To Fetch or Not to Fetch – Evidence Search Part I

Deborah Palman

The "traditional" evidence search as taught by American police K-9 trainers was taught by having the dog pick up the article and return it to the handler. I initially learned evidence search this way with inducive (play and reward) methods. A dog which liked to retrieve and picked up all sorts of objects was easy to teach with this method. Even if the dog did not learn to pick up and return with the object, an experienced handler could read the dog and see its indication.

I taught my first dog the retrieve type search but added the force retrieve to the learning process. This worked well and insured that my dog would work under all conditions and distractions. However, by the time I acquired my second dog, I had seen the passive article indication used by Schutzhund trainers. This seemed to be a much more practical type of indication and I considered teaching my next dog this system.

I never liked the idea of having a dog disturb the evidence during the search. Police officers are taught not to touch or move evidence until all the information about its position, condition and relationship to other pieces of evidence, etc. is recorded. Such information can be crucial to proving a case. The object may also have fingerprints, blood or other evidence on it which could be destroyed by the dog.

Another problem with the retrieve is the safety factor. Having a dog pick up or paw at a loaded weapon, sharp object or poisonous substance like hard narcotics has always worried me. About the time I was deciding how to train my new dog, a case from the Lincoln Co. Sheriff's Department in Maine pushed me towards a passive indication. One winter day, three subjects committed an armed robbery in Sagadahoc County. After a high speed chase, Sagadahoc County deputies were able to stop the vehicle involved and arrest the suspects, but they could not find the weapon used after searching the vehicle and the surrounding area for some time.

Lincoln County Deputy Clayton Jordan and his K-9 Heidi were called to assist. After passing through the snow covered and trampled area where the car was stopped several times, K-9 Heidi stopped, turned and drove her nose into the snow. She then began to dig to uncover an object. Deputy Jordan moved towards her and found the muzzle of a gun pointing out of the snow directly at the K-9. Securing his dog, he uncovered the gun and found that it was a fully loaded and cocked .357 mag. Ruger revolver. One swipe of the dog's paw could have set it off.

Of course, a handler with a retrieve trained dog can always stop the dog when he sees the dog's change in search pattern before the dog picks up the evidence, but he has to be watching closely. Working in thick cover and in darkness puts the handler at a disadvantage with a fast moving dog. I have also seen many police K-9s pick up an object, move away and drop it before they reach the handler, sometimes creating more problems than they solve. I also admit that I have seen passive indication dogs dig to uncover an object before they indicated, but they usually disturb the evidence much less than a retrieve trained dog.

A passive indication is a little harder to train because it requires the handler to substitute an alternate reward for playing with the article. This can be an advantage if the dog does not enjoy retrieving, but if the training is not done correctly, the dog's responses may make it harder to pin point the location of the object because the dog may indicate when it first hits the scent of the object rather than following the scent to the source before indicating.

Even if the dog is trained to properly indicate as close as possible to the article, sometimes the physical features of the terrain prevent the dog from indicating in its usual manner. For example, if the dog is trained to indicate in a down position with the article between its front feet, it will have a hard time downing on an article placed in the branches of a tree.

The dog may locate the article by hitting the scent cone and then down, sit or stand in the scent cone, or as near as it can get. The retrieve or active alert dog would simply try to get the article and pin point its location by its efforts. Once I used my passive indication dog to look for a rifle cartridge that had been used to kill a moose. The dog worked and worked, and after awhile I didn't pay that much attention to her as I looked around myself. Finally I realized that she had stopped moving and was standing on top of a boulder.

Not understanding what was going on, I commanded her to search. She didn't move, but looked down at her feet and back at me several times. I went over and found the rifle cartridge I was looking for on top of the boulder at her feet. The rock was too small for her to lie down on, so she did the next best thing she could do.

When a passive alert dog indicates something it cannot get to, the handler sometimes has to see the dog try to work the scent cone to its source to be able to interpret the dog's indication. Of course, if you really want the best of both worlds, you can do as I did and teach your dog to do both: an initial passive indication with the ability to retrieve after an additional command. It takes time to keep the two separate in the dog's mind, but it can be done.

The table below summarizes the advantages and disadvantages of the two types of evidence search. Part II of this article will cover one way to teach a passive evidence indication.

The "traditional" evidence search as taught by American police K-9 trainers was taught by having the dog pick up the article and return it to the handler. I initially learned evidence search this way with inducive (play and reward) methods. A dog which liked to retrieve and picked up all sorts of objects was easy to teach with this method. Even if the dog did not learn to pick up and return with the object, an experienced handler could read the dog and see its indication.

