Can dogs track someone by the scent of the person's blood if the person is no longer bleeding?
Asking the question for a story I'm writing.
Let's say someone lost some blood from an injury or something, and a couple of days later, a dog got the scent of that blood. Could the dog then track the person that the blood came from, assuming that the wound is still there (being only a few days old), but is bandaged and not actively dripping blood all over the place?
I would appreciate an answer from someone that knows for sure, and not a guess. I can make an educated guess about it as well, but I want to be certain.
2010-10-02T15:46:10Z
The person that the blood belongs to is not running, the dog would just need to identify whose blood it is. I suppose they could draw blood from the person-to-be-identified and the dog would simply need to bark if the blood came from the person.
Assume that the dog can do anything a police dog, tracking dog, German shepherd, or bloodhound can do. It's not really a dog anyway, so it doesn't have to be accurate to a particular breed or type of training received (no one reading the particular story would be able to say "that kind of dog can't really do what it just did!"). My goal is just not to go so far out of what is realistically possible that it sounds like complete bullshit.
Anonymous2010-10-02T14:55:07Z
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This is a complicated question to answer and it would depend on a few factors. First, the place the dog will need to track, second, the dog itself, third, weather conditions, fourth, no blood needed. If a person were lost, a tracking dog would be taken to the last place the person was seen and the handler would start casting in that area looking for a track. If the dog is able to pick one up, it would follow it regardless of blood or not, the dog is not looking for blood, its following a scent cone left behind by the person or disturbed vegetation that can hold scent, etc. Another factor is also why is that person moving, are they lost and looking to be found or are they running away and trying to hide?
This can long and complicated and I don't want to go into too much detail here because this is an open forum read by who know who and I am not making anyone's job easier that is not acting on pure motives, but, as a matter of reference for your story, the RCMP in Canada has one of the best, if not the best tracking programs in the world and the Dutch tracking dogs on cold cement is a wonder to watch. Hope I helped!!
ADD: Then the answer is "NO" my friend, the dog will not be able to tell a blood type from another, strictly speaking, but, it could still find the person in the way I described earlier. Your story will not sound like BS if you keep it real in the realm of what is stated here. Yes, there are dogs that are trained to match evidence to a person, and yes, they will stand up in the court of law, but, not in this country and it is too complicated to get into here!!
It is not the blood that dogs track. It is the dead skin cells, body oils, hair that fall off the person being tracked, this substance has a name but I cant find the correct spelling. Fresh tracks linger in the air before they fall to the the ground. Some dogs are better tracking new tracks by sniffing the air & some dogs can pick up an old scent with their noses to the ground.
A dog is usually given a scent to track, a scent of the individual will start the tracking.
Are the dogs Police Dogs or tracking dogs? German Shepherds or Bloodhounds?
Is this a long trek to track or like building to building or out in the country?
I think tracking was one of the funnest things to train a dog to do.
If I can help you with something specific let me know.
I'm going to move with many personalities as a rule. If each person used to be the equal, I suppose it might be a run of the mill global. The truth that we've got such a lot of one of a kind personalities among humans or even in ourselves every now and then! Is what makes humanity lovely. And if it demands to be mentioned, I'm ruling out the "psycho-I ought to inflict suffering on others or whatever alongside the ones strains" personalities. On yet another observe, your query has a tendency to attract solutions that favors the extrovert. It's simply how societal norms are mounted. But introverts are cool humans too!
A dogs easiest way to track somebody would be, if they were barefoot, or if they had a sample of urine to smell. The strongest smell of our body is our crotch area. That's why dogs sniff people their a lot, to figure out who that person is.
But I think it would be possible for the dog to track somebody the way you explained, accept the scent of the blood would need to be left somewhere say, for example, the person rubbed the would against something, or was put into a wheel chair where the person's wound touched then yes. But the blood would need to be left somewhere to smell.