Police Bloodhound Training

Bloodhounds are a long-eared hound dog with floppy lips and a squarish body. They are medium to large size dogs and carry their long tail upright like a flag post. As scent hounds, these dogs ignore everything else around them to get to what they are after. Bloodhounds are not aggressive dogs--merely determined working dogs. As such, their talents are invaluable to police departments in searching for individuals. The evidence located by bloodhounds is admissible in a court of law. For the success, safety and happiness of a police bloodhound, proper training is necessary.

  1. Reading Your Bloodhound

    • Being able to identify your bloodhound's signals while on the trail is the key to success in and out of training. While tracking or trailing his prey, a bloodhound will eliminate directions of travel. These eliminations are called negative indicators and are shown by the dog's subtle movements. Your ability to read these signals will make it possible for you to help when your dog is facing a difficult situation. You and the bloodhound work as a team, each needing the other. A bloodhound trained to track will not show negative indicators as often as one trained to trail her prey. Learning to read the dog will develop a tighter bond and trust between you and the bloodhound.

    Pre-Scent Method

    • With any search, the start is the most critical. In the pre-scent method of training, you give your bloodhound the scent before putting on his harness. This gives him time to process the scent and get an idea of the direction of travel, enabling him to be ready to go once his harness is on. With the harness in place, give the scent again. Then give the command to find.

      In early training, start with fresh trails, having someone run away while the dog is watching. Lengthen the time between the person's running away and the bloodhound's starting as training progresses. Then start with trails where the bloodhound has not seen the person run. Always using the pre-scent, harness, scent method.

    Scent-Box Training

    • Scent boxes are a line of wooden boxes. These are used to train police dogs for building search situations. A trainer gets in one of the boxes and the dog is then let loose or lead down the row of boxes. The goal is to find the person hiding inside the box. During the training, the bloodhound is taught to alert her handler once the person is found. This training can also be done using self-storage units, with the bloodhound getting scents through the bottom of the door. Scent box training is done with and without pre-scents.

    Training Conditions

    • A bloodhound trained for police work must have initial training and then continued, regular training. An inexperienced or young bloodhound should receive training two to three times a week. A mature, experienced bloodhound should receive continued training once a month. Regular training should consist of real-life conditions: day; night; cold; hot; park trail; city street; with and without pre-scent; and using footprints instead of scent. The more variables a bloodhound can experience and practice, the more capable he will be when called upon for service.

    Handlers

    • Bloodhound handlers must go through training as well. Learning about bloodhounds and search-and-rescue procedures in the general sense are just the beginning. A handler must be certified in CPR and first aid, and know how to maintain and process a crime scene. After all of this training, a handler can start working with her bloodhound on their training together. Having a trained handler is essential to maintaining top-quality working bloodhounds.