Hello – my disclaimer: I’m not an expert or certified but just give my opinion
Is there ever really a process that completely removes all traces of a human body (just a general question, not to you specifically)? Dogs are even used for wildfire searches where burned bodies are covered under massive debris. I don’t think there is. **With a well-trained, squared away dog and handler, especially a dog/handler team that have trained with various remains and conditions, I believe it’s very difficult to mask the scent of human remains. Whether it’s tissue, bone fragments, etc. With lime? What a gnarly scene that would be, but I believe the scent would still “leak” and rise and be detectable. Remember, human remains is the target odor, everything else gets eliminated. Metal? Nah but nice try
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The science behind this and how a dog can detect this – I have no idea. It’s truly fascinating. People often get disappointed in the dogs but they of course are not 100% but IMO, they are 90+% on point. Note my * above on training, etc. I know of another dog team that got to experience a blind search on placenta that was placed in buckets over several acres. A friend shared breast implants were part of a HRD training work shop. Interesting.
Now a scenario where a dead body was there, then later removed to a different location. Imagine spraying a pump or two of perfume in the air. The smell will linger but eventually will go away completely. Well in this case, it might be hard to detect human remains after a period of time.
A dream for most HRD handlers is the experience of training at the Body Farm. A dog I know (that sounds weird to say I know) reaction to seeing her first full body cadaver was interesting. She froze and her body language was “Fred.is.right.there.OMGEE”. She recovered and was able to regain her focus. Good girlie. (find fred is the term this dog/handler use to get into work mode)
At the end of the day *I* think it’s difficult to mask the odor of remains from a dog.
IMO