I am new to the group and thought I would give my input on using dogs
for finding historical graves.

It is very important to realize that this is a new field for dogs,
even though dogs have been used for finding lost people (starting in
WW1) and working modern crime scenes for many years. Historical human
remains detection dogs are trained very differently from a "cadaver"
dog. Dogs used in Search and Rescue primarily find live people and
work with their heads up to catch the fresh human scent carried on
the wind.

Historical Human Remains Detection dogs (HHRD) are never cross
trained to locate live humans because graves, bones and older scent
is very low or on the ground. The dog must work with its nose on the
ground.

There are only a hand full of dogs in the US who are specializing in
this kind of work. My group is hoping to get some work published on
this soon.

I have been a dog handler for 19 years and have specialized in human
remains detection. Most of my past  work has been working more modern
remains and for the last 5 years I  have been developing technique
for dogs to do historical work. I would be more than happy to help
anyone get connected with a dog team close to them, or if you would
like more info feel free to contact me. You can also look at my web
page www.K9Forensic.org
Adela



The Michigan dog handler was Sandy Anderson and her dog is Eagle. She and
Eagle were written up in Archaeology magazine for Eagle's ability to find
prehistoric burials. Sandy recently pleaded guilty to charges of
planting human bone
at potential homicide sites after about a 2-year FBI investigtion.

But I wouldn't throw the dog out with the handler. Almost any well-trained
cadaver dog can find recent skeletal material and it would depend on
the dog and
soil how old they could go. Younger dogs have better olofactory senses than
older dogs (so says the handler I worked with on forensic cases). Using a probe
to aerate the soil can help the dog catch the smells in the soil.  There's a
book co-written by Marcella Sorg on Cadaver Dogs out of CRC Press (you should
be able to search on "Sorg" on amazon) that is as comprehensive a treatment of
cadaver dogs as is.

If you're interested in finding a dog and handler in your area, there are
both national and regional search dog organizations that can help and
looking for
them on the internet would be a place to start (I could direct you to some
great folks if you were in Nebraska or Kansas...). These organizations certify
dogs that pass search tests, so one question to ask a handler is what
certifications the dog has.

Melissa Connor