Do Pseudoscents Work?
Disclaimer: We are not connected with Sigma Chemical Company. We
buy our Pseudoscents at list price like everyone else. Andy was paid
a small amount for writing the Protocols for Using Pseudoscents and
was given chemicals to evaluate, but that was several years ago.
Composition: That is a company secret as they developed the formula
and don't want others to copy it. However, they analyzed the
chemicals of decomposition and formulated something similar. It
isn't as wide a spectrum as actual decomposition, but it does work,
based on experience with hundreds of dogs.
Our background: Andy Rebmann, CT State Trooper, had a bloodhound
that was afraid of bodies. He would not close in on a body. So when
Clem wouldn't finish a trail, Andy would bring out his air scenting
dog. Andy started thinking about what was going on and training his
GSD for body work using the chemicals Cadaverine and Putracine. They
are very toxic and dangerous and require all sorts of care to use,
but he did get his dog trained. This was in the late 70's. From then
until his retirement over 10 years ago, Andy trained cadaver dogs
for himself, conducted cadaver dog training classes for police
departments, and went on thousands of searches. He has hundreds of
finds, both live and dead. (Right now he's working on a data base of
searches - only up to 500+) He also helped Sigma's Pat Carr develop
the Pseudoscents. (for free)
When Andy retired he started teaching cadaver classes to volunteers.
We started teaching classes together in 1993. During that time we've
had 500+ cadaver students. We see many of them in several classes
over the years. Now with this long preamble over, what's the
opinion of Pseudoscents? Pseudoscents WORK.
1. We imprint the Pseudoscent by having the dogs go down a line of
concrete blocks, one of which has the scent on a gauze pad. This is
done many times until the dog knows that's what he's looking for.
You can get more specific instructions by asking for the Pseudoscent
Protocols from Sigma Chemical. They do not automatically send them -
or even tell you they exist when you order the chemicals!
2. Because the chemical spectrum is not as wide as with actual
decomposition, the dogs must be formally introduced to the chemical.
Before Andy moved out here, I used the chemicals and had some
difficulties with dogs recognizing them. Andy told me to introduce
the dogs to them before setting up a search problem. It worked. I
think this may be why some other handlers are having trouble with
their dogs indicating on Pseudoscent.
3. Dogs that have been trained using the Pseudoscents ONLY have gone
out and made finds! Two examples: Matt Zarrella (krismatt28@aol.com),
RI State Trooper trained his dogs only on Pseudodrowned. He had many
water finds with both dogs with no problems. Tom Berezowski - Japan
(tes@gol.com). In Japan it is
illegal to have human remains. So when we teach we use
Pseudocorpse, Pseudodistressed and Pseudodrowned. On Tom's first
search he had a water find. Subsequently his dog found a suicide. He
responded to the Taiwan earthquake where Chewy found many.
4. We don't used Pseudoscents exclusively in our cadaver classes
(except in Japan), but they're easy to use, so we start with
them.
Problems with Pseudoscents:
1. Dogs won't indicate them This is because the dog has not
been introduced to the scent and rewarded before having to do a
search problem.
2. Dogs that have been trained on the "real stuff" won't
alert on Pseudoscents. That's true because real decomposition is a
much wider spectrum of scent. However, introducing these dogs to
Pseudoscents and then doing a search problem solves this
problem.
Why use Pseudoscents at all?
We use them because:
Advantages of Pseudoscents:
1. Easy to use - I can take the vials anywhere with me. When Sue
Williams (sue130@aol.com) and I
went to Hawaii for a search, I took several vials with me and a
couple of scent tubes. We worked on speculative searches for 6 days.
To keep the dogs' interest up we planted tubes and then really
rewarded them when they found them. It worked beautifully and was so
SIMPLE.
2. P.C. - When you work a cadaver dog, you get used to getting
samples, storing all sorts of material, etc. You forget what the
general public's reaction is to human remains. When I'm asked what I
use for training materials, I can say chemicals. If pushed, I'll add
soil and blood. In Hawaii I did a demonstration for the TV cameras
of opening a vial of Pseudoscent, putting it in a scent tube, hiding
the tube and having the dog find it. It worked great and satisfied
everyone's questions.
