Can police dogs track the trail in reverse?

[Mark22]

I am writing a book and I have tried to research this point but I haven't been able to find a clear answer. Say that there is a body found in the woods and the police can identify some footprints belonging to the victim. They follow these for a bit, but then they come to a road and cannot find where the footprints re-appear. Is it possible for a tracker dog to follow a trail in the direction that someone had been rather than the direction that they were going? I have seen a few tracking demonstration videos in which the "hunted" try to back track so as to confuse the dog. The dogs follow the trail exactly as the person had run it - up around the corner, stop to turn around and then back. This makes me think that they are trained to inherently follow the trail in one direction, the direction that they went rather than the one that they came from. The dogs don't even skip that detour and follow the trail off in the final direction that the person ran. Anyway, interested to hear what you have to say! TIA. 

[moosmum]

Possible, but very unlikely. it would be counter intuitive to train and would likely cause a lot of confusion in the dog and handlers communication/confidence in each other. 

It would likely need a dog trained to work only to track in reverse, and not whats generally required.

So possible, but highly improbable. IMO

Edited August 14, 2020 by moosmum

[BDJ]

I am not an expert, but from my understanding the reason why backtracking can confuse the dog is because of the amount of scent.  IE - I am running north for 1 km and then stop and start running back the way I came.   After 250m I turn left (if the terrain is helpful there may be a ditch I can jump over or something else that limits the evidence of my turn).  Dog starts tracking and heads north. When he gets to the 750m (where I turned off) he has a very strong scent going straight ahead (double scent) which he would follow.   He then gets to the 1km mark and the scent 'disappears'.  Even when he scouts, he would probably wouldnt go back 250m.   Does that make sense?

 

Re tracking in a single direction, I imagine they are trained to follow the scent as it gets stronger (thus the way the person is moving) - but if due to age of trail or limited time difference from beginning to end, then I think it would be doable.

 

Again - I am no expert - the above is just based on conversations many (too many :-)) years ago when i had friends who did tracking and I spent many hours in paddocks etc as one of their 'tracklayers': :-)

[DogsAndTheMob]

Dogs can backtrack. When I was competing in tracking trials (a few decades ago), we‘d walk back along the track with my dog trotting ahead of us once we found the track-layer and it was quite common for my dog to track back to the start. Also, most handlers training for UD and UDX Obedience seek-back teach their dogs to back-track.

 

However, I’m not sure that police handlers would ask their dogs to do so, because it’s contrary to what they usually require. On the other hand, if the dog picked up the back-trail I don’t think the handler would stop him following that track.. After all, how would the police even know it was a back trail rather than a reversal of direction by the person they were tracking, or someone else?

[moosmum]

If the dog is trained to find the tangible source of the scent, then retreating from it is counter intuitive.

On the other hand, the dog could be trained to scent for  a secondary objective, or intuit that on its own. ie 'home' or last place of encampment. A place, rather than a mobile subject.  Or going back to refresh.

A bit more abstract. 

 

I teach 'home' so think it could be done, but doubt the concept is deliberately translated into tracking  for dogs that are more almost always asked to  find the emitter, from  the  last known place of encampment. 

Edited August 16, 2020 by moosmum

[leac1801]

I can ask those who are involved in these sorts of things over the weekend if you'd like.