GrainneDhu
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- Joined
- Jun 11, 2010
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What troubles me is the lack of scent found by the dogs on the afternoon Kyron was discovered missing.
As a former SAR handler, I'm not real surprised. There were several factors involved that were unfavourable for scenting.
All the pix to date have shown hard finish floors, either tile or linoleum inside the school. Such surfaces do not hold scent well.
There had been, literally, hundreds of humans walking through the environment. Whatever scent was left had no doubt been overlaid by hundreds of feet.
The time delay was significant; as I recall, at least 10 hours had passed before they could get any dog/handler teams out there, due to delay in reporting, traffic conditions, etc.
I cannot recall right now if there had been rain that day. Rain can be both an advantage and a disadvantage. Damp ground holds scent beautifully but rain saturating the ground after the track is laid can obliterate it.
If the weather had been windy, that can also blow scent around to the point where it is either cannot be detected or useless (dog indicates but cannot follow).
Scentwork is a tool and a very good one, but it is not perfect. Unfortunately.