How to Use the Wind

Last week we learned about how air currents carry scent. How Scent and Airflow Works

This week we are going to learn how to put that information to good use. In training, we always want to set up our dogs for success.  In searches we need to be able to tell when our dog is in scent, figure out the possible air scent conditions may be present, and use that to help the dog find the person.

Equipment used to see the wind

My product of choice is a simple travel sized bottle of baby powder.  I keep several small bottles in my pack and a large jumbo bottle back in my car to refill the smaller ones. A good search dog handler will use a large amount of powder on a search. I create the effect I need by quickly squeezing the bottle to produce little clouds of powder.

When and Where should you check the air?

You simply cannot check too often.  The more you know about the scent picture, the better. One of the very first things I do before heading out is test the wind with my puff bottle. I make sure to test the wind:

• beginning of my task
• in the middle of roads and trails
• at least 30 feet into the woods on both sides of roads and trails
• on either side of a ridge
• in drainages
• near water
• before I make notes on my map
• when my dog shows interest (his nose and tails goes up)
• when my dog starts running around like a mini clown car in a parade
• whenever my dog does something strange
• before and after I take a break
• when I feel the direction of wind change
• in sunny spots
• in shady spots
• near a possible clue
• when I feel like it

If someone invents a really inexpensive portable cool-smoke producing device that runs for 6 hours let me know!

 Oh, and make sure to get a little on your dog for good luck.

Wind Speed

<1 mph – calm – smoke rises vertically
1-4 mph – light air –  smoke drifts and leaves rustle
5-7 mph – light breeze – wind felt on face
8-11 mph – gentle breeze – flags extended and leaves move
12-18 mph – moderate breeze – small branches move
19-24 mph – fresh breeze – small trees sway
25-31 mph – strong breeze – Large branches move
32-28 mph – near gale – whole trees move, inconvenience in walking
39-46 mph – gale – twigs and branches blown off trees, difficult to walk
47-54 mph – strong gale – minor structural damage may occur, shingles blown off roofs
55-63 mph – storm – trees uprooted, structural damage likely
64-73 mph – violent storm – widespread damage to structures
74+ mph – hurricane – severe structural damage and widespread devastation

Types of “Wind”

Prevailing Wind

Wind can change from one minute to the next, but there will always be a prevailing wind across an area during an extended period of time.  It is good to find out what the prevailing wind is in the area for the time of year.  A constant breeze could potentially blow all day, carrying scent from a lost person into an area you are searching hours later during a time of no wind. High clouds usually move with the prevailing wind.

Small Air Currents

If you missed it, air currents are explained in detail in:  How Scent and Airflow Works

These can flow in different directions depending on a number of factors including:

Knowing how air currents flow will affect how you and your dog need to search an area.

Warm Air Rises

Remember that your body is a nice hot 98.6 F on average.  Air and scent travels up off your body at about 2 miles per hour.  This can carry scent straight up, hit the ceiling, travel across a room, and fall to the floor on the other side of a room.  Where is your dog going to smell the person?

This is a good thing to remember when working your dog out in the wilderness as well.

How to Work in Relation to the Wind

Generally, you want to work your dog perpendicular to and towards the direction of where the wind is coming from. Dogs find the direction to where scent is coming from by moving in and out of the scent cloud or plume. This is called working a scent cone.

To set your dog up for success, start at the most downwind portion of your sector and walk grids across the wind. Depending on topography, vegetation, wind strength, weather, and other factors distance between each grid ranges from 25 meters to 100 meters.

If the wind keeps changing direction do not keep changing your direction. We call this “chasing the wind” and will leave you walking in circles.  Use your judgment and experience to determine if changing your search strategy due to the change in wind.

What have you learned from the wind when searching?  Feel free to share in comments.

How Scent and Airflow Works

How do those dogs find missing people?

Remember PigPen from Charlie Brown?  He always appeared to have clouds of dust coming off of him wherever he went.  This is not far from the truth.

You have thousands of tiny pieces of your body leaving you every minute; 40,000 pieces to be exact.  These tiny cornflake like bits are called rafts.

