Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
research, but also cadaver dogs and their handlers. Though Paul has moved on to a graduate
program at the University of Mississippi, he helped found and continues to organize cadaver-
dog seminars at WCU. Dogs and handlers get a chance to train in the small fifty-eight by
fifty-eight-foot plot. It might seem an odd highlight for a seminar, but serious handlers know
how crucial it is that both they and their dogs accustom themselves to what they might en-
counter out in the world.
Dogs used to training on small samples, as most samples are, can be overwhelmed by the
large pool of scent an entire body can emit. Bodies on the ground, even live ones—as every-
one knows who has played with dogs and puppies by lying on the ground—can be scary. I've
watched many dogs react at the FOREST. Some come up to bodies with great hesitation,
sniffing cautiously, then starting back. The sound of flies or maggots moving inside a bloated
body can freak them out. A few growl. Some crouch and crawl up to a body. A few bound up
to the bodies in good humor. That's great, but a handler worried about an enthusiastic dive
into unctuous remains can jerk back the lead so quickly that she corrects the dog when she
should be rewarding that lack of fear—while still keeping the dog from doing damage.
Paul talks quietly to all of them, keeping an eye on the dogs and handlers, making sure
that no dog does a belly flop into the remains, but that none is discouraged with a too-harsh
leash correction. He soothes both handlers and dogs as they negotiate the small plot that has
ten bodies in various stages of decomposition, from a body bloated like the Michelin man
to skeletonized remains to buried ones. Enthusiastic or fearful dogs pull handlers in all dir-
ections while the handlers work on controlling their dogs, praising them, and keeping their
own balance.
“She's doing good,” Paul told one handler, and then burst out crooning, “Good dog! Good
dog! Good dog!” as the border collie decided it might be fun after all and went straight up to
a body, wagging her tail.
That kind of hugely positive experience can set up a dog for a happy life finding the dead.
• • •
As much as I was learning about the scent of death, it would be some time before Solo was
exposed to a whole body. These were early days of training for us. Solo was ten months old.
We'd begun training with Nancy five months before. By this time, January 2005, I had star-
ted to carry around cadaver training material in a small picnic cooler.
David and I were headed to the beach with friends and dogs piled into a rented SUV. I
wasn't dreaming about romantic walks on the beach at sunset. I had started seeing the North
Carolina landscape as one endless opportunity to train Solo. As David drove, I stared out the
window at loblolly pine plantations and abandoned concrete-block buildings. Could we train
there? That long-harvested soy field looked like a promising place to stash a cadaver hide.
