# Good Dog!



## mel boschwitz (Apr 23, 2010)

Several months ago a homeowner in my area was putting in a new septic system when he unearthed a few bones, which were later determined to be human. He did not dig up the entire area, and there was the possibility that more bones were still buried. Without any testing a forensic pathologist at a college believed the bones were at least 20 years old.

I was allowed to let my cadaver dog in training work the site. I was not alliwed to do any prep work (specialists (not K9) were coming to work the site further the next day). My dog had worked a few old bones at a seminar but nothing buried more than a few inches, and only in loose dirt. This was packed solid and I had been told the bones that had been found were about2ft deep. I wasn't really expecting my dog to be able to work the problem, since I hadn't ever trained anything like that before. It was also unknown if there were any more bones buried there.

I started him in a grid pattern downhill from the location and he pretty quickly left the grid pattern and went over to the area where the bones had been found. Since I knew where the bones had been found I did my vest to ignore my dog and turned away from him and chatted with the deputy that was securing the scene. When working buried problens this dog spontaneously offers to dig at the area, but his trained response is a sit. When I looked over he was violently digging at the area. I brought him away from the area twice to have him work other areas, which he showed no interest in, and each time he left the area I had brought him to and went back to the original area and began to dig again. He also went over to a tree that was about 10ft away and showed strong interest there. He never gave his final alert at either area tho.

The next night I was advised that more bones were found about a foot away from where my dog had been digging, buried 2ft deep. At the time there was the possibility that these bones were part of a cold case, so I didn't say anything. Earlier this week I was advised that these bones were 200yr old bones from an early (early!) settler grave.

So even though my dog didn't give his final trained response, he still showed strong interest in the area. I was really proud of him. So good dog!


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## Sarah Platts (Jan 12, 2010)

Good Deal. Nice work. Give that dog a bone.....lol

One of the things I was told over the years is that the final response is just the icing on the cake. If you are getting all the behavior changes, and other characteristics of being in odor that is what you're calling it on. There are a variety of reasons why a dog will not give its final response so folks always told me to look at the whole picture vs one piece. 

I've had a similar thing happen at workshops where the dog gets to work on something they've never been exposed to before or placed in awkward situations. Glad your dog did such a nice job picking up on those old bones.


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## Meg O'Donovan (Aug 20, 2012)

Go, dog, go!


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## brad robert (Nov 26, 2008)

Nice work!! The people who gave the initial theory the bones were about 20 yrs old were a little off the mark LOL


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## Bob Scott (Mar 30, 2006)

Very nice!


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## Holden Sawyer (Feb 22, 2011)

That is incredible to think about how good a dog's nose is. Wow. You must be proud!


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## Gerald Dunn (Sep 24, 2011)

way to go, proud of the pup\\/


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## mel boschwitz (Apr 23, 2010)

In the forensic pathologists defense he only did a visual inspection on the bones. Besides, he was right. They were at least 20yrs old. And then some. Lol.

This is the bloodhound I started cadaver on because he showed a very strong interest in it. I never really expected him to be any good at it, since I prefer trailing. Working him comes last (which he HATES!).

I ended up using him after the N.TX tornadoes too. He did real good in that too. But a big, heavy skinned klutzy bloodhound in nasty rubble not a great mix. Lol.


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## Dave Martin (Aug 11, 2010)

Very impressive. Nice work!


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## patricia powers (Nov 14, 2010)

sometimes we just need to get out of the dog's way & let them work. 
pjp


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## mel boschwitz (Apr 23, 2010)

patricia powers said:


> sometimes we just need to get out of the dog's way & let them work.
> pjp


Sometimes? More than that. Lol. How many times do we hear "trust your dog!" ? Lol


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## Bryant Jackson (Oct 29, 2013)

Outstanding that you had such a situation in your area. Always interesting to see how the dog will react in a new enviroment or situation. Well done!


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## brian w. kimbell (Feb 5, 2011)

there's no doubt that the bh has an amazing nose, the issue is how to train/focus it amidst the other behavioral issues. takes a godlike amount of patience to get even simple OB out of a bh lol


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## mel boschwitz (Apr 23, 2010)

Personally I dont think the bh nose is really any better than any other breed. But unlike the pointy ears, the entire design of the bh is on its nose. Generations of breeding have gotten it naturally nose/trail oriented from the get go. Sometimes you have to help the pointy ears a bit more.

I dont care much about OB past the basic "sit/stay/down/wait". And the start cue of course. My cadaver dog works off lead, but my trailers dont.


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## brian w. kimbell (Feb 5, 2011)

Yeah I have a similar conversation with pointy ear handlers a lot. They don't see the point in training human scent discrimination.I try to point out that they already train scent discrimination with narco/accelerants what have you, why not give your dog another tool? Gotta give props to Chad Carpenter on this one, he laid this theory out for me...


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## Nancy Jocoy (Apr 19, 2006)

Nice work! Sorry I missed it when you first posted.


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