They are made up of skin cells, hygiene products, bacteria, fungus, parasites, sweat, hormones, and enzymes. They are unique to each individual human.  Even skin rafts from identical twins are different.  These are what dogs smell.

Some skin rafts are lighter in air, easily carried by air currents.  Others are heavier than air,  alighting on vegetation or falling to the ground.

Dog Handlers pay attention to air currents.

Skin rafts are carried along currents of air like millions of fluffy dandelion seeds.

We pay attention to physics.  Warm Air rises

and Cool air sinks.  Cold and moisture make air heavier. Your skin rafts first leave your body at about 2mph up in the air traveling along the current of air your 98.6 degree F produces.

Without any air movement

scent diffuses evenly

Diffusion

But of course, there is always something making air move.

When things are perfect, scent moves predictably like this:

Laminar Flow

Objects and other factors often cause air to move like this:

Turbulent Air Flow

Turbulent air flow causes handlers and their canines to mutter choice words under their breaths.

Different Types of Airflow

Normal Daytime Air

When the ground heats up during the day time, air begins to rise.

Normal Nighttime Air

When the ground begins to cool, air cools and begins to fall. It flows downhill like water.

Coning Plumes

• movement of scent from subject downwind in the shape of a cone
• during cloud covered days or nights
• travels long distances
• ideal for dogs

A dog will run perpendicular to the flow of the scent crossing in and out of the scent cone zeroing in to its source.

Fumigating Scent

• occurs in the morning before sunup
• scents travel down valleys like water
• subjects on a hill can be detected by dog down below
• It is good to get dogs out before sunrise

Lofting Scent

• Occurs after sun sets
• The ground is cooling but aloft air is still warm
• usually occurs in valleys first then other areas later on
• Work dogs on the high ground in the evening

Fanning Plumes

• at night in stable air
• scent holds at the same elevation level without falling or rising
• dog may alert across a drainage or canyon at the same level, but can’t find a person
• Be sure to report your alerts as scent can carry

Pooling Scent

• collects in an area like a pool of water
• usually occurs in a low area
• Occurs where there is little dispersal of scent by the wind
• It hard for dog to follow a scent pool to the subject

Eddying Scent

• circular air forms behind an object (turbulence)
• prevents scent from traveling along prevailing wind
• example: eddies form at a line of trees next to an open field

Looping Plumes

• Occurs in clear sky or with high clouds
• Occurs at midday, a high convection situation
• scent rises, cools, falls, heats up, rises, cools, falls, etc.
• Dog will alert by putting his head up, but will lose the scent.

Chimney Effect

• Happens when air currents move straight up an object
• alerts may occur nearby   -but-
• scent may come down as much as several hundred meters away from the subject
• This makes it nearly impossible for the dog to find the subject
• You should check around tall objects in the area

Thermoclines

• caused by significant temperature and humidity differences in short distances
• changes in elevation
• drastic changes in shade and sunny spots
• creates a wall like barrier of scent

Handlers use their knowledge to help the dog find the subject

You are the brains.  Your dog is the nose.

A search dog team will prefer to search into the wind, often zigzagging into the wind on small areas. A canine team can also perform searches along parallel sweeps perpendicular to the wind in larger areas. Remember to search ridges when air is likely to be rising and down in drainages when air is likely to be falling.

Good Luck

A good book to read on the subject is:

Scent and the Scenting Dog by William G Syrotuck

Site note:

Hatch Graham’s 1979 Article on Convectional Turbulence and the Airscenting Dog

Just a Short Update

Let’s see, just a very quick run down.

I am attempting to figure out how to blog while several other changes have occurred in my life.  I have begun working a second job at a very nice doggie daycare for much needed extra income. It also breaks up my week and gets me around other people.  This of course has thrown my schedule into chaos.

New laws and other potential laws have put my fantastic wildlife educator job into jeopardy.  Stressing everyone out there.

Another few changes has cause our poor pup Grom to be stressed.  Lauren, our very good friend’s old German Shepherd, has been living with us for a year now.  She has now gone home to live with her mom in her new place.  Grom is a bit confused with the change and is moping around the house.

Since becoming operational, I have been called out on two searches.  Neither I have been able to go on.  One, because my husband and I have been sick.  The other because I was unable to arrange to get there when they needed us.  I am so glad to have such wonderful team mates that could go.

