dogs trail might look like. You fill in what
directions the dog has eliminated by showing you the negative indications.
Some dogs may not have such exaggerated movements. However all dogs
eliminate directions of travel and are constantly giving information by
showing movements of purpose while they trail.

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THE SHUT DOWN

YOu have cast beyond the point your dog indicated he lost the trail, and
back to the spot you saw the last negative indications and your dog has
not reacted. He is not giving you anything, almost lethargic acting. This
indicates he probably has quit working. The only chance you have at this
point to regain enough drive to finish your job is to sit the dog down and
motivate him. I have found that doing this during drive building training
trails has been a great help. I will stop the dog in the middle of a training
trail that he is showing a good drive and try to bring him to a different level
of enthusiasm. When I am out working a trail and see he has shut down or
getting close to shutting down. I am able to mimic what I did during the
training process and bring enough of a burst out of him to finish a trail that
would have other wise been lost. It is important to be ready to move when
you do this so as not to hinder his movements, because he will be acting on
instinct.

SOLICITING AN ID ON A DOOR

Anybe familiar
of you that have the opportunity to train with a Police K-9 unit will
with the scent boxes; they use to train for building searches.
For those of you that are not familiar with the scent boxes there is line of
wooden boxes, one of which a subject gets in. The dog is then turned loose
or worked down the boxes and learns to alert on the one with the person in
it. Our unit has used self-storage units with the same success in our training.
The trick is to teach the dog to use his nose and understand what we want. I
fall right in with our patrol dogs doing this exercise. I first did it using no
scent article and a different command from the one I use for trailing. I would
sweep my hand along the bottom of each door almost like detailing a
narcotics dog. It took a few passes before my dogs knew what game we were
playing. When they caught on, I rewarded for each find. I was soon able to
take this exercise to the last step and introduce the scent article.
I occasionally find a building with multiple doors and have a subject enter
one. Then work my dog down them, watching him pass the unscented doors
and jumping on the scented.
Even without doing this exercise, I have seen dogs close on a building with
multiple doors, and after being taken to the doors and having the handler use
his hand to focus the dog on the doors, indicate by showing interest in the
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correct door. Here again, it is important when you don’t see anything, to
move on to the next while you still have the dogs focus on the search.

WALKING ID
While training a bloodhound it is important to vary the position of the
tracklayer at the end of the trail. This will help keep the hound from
anticipating where the scent is leading them. One of the generally accepted
harder endings to a trail is when the subject is walking. Most bloodhounds
are taught the jump-up ID. The difficulty experienced by the hound with this
finish comes from the uncertainty of jumping on a moving target. You can
teach your hound to overcome this out of harness.

Get a treat and while walking slowly entice your dog to jump up for it. Every
jump gets a reward and praise, building for the next time he jumps. Now do
two short runaways using the harness and a scent article. One ends with the
person walking towards the dog and one ends with the person walking away.
Next do a scent article start and watch the dog apply the walking ID you have
just taught him.

THE FINAL CHAPTER

Wewould
realize while writing this, there are going to be indications that we
not remember to place in this book, because we have come so
accustomed to seeing and using them. If you watch your dog for the
movements of purpose and begin to recognize them, we will have
accomplished our goal, which was to make you a better handler with more
confidence in your dog, which will inevitably lead to more success on the
trail.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Robin and Kevin live in Spotsylvania, Virginia and run five Bloodhounds.
Kevin is a Deputy and Bloodhound handler for the Spotsylvania Sheriff’s
Office. He was also a Bloodhound handler for the Washington D.C.
Department of Corrections. Robin is also a Deputy and Bloodhound handler
for the Spotsylvania Sheriff’s Office. Both are founders of the National
Bloodhound Training Institute
Copyright  1999