A Trailing Dog Adventure

Trailing – An urban search.
Its dusk and we are outside the hotel the missing person has left from, the ‘point last seen’ yesterday evening. The ‘mis-per’ is not from the area, so the scent trail should be clean – no false trails to cause confusion.
I pack my rucksack giving the article I will use time to clone on to a sterile cloth, tucked up next to a hot water bottle to keep the bacteria warm and help them re-generate.
I give the dog the bag with the articles in, in the van and leave it with her for five minutes, so when I get her out, she is already working. A quick check of the group stood waiting for us and she ascertains she is not looking for them and starts hunting at the junction between the pavement and house wall, checking up and down the street.
The blue lights of the police cars blocking the ends of the roads reflect off the house windows and attract the attention of locals and passers-by.  I feel pressured but ignore the people watching and concentrate on what my dog is doing.
She is working steadily up the street to where the missing persons’ vehicle was parked, going into and out of the drive ways and lifting her head to check the foliage overhanging the garden walls. We pass the spot where the vehicle was, and continue up, nearly to the top of the street, where she turns, looks at me, grins and gives me a bark, her indication that she has found the trail. I clip her line on to her harness and off we go, left at the top but she hesitates, not sure, across the road to the other side. I am glad for the MR team members watching for traffic for me, in front and behind, but I keep the line short to be on the safe side. She checks the wall on the opposite side of the road and takes off right. I watch her working, picking up scent from any little bits of grass in drive ways, off the overhanging vegetation and even from the damp joint between walls and pavement and I marvel at how she does this, follow where someone has walked, twenty four hours ago.
We cross junction after junction, they become a blur and I am disorientated but I can see she is taking me steadily towards the location the missing person is thought to have gone. After half an hour the direction is clear and I stop her to give her a rest and a drink, amazed at my dog, who has just trailed someone through a town centre as easily as if it was a walk in the park.

Sue & Nellie June 2011