Can a scent hound be used to find a missing pet

BrianD3

I saw this brought up in another forum but don't know if it's feasible or perhaps it's a load of BS. Basically, can a scent hound be trained to locate missing pets? Anyone know anything about this, seems to be a bit of it in the US. For instance http://www.lostpetdetection.com/

I wonder what is the useful search radius and success rate, what effect does an urban and rural environment have on the search etc. It always pains me to hear of pet owners who have lost their pets and are distraught. It is very common just look at all the lost and found ads on the ISPCA website. If it did work it could be a business idea for someone, the training for the dogs would take a lot of time and effort but there would be no shortage of customers I'd say. A different fee could be charged depending on whether the pet was found or not.

peasant

Don't know too much about scent hounds, but I would think that by the time the pet is usually registerd as missing and the scent hound arrives at the scene, the track would be "cold".

Even the best scent hound wouldn't stand a chance in city streets after a few hours of heavy traffic (cars, people, animals) and possibly rain on top of it all. In the countryside ...possibly.

junkyard

I was only thinking of a device that could be made to implant in a pet like micro chipping, that would work via GPS or the mobile phone network. The basic idea would be to triangulate the location of the lost pet, or even better, to locate the pet via GPS. I'll have to get working on it if it isn't out there already.

franksm

junkyard wrote:

I was only thinking of a device that could be made to implant in a pet like micro chipping, that would work via GPS or the mobile phone network. The basic idea would be to triangulate the location of the lost pet, or even better, to locate the pet via GPS. I'll have to get working on it if it isn't out there already.

I looked into this already

The only GPS systems I know about are used for wildlife, have no idea where they source them. I have a GPS tracker in the car but because of its batteries, it's about the size of two cigarette packets.

What is available is a standard-ish radio-triangulation type thing. See here: http://www.thecatlocator.com/locator/about_locator.html

Interesting ideas in this patent: http://www.wipo.int/pctdb/en/wo.jsp?KEY=99/42968.991028

BrianD3

Yes, animal tracking using GPS is being done already but the devices that attach to the animal are still a bit too big for an average pet. I believe there are issues with antennae orientation, also with the units being external (eg attached to a dogs collar) they are easily damaged or torn off. In years to come with technology improving it may be possible to do what junkyard says and implant a micro transmitter in the animal

peasant

one example see here (in German)
http://www.corscience.de/dogphone/

KTRIC

I like the one from the loCATor, it looks like the best alternative to a GPS tracker for a cat.

franksm

Ed Z ! And if they can get a GPS unit that small, it would be great