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Man Trailing - Scent Tracking
Imagine someone you love is missing. Who do you trust to find them? Our dogs are trained to find one specific human scent - through neighborhoods, parks, hiking trails and even crowded areas.​​
This skill requires constant training, implementing new scenarios, new locations, and considering all types of weather so we can continue to push the limit to what is possible in real life situations. ​
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If you're curious about scent work training, or want to see more of what we do, follow us on Instagram @Trails2Obedience and read more on our blog.
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Drone Video - 07/11/2024 Training at Mantua Reservoir Utah
Training Scenario: A child is eating lunch at the pavilion with their family and wanders off. The family notices the child is missing so they begin searching but have no luck. Worried the child may have walked to the water and is in danger they give us a call.
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The K9 handler uses the juice box the child drank at lunch as their scent article. He presents the article to the dog. With a quick inhale, she locks onto the child's unique odor. Nose to the ground she uses her 300 million scent receptors to follow the unique scent she was presented. (Compared to the approximately 350-400 functional types of receptors dedicated to detecting odors humans have.)
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The K9 threads her way through hikers, beachgoers, and overlapping human scent pools, ignoring all but the one odor she was assigned. Her ability to discriminate among countless competing smells is what makes a trained bloodhound such a remarkable tracking dog.
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The trail leads her to the shoreline, where scent settles and drifts across the surface of the lake. Without hesitation, she follows it straight into the water—continuing to work the odor as it carries toward a single paddle boarder waiting offshore.
Training Map - 2/17/2026
