Cache-Sniffing Dogs

By Kim Stephens (sarhound)

I have a few interesting experiences to relate in regards to “cache-sniffing” dogs. I had never seriously considered using a dog to find caches; my bloodhounds frequently go out on caching expeditions with me, but I’ve never encouraged them to hunt actively for a cache. My newest bloodhound, Curly Jo, may change my opinion on using caching as a basis for article recovery in a scent dog.

Curly Jo after his first official cache find. He’s saying, “Niener, niener.”

A bit of background history: my three hounds are members of First Response Search and Rescue, based out of Jefferson, Texas. The oldest member is Miss MollyMaguire, a black-and-tan 5-year-old girl who is my primary partner. She has been training as a trailing hound since she was 3 months old and has been active duty for the past two years. My younger male is Alejandro Rojo (Zander), a 3 year old who is just now coming into decent working form.

The newest member of the gang is Curly Jo, a 5-year-old male who is Miss Molly’s actual litter brother. He has never had any search and rescue training, but will be starting elementary scent work this autumn.

We acquired Curly Jo last Thanksgiving, bringing him home from Branson, Missouri, where he had been brought to me by the folks at Midwest Bloodhound Rescue of Chicago. He arrived in Texas a little bewildered. The climate and the terrain are quite a bit different from what he knew, so I started taking him out for walks with the other two hounds; dogs learn very rapidly when they observe a more experienced dog performing in unfamiliar situations.

The only training I had done with him was some elementary runaway work, where the victim remains in sight and calls to attract the dog; it gives them the starting point to learn that they are supposed to go find the runner. He has not yet been introduced to scent work.

One day, I decided to take him out alone with me on a caching expedition. It would be good experience in learning to navigate the sometimes not-too-friendly Texas vegetation, and it would allow him some time to bond with me. We made it out to an old, established cache that involved a creek crossing. He followed me through some high brush, and we entered a clearing. The GPSr was zeroed out, and there weren’t too many possibilities for a cache hiding place. To top it off, the hider has been known to be devious and evil at times. The last find on the cache was twenty-four days prior to our arrival.

I poked around in all the usual suspect places but was coming up empty-handed. Curly Jo was ambling around at the end of his long lead, “sniffing” the sights. I was scratching my head, trying to figure out just where the cache might be, when he went over and tagged it. I thought to myself, “Self, I think this hound has just pointed out a rather sneaky thing.” Sure enough, he was right.

The first cache was an artificial prickly pear lobe that was stuck in the ground. I didn't even stop to think that it was unusual for just one prickly pear lobe to be present, since they're usually in a mass. Curly Jo didn’t really understand why I was praising him so much, but he seemed to be quite satisfied with himself. I figured it was just a coincidence that he found the cache, but he definitely got my attention. I needed a hound that is good at article recovery. If it happened again, I had a contender on my hands.

Several weeks later, a new cache series was activated, and I hit the trail with Curly Jo again. I didn’t know it at the time, but we were a couple of hours behind another local team in the “first wave” of finders. I got him out of the truck and hooked up his lead. I barely had time to pick up the GPSr when he jerked the end of the lead and took off along the trail. I let him take the lead and checked the GPSr; sure enough, he was taking me straight to it. We got tangled up in some undergrowth when we were within 30 feet of the cache (bloodhounds can navigate tighter spaces than the “dope on the rope” behind them.)

I wound up tying him off to a tree while I found the cache. When I got to it, I realized that he had eventually taken us to within 12 feet of the cache. I looked at the logbook and saw Curly Jo was following a scent trail from the previous team that I hadn't asked him to find. I'm starting to wonder just what is going on with this hound. OK, so I'm getting a little spooked now.

I got out with Curly Jo to find the next one in the series and hopped the erosion control barrier. This time, the boy was following me instead of leading through the woods. I got to where my GPSr zeroed out, but no cache was to be found. Once again, Curly Jo hitting the end of the lead almost pulled me off my feet. When I looked around, he was headed off to the left, but my unit was indicating right. I was just getting ready to call him back to me when he landed on top of the cache. I followed him over there; my unit was reading 47 feet off. Once again, we had followed the previous team’s scent trail to the cache, all without any encouragement from the human handler.

I'm now the proud human who belongs to a new model of GPSr-- the "Bloodhound." Garmin and Magellan had better watch out-- the competition in the field is increasing! Curly Jo near another cache site.