Two legally obtainable training aids might not be too easy to easy to come by.
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She occasionally gets access to the surface, be it a piece of carpet or some dirt, for example, on which a body was found.
But the most common training aid is placenta, donated by new moms.
"I'm in the habit of congratulating family members and in the second sentence saying, 'So, what are you doing with your placenta?" said Cooper, who has a few placentas in her freezer at home.
She said a handler will train a dog with the same odour source for approximately six months so the dog learns the subtle changes that take place during decomposition.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/cadaver-dogs-science-training-1.3654993
Thank you for this Brietta.
I have already given thought to how I might obtain human remains, and I think that problem is solvable.
Here's where the wheels come off the bus.
We have a very small freezer, so any human remains would be getting stored alongside my steak and kidney pies, pizza and frozen fish. Commonly known as yuk!
My family already think I'm weird. Starting up a human body farm in our back garden might convince them I should be committed to the loony bin.
But what I want is a victim recovery dog. I would like the dog to be able to give two different alerts, one for dead and one for alive.
I don't want to train Gonçalo as a cadaver dog. I want him to be able to tell me when a victim is still alive. A victim recovery dog. VRD.