I am confused over what tracking dogs can do and their limitations. I though that if the dog (let's assume it is not HR and AS trained) picked up a scent of EL in her room for example and the dog lost the scent say on the 14th floor and did not pick it up again on the roof, they would have not sensed the body. This means there were confounding odors or EL did not walk across the roof?
What if LAPD only used the fire door to enter the roof and not taken the dog over to that access point? Say EL entered the roof through a fire escape ladder so the dog had no trace of her when they searched the roof, would a tracking dog be able to pick up an air scent at the tank base if they were not on her trail when the SAR team entered the roof?
1st BBM:
It's really hard to say, without knowing what the dog was trained for and what the dog was scented on. I think it's possible that wherever a trailing or tracking dog lost Elisa's scent, is where she was no longer on foot or leaving any other source of live scent. Live contact with other materials would leave a scent trail also.
2nd BBM:
Yes, they should have been able to pick up the scent again.
Air scenting is different than trailing. But regardless- they should alert at the most dense source of scent they can identify- in this case, that should have been the base of the container.
Hope that makes sense?