If the dog has the proper training in picking up the full range of scents of human decomposition, his accuracy rate is about 95 percent, said Sharon Ward, a cadaver dog trainer in Portland, Ore.
"So if a dog says it's there, there's a darn good chance it is," she said tonight. "They're pretty darn accurate."
A New York State Police
cadaver dog alerted twice in the same area Monday outside a cabin in Mexico where Oswego County sheriff's investigators are looking for the remains of 1994 kidnap victim Heidi Allen, according to a lawyer for the man imprisoned on a conviction of kidnapping her.
The dog indicated it smelled a body in an area around a fresh footprint, Federal Public Defender Lisa Peebles said she was told by Oswego County District Attorney Greg Oakes.
The footprint is unlikely the source of the scent the dog picked up, Ward said.