I am a criminal defense lawyer. I am interested in the capabilities of dogs that purport to be able to detect body decomposition.
I am a criminal defense lawyer. I am interested in the capabilities of dogs that purport to be able to detect body decomposition.
Yes, they are called ‘Cadaver Dogs” and they are always used in disaster work… the WTC and Katrina come to mind.
isn’t there such a thing as cadaver dogs? Our scent hounds and other hunting dogs have been used to locate missing children and/or their bodies.
Yes it is. They are called cadaver dogs, it is a specialty within the area of search and rescue (SAR). I have friends who have (SAR) dogs that are trained cadaver dogs but I’ve never trained one myself so I can’t give you the details. One of my friends and her Belgian Sheepdog were members of the first team called in after the OK City bombing. In his case when he located a living survivor under the rubble he would madly dig trying to get to them. If he located a cadaver he would indicate and move on. Unless the dogs are exclusively cadaver dogs when they are only locating decease victims they will become depressed so it is important to have the volunteers “plant” themselves as “victims” from time to time to encourage the dog to continue working.
yes it’s possible for dogs to smell human decomp when a body is burried in the ground, rubble and even underwater!
Training is just really repitition of showing the dog what you want. Once the dog understands what you want you begin to make it alot more difficult (examples are harder scenting conditions and longer searches) you also have to train for searching for drowned victims that have not surfaced. It is just an on going process until your dog is truly proficient at his/her job. Another major factor is the dog handler/trainer. He must know his dog. Every dog gives of different body language for his reaction to possible scent, definitely have scent, and follow me I know exactly where it is. I have witnessed dogs successfully tracking and finding people three days later. It gets pretty complex when one dog is trained in many different areas. If you need more info just post and I can get you in touch with someone who is one of the best in the U.S. But to simply answer your question as the body decomposes yes it does give off gases and you can train a dog to detect such gases.