How Long Can A Scent Trail Survive?
A common question often posed to Pet Detectives is “If my pet has been missing for a day-month-year can a search dog still pick up a scent?”
If the lost pet is a small animal that won’t travel far and you can estimate a specific area where a dog can search, then a cat detection or specific scent dog could potentially be helpful. These two types of search dogs do not attempt to track a scent trail that was deposited by the lost pet. Instead, cat detection and specific scent dogs search for a stationary “scent cone” or the cloud of scent that would be coming off of the animal.
This “area search” method is how bomb dogs and drug dogs are used. They don’t track the scent of bombs or drugs but instead they just detect scent. In the same way, cat detection dogs don’t attempt to follow a scent trail but instead they attempt to detect the scent of a cat. Many dogs are also trained in tracking decomposition scents so that if your cat is suspected to be dead after being lost for a month, they can likely assist in the recovery and bring closure. If your pet is a dog that’s been missing for a month, the scent trail is probably no longer there for a search dog to track and follow.
How long is scent viable? The truth is, scientifically, no one knows for sure. Estimates based on prior successes worked by search dogs can be made. The majority of successful scent trails that have been worked reveal that the oldest successful trails are about ten to twelve days old. In general, most search-and-rescue trailing dogs are unable to do accurate work on scent trails that are older than seven days.
It’s important to keep in mind that scent trails in residential areas that are contaminated with other animal scents, people scents, and auto traffic are more difficult to work compared to a week old scent in a cool, damp forest. Scent has a better chance of surviving in dark, damp, and cool areas compared to open ground on pavement. Scent can also be moved or destroyed by wind currents, passing cars, and sunlight that dries it out.
Pee In A Bottle To Retrieve Your Pet?
Pet owners are often desperate for sensible measures they can take to help them recover a lost pet. There have been many quirky techniques that have evolved, one of them being the suggestion that the pet owner should spray their urine in the area as a “scent lure” or means to attract a lost dog or cat back home. This technique is not only a potential health hazard and source of disease transmission but it’s also unnecessary and ineffective.
There’s no scientific basis or research into the validity of this technique when trying to retrieve a dog or cat. In fact, it makes no sense at all! Suggesting one technique that should be used to recover both dogs and cats hasn’t proven to be effective. First of all, the olfactory abilities, responses to scent, behaviors and reactions towards humans when lost are very different between dogs and cats. Dogs are scent-oriented whereas cats are more sound-oriented. Dogs are much more likely to use their noses to investigate things than cats are. Some dogs will respond to people and scent when displaced but most cat won’t. Dogs travel and are picked up by people who determine their fate whereas the nature of lost cats is to hide in silence as a protective measure from predators.
Another reason that it’s unnecessary to deposit your scent in an area is because your scent is already there. A lost dog can use his nose to follow his owner’s scent. He can even use his nose to follow is own scent and backtrack home. Many dogs have done this and will continue to leave home and then return home. But you don’t need to urinate into a spray bottle to deposit your scent in an area because you already have deposited your scent when you breathe and walk through an area. That’s why bloodhounds and other dogs are able to find people…because the human scent is deposited when walking. Cats, on the other hand aren’t going to follow their owner’s scent because they are not oriented to following a scent trail in the same way dogs are. Cats are watcher and pouncers rather than scent followers.
Many dogs that escape aren’t even going to care whether their owner’s scent is present. This can depend on the dog’s temperament and reason for escape. A dog that escapes to chase a rabbet is going to be focused on the rabbit scent when the prey drive kicks in. A fearful dog that escapes isn’t going to use its nose to explore. When in fear, the section of the brain that processes olfactory cues doesn’t function.
Another flaw in the urine-spraying idea is it doesn’t take into account the dispersion of the scent in the right direction. Which direction should you pee in the first place and how far and how much? With multiple streets and roads in your area just how would you know where to spray a trail that your dog could actually find and follow? If you’d like to try this nonsensical technique then drink yourself silly so that you have a large supply!
In reality, it’s more probably that a dog has been picked up by someone who will dictate what will happen to it. A better use of time is to create posters. As for cats, it’s more likely it would be trapped under a neighbor’s house, killed by a predator, or hiding under a deck in fear.
