New Methods for Training Historic/Prehistoric Human Remains Detection Dogs

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Canine Resources for the Archaeologist" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Human remains detection dogs have been used with success to detect both historic and prehistoric human remains in various projects in the United States and Europe. However, success has often been marginal, as it is with “search and rescue” cadaver dogs. Three dogs have been trained at the forensic anthropology center at Texas State University on both complete surface and buried remains, then a green cemetery with buried remains ranging from fresh to 12 years. Typically, historic dogs are started on old dry bone and graves in historic cemeteries. These dogs did not train on historic graves until after initial training on whole bodies in various stages of decomposition was completed. Two dogs have successfully identified both historic and prehistoric graves in multiple locations to date. The third dog is still in training and will be tested later this year. This method appears to be more statistically successful; however, no one knows what the dogs are responding to. One theory is that recalcitrant fat remains in the soil as bones are often degraded beyond recovery. Further research is needed to determine long-term efficacy of the training method and the components that allow the dogs to identify the graves.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Canine Resources for the Archaeologist   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 37655.0