There will always be more searches.

This weekend I will be providing a slide show on a scent theory and search strategy class. I cannot wait to share the information gleaned from it with you folks.

This has been a good year to clean out the cobwebs and get my rear into gear. Spring cleaning has started early and I am thinking this will mean good things for me and for you, a Better blog!

May the year of the Dragon bring you luck, health, and prosperity.

-Jen

Random Pictures of 2011

A few of my team mates sent me photos of me from last year.  Just for fun, I thought I would share some of them with you.

I have been found by K9 Atticus!  I thought hiding on a ledge above a door would do the trick.

K9 Juno gets some play and a few pats

Planning our route during a mock search

Carrying the litter out to some poor, perfectly healthy and mobile sap who was suckered into going for a joy ride.

Going for a drag courtesy of K9 Topas

Cha cha cha changes

I have been negligent in my posts as of late. I apologize for keeping you all hanging.
There have been several upheavals recently and I needed the time to get back on my feet.
Posts will resume once I catch my breath.

Thanks for reading!

What I Learned from My Operational Evaluation

I passed!

Holy Cow! I am now an Operational Dog Handler after passing my search and rescue Operational 160 Acre Evaluation.

This is the 4-6 hour final test mock search to see if my dog and I have what it takes.

Rather than write a novella on all the things that happened.  (I don’t want to give away all the mysteries to those handlers not yet operational) I will give you a short synapsis and then a list of all the things I learned.

Search Senario

A small plane crashes in a forest with four passengers.  The pilot is found dead on the scene, but the three other passengers are missing. Evidence shows they walked away from the crash site.

Here’s What Happened.

• Watched Grom the search dog jump into a stream and find it was too deep to his liking. Then, try to exit via a steep bank unsuccessfully.
• Successfully found the “trail” that no longer exists and walked down it
• Watched my dog stick his nose against the wind on several occasions rather than alerting into the wind. (To follow him or no?)
• Cursed the 10mph wind for changing directions several times.
• Powdered dog in the face while doping the wind
• Successfully covered all the blank areas of the 160 acres first.  Then watch the clock tick down without a find.
• Ran into several muggles enjoying the forest in the middle of my sector
• Watched Grom indicate on a muggle speed walking a hiking trail and try to chase after him while keeping me in sight.  ”Why do you keep running away?” – Grom
• Walked too darn fast
• Followed Grom into the woods in a large circle because he kept following the scent of someone out there instead of going directly to a point I intended first.  (Trust your dog, don’t just follow him around.)
• Watch Grom ask one of my found subjects “Annie Annie, are you ok?” repeatedly at the top of his voice.
• Practically walked over a subject while trying not to break my ankle on fallen logs. (Hey Jen, Walk slower!)
• Watch the forest try to kill one of my evaluators
• Wake up my last subject from a very nice long nap.
• Catch up with a favorite former dog handler of the team.

Thanks to everyone involved in Testapalooza!

And a special congratulations to Chris and Daisy for also passing their Operational on the same day!

Here is what I have learned

1. When something goes wrong, and it will, pick yourself back up and keep on going.
2. Be confident in your skills.
3. This is a learning opportunity.
4. Your dog will mess up and that’s ok.
5. Watch your pace.  It is not a stroll, but it is also not a double time death march.
6. Take breaks. They are essential for your body and your brain and your dog.
7. You and your dog are a team, be clue aware and set yourself and your dog up for success.
8. In the real world, letting your dog trample the injured lost person in anticipation for play is probably a bad idea.
9. Try not to kill your evaluator.
10. Don’t treat it like a test, treat it like the real thing.

K9 Search and Rescue Calendars – The Perfect Gift

Do you have a few folks on your holiday shopping list that are hard to shop for?

Well then, I have the answer for you.  Search and Rescue K9 Calendars make a perfect gift!  Give one to your friends, family, Coworkers, and yourself.

Simply go to the Virginia Search and Rescue Webpage below and hit the Donate button. For a 12$ donation you get the calendar sent to whomever you wish.  Help our 100% Volunteer Dogs and Humans continue their important work!

http://www.vsrda.org/donate/calendars