I taught my first dog the retrieve type search but added the force retrieve to the learning process. This worked well and insured that my dog would work under all conditions and distractions. However, by the time I acquired my second dog, I had seen the passive article indication used by Schutzhund trainers. This seemed to be a much more practical type of indication and I considered teaching my next dog this system.

I never liked the idea of having a dog disturb the evidence during the search. Police officers are taught not to touch or move evidence until all the information about its position, condition and relationship to other pieces of evidence, etc. is recorded. Such information can be crucial to proving a case. The object may also have fingerprints, blood or other evidence on it which could be destroyed by the dog.

Another problem with the retrieve is the safety factor. Having a dog pick up or paw at a loaded weapon, sharp object or poisonous substance like hard narcotics has always worried me. About the time I was deciding how to train my new dog, a case from the Lincoln Co. Sheriff's Department in Maine pushed me towards a passive indication. One winter day, three subjects committed an armed robbery in Sagadahoc County. After a high speed chase, Sagadahoc County deputies were able to stop the vehicle involved and arrest the suspects, but they could not find the weapon used after searching the vehicle and the surrounding area for some time. Lincoln County Deputy Clayton Jordan and his K-9 Heidi were called to assist. After passing through the snow covered and trampled area where the car was stopped several times, K-9 Heidi stopped, turned and drove her nose into the snow. She then began to dig to uncover an object. Deputy Jordan moved towards her and found the muzzle of a gun pointing out of the snow directly at the K-9. Securing his dog, he uncovered the gun and found that it was a fully loaded and cocked .357 mag. Ruger revolver. One swipe of the dog's paw could have set it off.

Of course, a handler with a retrieve trained dog can always stop the dog when he sees the dog's change in search pattern before the dog picks up the evidence, but he has to be watching closely. Working in thick cover and in darkness puts the handler at a disadvantage with a fast moving dog. I have also seen many police K-9s pick up an object, move away and drop it before they reach the handler, sometimes creating more problems than they solve. I also admit that I have seen passive indication dogs dig to uncover an object before they indicated, but they usually disturb the evidence much less than a retrieve trained dog.

A passive indication is a little harder to train because it requires the handler to substitute an alternate reward for playing with the article. This can be an advantage if the dog does not enjoy retrieving, but if the training is not done correctly, the dog's responses may make it harder to pin point the location of the object because the dog may indicate when it first hits the scent of the object rather than following the scent to the source before indicating. Even if the dog is trained to properly indicate as close as possible to the article, sometimes the physical features of the terrain prevent the dog from indicating in its usual manner. For example, if the dog is trained to indicate in a down position with the article between its front feet, it will have a hard time downing on an article placed in the branches of a tree.

The dog may locate the article by hitting the scent cone and then down, sit or stand in the scent cone, or as near as it can get. The retrieve or active alert dog would simply try to get the article and pin point its location by its efforts. Once I used my passive indication dog to look for a rifle cartridge that had been used to kill a moose. The dog worked and worked, and after awhile I didn't pay that much attention to her as I looked around myself. Finally I realized that she had stopped moving and was standing on top of a boulder. Not understanding what was going on, I commanded her to search. She didn't move, but looked down at her feet and back at me several times. I went over and found the rifle cartridge I was looking for on top of the boulder at her feet. The rock was too small for her to lie down on, so she did the next best thing she could do.

When a passive alert dog indicates something it cannot get to, the handler sometimes has to see the dog try to work the scent cone to its source to be able to interpret the dog's indication. Of course, if you really want the best of both worlds, you can do as I did and teach your dog to do both: an initial passive indication with the ability to retrieve after an additional command. It takes time to keep the two separate in the dog's mind, but it can be done.

The table below summarizes the advantages and disadvantages of the two types of evidence search. Part II of this article will cover one way to teach a passive evidence indication.

Active (Retrieve) Indication
Advantages	Disadvantages
Easy for handlers to understand	Disturbs or destroys evidence
Easy to teach high retrieve dog	Hard to teach low retrieve dog
Easier to pin point hidden evidence	May create danger to dog or handler when weapons or drugs are found
Article is reward

Passive Indication
Advantages	Disadvantages
Minimizes disturbance of evidence	May be harder to pin point hidden evidence
Safer for dog and handler	Harder to understand training because another reward is substituted for the article
Can be taught to any dog with food, play or other motivating drive