3. In some countries (Japan) and in some states (CA) it is illegal
to possess human remains. When we are doing large training sessions
where the media may be present or travel to a different country, we
follow the laws. (In a state on the east coast of the US, a search
dog handler demanded to a newspaper reporter that he have access to
human remains to train his dog. A congressman saw this, was
horrified, and got a bill passed making it illegal to possess human
remains. If you're going to use remains, don't talk about it to the
media, and don't put it in your standard and then publish the
standard on your web pages.)
4. For disaster work, we conceal Pseudocorpse and Pseudo distressed
in a rubble pile. We make sure that the dog alerts on the "live
person" scent first. The handler doesn't know which is which,
so cannot inadvertently cue the dog. 5. Based on our experiences
with over 500 dogs, Pseudoscents WORK. (One handler was convinced
that her dog would not alert on Pseudoscent. We set up a problem for
the dogs with a dummy in camouflage hanging from a tree. It had 1ml
of Pseudo II on a gauze pad stuffed in its body. The dummy could not
be seen from the trail. There was a nice breeze carrying from the
dummy to the trail. Every dog in the class - 10 - picked up the
scent and went in on it and alerted before the handler saw the
dummy.)
Questions regarding use of Pseudoscents
Andy Rebmann answers:
1. Why use Pseudoscents?
The Pseudoscents are only training tools which make the process of scent introduction and imprinting easy in a class setting. They are easy to handle and provide a portion of the overall scent picture to the dog. It allows us to concentrate on teaching basic training principles and timing of reinforcement. However, we also use other materials during the early phases of training in order to give as complete scent picture to the dog as
possible. These target odors are introduced to the dog the same way the
pseudo scent is.
There are a couple of agencies in the US that train exclusively with Pseudoscents for cadaver work and they have an excellent find record. Since the possession of human remains is illegal in their location, I can't testify with 100% accuracy that they do not use other sources later in their training. It continues to amaze me the number of handlers that advertise that they use HR publicly when possession is illegal in their states. They must think the legal eagles don't read these lists.
2. Has a dog ever eaten an item with the Pseudo on it?
Dogs have managed to devour the gauze pad at least two times. Once it was Pseudo I and I don't recall the other. Neither dog suffered any side effects.
3. Why doesn't a dog do his trained indication when he finds an actual body?
Everything we use as a scent source is only to assist the dog to recognize a
wide spectrum of scent from biological death through the various stages of
decomposition to the skeletal stage. Even then, since we normally train with
small sources, many times when the dog encounters its first deceased victim
in full putrefaction, the trained indication will not occur because of the
plethora of scent presented to the dog.
4. Has handler testimony ever been excluded in court because you trained with Pseudoscents?
I do not know of any case where handler testimony has been excluded because they trained with Pseudoscents. In one case I was asked what I used to train and answered with Pseudo, soil, and blood. The defense asked about the chemical composition of the Pseudo, and I answered that I did not know, the formula was the property of Sigma and they could subpoena someone from there to testify as to the composition. All I knew was that it worked. I had no further problems with qualifying as an expert.
I was also subpoenaed to do a court ordered demonstration for the defense in a Florida case. Because I did not want to be accused of "stacking the deck" I let the defense attorney supervise the setup. One scent source was Pseudo and one was adipocere. Both problems were done blind and we had no problems
with the demo. Also, we had no problems in qualifying for testimony in that
case.
Since I met some resistance in a class concerning the use of Pseudo, I
requested they provide me with court cites showing where the use of Pseudo
resulted in an overturned verdict or exclusion of testimony. To date, no one
has provided any information.
Andy Rebmann 9/03
Buying Pseudoscents: http://www.sigma-aldrich.com
c. 2000 Marcia Koenig
K-9
Specialty Search Associates
