Using cadaverine and putrescine, chemicals produced by decomposing corpses, Rebmann trained his first body dog, Rufus, to pick out the scent of death. Since the 1970s, he has participated in thousands of cadaver-dog searches. Before he could say, “good dog,” Cleo had launched her owner’s career as a police K-9 handler. Rebmann and Cleo competed in AKC obedience and, one day, the trooper brought his big fluffy pal to work and showed off some of her moves. Although Rebmann loved dogs, he didn’t apply for the program because he wasn’t sure he was qualified.Ĭleo, his family’s pet Newfoundland at the time, changed that. The department put out a recruiting call for K-9 handlers. He developed training programs for the discipline.īefore he became involved with sniffer dogs, Rebmann was a Connecticut State Police trooper. Suffolk trained a yellow Labrador Retriever as the first “body dog.” (Today, they are referred to as “decomposition dogs” or “cadaver dogs.”)Īndrew Rebmann, a co-author of the classic textbook Cadaver Dog Handbook, was among the first handlers in the U.S. In the early 1970s, New York State Trooper Ralph Suffolk Jr., a Bloodhound handler, worked with the Military Animal Science program at San Antonio’s Southwest Research Institute to test the concept. It all started when Vietnam War-era Army researchers began musing how many jobs dogs could perform at home and in peacetime. Nevertheless, organized attempts to use this natural wonder in homicide investigations is relatively new, dating back only to around the 1970s, wrote Cat Warren in What the Dog Knows. Scent regions of their brains are roughly 40 times larger than ours. Dogs have about 200 to 300 million scent receptors in their noses, compared to about six million in humans. Their ability to pick up odors is a true superpower. Legacy of Vietnamįor centuries, humans have relied on the extraordinary power of the canine nose for patrolling, tracking fugitives and missing persons, or identifying bombs or illegal substances. The killer, Noren’s roommate, is now serving a life sentence. It was enough to convince police that foul play was involved and to press an investigation.Ī hiker later found Noren’s body, dumped along the side of a wilderness road. “It lit up like the night sky,” according to Radar’s winning entry for the 2016 AKC Humane Fund Award for Canine Excellence. Investigators looked in the trunk again, this time with a luminescing chemical. Lakewood officers had thoroughly examined the trunk before, but their eyes did not pick up what Radar’s nose had-two specks of blood. Police had nothing until Radar sat in front of the trunk of Noren’s car. Something bad had happened to him, everyone was sure of that, but there was no way to even guess what it was or where to start looking. Even more troubling, he had left behind the most precious thing in his life-Olivia, his 12-year-old black Labrador Retriever. Noren was not likely to run off without a word. The car was part of an investigation into the May 2013 disappearance of David Noren, 49, of Lakewood, Colorado. Radar is a “decomposition dog,” also known as a “cadaver dog” trained to pick up the scent of death. What Radar had pinpointed in those moments was the unique bouquet of decaying human bodies. It was his signal to Hurst, “This is the spot. When the big red dog came to the trunk, which was closed, he sat. Radar ran around the item in question-a car in the police impound lot-his nostrils quivering. Sheriff’s Deputy Frank Hurst reached down to his 140-pound partner, Radar, and slipped a collar decorated with skulls and crossbones around the Bloodhound’s neck.
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