Certifications

TEXAS BLOODHOUND EMERGENCY RESPONSE ASSN.

STANDARDS FOR TRAILING CERTIFICATION TEST

The Texas Bloodhound Emergency Response Association, henceforth known as TBERA, acknowledges that proper foundations are required to qualify and testify as a K9 Handler. This has been established by the courts. The Federal and Texas State Appellate Courts permit canine scent evidence and trailing evidence as testimony, within the guidelines established by case law. Certification or evaluations are not required, as long as training logs pertaining to the dog’s training are maintained.

TBERA also understands, some agencies, both public and private sector, are more comfortable utilizing a K9 team which has demonstrated a certain standard of proficiency. Based on this understanding, the evaluations administered by the TBERA are given to assist those agencies and K9 teams that need an outside entity to determine the knowledge of the handler as well as the ability of the K9.

To ensure a current level of proficiency is maintained, 4 Levels of testing with the TBTD are available and valid for a 24 month period. Note the TBTD Association reserves the right to modify the evaluations at any time. Also, the name TBTD is the title of an association, it in no way restricts the breed of dog interested in mantrailing.

The purpose of test standards is to certify the mantrailing dog’s abilities for trailing and correctly identifying a specific person in a field setting. When participating in his work, the dog should show willingness and aptitude for the exercise, and the handler should demonstrate competence and naturalness in handling the mantrailing dog. To pass any test level the canine team will need to make a find of a trail layer. However the field performances of both dog and handler, as demonstrated in a trailing test, must conform to the trailing test regulations and standards described in this document.

Three levels of testing and certifications, each with its own abbreviated title, are described in this standard:

Mantrailing Level 1 (MT1);

Mantrailing Level 2 (MT2);

Mantrailing Level 3 (MT3)

Each title specifies the level of certification for which the trailing dog has qualified. Once a dog has pasted any Level there will be at least a 30 day period before they may test for the next Level.

Levels of certification, as described in this standard, are for the sole purpose of titling a dog and showing their readiness to work in a search environment and be a part of the Texas Bloodhound Trailing Dog Association.

In order for a handler and canine team to successfully test proficiency in the discipline of trailing, they must meet the following criteria:

The Training Coordinator has the right to adjust the canines testing program as needed for the fairness of the dog, handler, and/or TBTD, and may ask the team to retest at a later date.

Instinct Certification Test (ICT); This test is designed to see what the capabilities and interest a dog has in following human odor. It is not designed as a type of certification.

The Instinct Certification Test is designed to test the amount of interest any particular dog may have in using his nose and becoming a working trailing dog. The Training Coordinator has established that you have been training, at a minimum of, two months for trailing and can produce logs to verify all training prior to testing. Training logs will be checked prior to testing by the Training Coordinator or his designee.

Handler and canine must demonstrate an interest in trailing after a runner. The trail should be on a combination of visual to nose basis. The runner will get the dogs interest and leave area moving out of sight of the dog, no more than 300 feet away. The runner should be hiding as so the dog must use his nose to make the find of the runner. The canine will be asked to start the trail within 2 to 5 min of victim leaving the area. Canine should work with good motivation and interests, go out and find the runner. Canine should complete the trial within a reasonable amount of time.

TRAINING AND TESTING REQUIREMENTS

To be a part of the TBTD Association, a handler must be interested in either gaining knowledge about the training of a trailing dog or in getting a dog approved for training as a trailing dog. A dog will be evaluated by the Training Coordinator and given the approval to proceed forward with the dogs trailing training. This shall be completed on an as need basis and is done so as not to have to work with a canine that does not meet with needs or physical ability needed to be a trailing dog.

The handler must keep training logs that shall be reviewed on an as need basis.

The handler must attend at a minimum once a month group training.

Canine Team Testing will take place on an as need basis as a team shows the proper amount of progress.

A Canine Team testing is to consist of a single K9 Handler, one Canine, and 0-2 Flakers of the K9 Handlers choosing. Decisions made by the team as a whole are ultimately the responsibility of the K9 Handler. Regardless of the number of members on a team, the Trailing Certification is made out only to the Canine and Handler.

All Canine teams will be required to work with a harness on the dog and lead.

The test shall be blind and unknown to the K9 Team however in setting up a testing trail the Lead Evaluator should keep safety for both the dog and handler in mind and as a priority.

Two evaluators designated by the Training Coordinator shall witness the test. Evaluators shall not offer any assistance to the K9 team testing. The evaluator may stop the test if it is agreed by both evaluators that the K9 is not trailing and cannot possibly recover the track or scent. All rulings by the evaluators are final.

TEST EVALUATOR STANDARDS

Testing Evaluators are to have worked with a Trailing dog for a minimum of 3 years, and have been used by police agencies in call-outs in the past, or have been an instructor at a trailing dog SAR event. They should have the ability to accurately read the body language of a working dog and be able to articulate the dog’s actions. During any Mantrailing Level Tests, only the Lead Evaluator will know the exact location of the trail and individuals used on the trail. The second Evaluator shall run the Testing Trail Blind and should be watching and reading the dog and handler’s actions to gain their information. Information in regards to the location of the trail and individuals used in the test should be minimal. In the event, a dog starts to get excessively off trail or is taking an excessive amount of time to complete the trail then the Lead Evaluator should question with the Second Evaluator what information they are getting from watching the test. All reasonable efforts should be made to allow the K9 Team testing to recover and finish the test.

TESTING GUIDELINES AND PROCEDURES

Mantrailing Level 1 (MT1);

Mantrailing Level 1 (MT1) test are open to all dogs that have successfully passed the Instinct Certification Test (ICT) or have shown the ability to work and perform a blind trail/search.

The handler must have attended and completed as a handler, one Trailing Seminar approved by the Training Coordinator. The Training Coordinator has established that you should have been training a minimum of six months in trailing and can produce logs to verify all training prior to testing. Training logs will be checked prior to testing by the Training Coordinator or his designee.

ORAL QUESTION/ANSWER REVIEW

Testing participants will be subject to an oral review over legal foundation, legal issues, scent theory, types of scent articles, scent article preservation, scent article collection, canine knowledge and deployment issues. Handlers should be able to articulate search strategy and describe canine’s behavior, and trained alert. The handler should be able to respond to and answer correctly questions prior to and during the trailing test on canine behavior. All questions will relate to best practice guidelines established and acknowledged by scent canine handlers and law enforcement.

TESTING

Handler and canine team must demonstrate the ability to find and correctly identify a subject by tracking/trailing a distance from 1/2 to 3/4 mile in length, over at least two varied surfaces. Trails may be run in an area with some contamination (forest, jogging trail, city park area, etc.) that has moderate access during all phases of the test (laying and running of trails). The trail may have terrains that have potentially contaminated conditions in either a rural or urban environment. The trial shall be at least 1 hours and no more than 4 hours old. The handler will be able to identify from a scent article given, a positive trail, which handler and canine will follow to a successful conclusion. Handler and canine must demonstrate the ability to correctly eliminate areas where no trail is present. The handler must be able to correctly identify when the canine is on the trail. Canine should make a correct find of the trail layer at the end of the trail.

The testing trail will be blind and lay in an area that combines a variety of possible distractions for the handler and canine team. The handler will be given a PLS and there will be no time limit for completion of the test trail.

Certification will be given if the Handler and Canine Team makes a Find of the Trail Layer.

TESTING GUIDELINES AND PROCEDURES

Mantrailing Level 2 (MT2);

Mantrailing Level 2 (MT2) trails are open to all dogs that have successfully passed the Mantrailing Level 1 (MT1) test and maintained their records log. Training logs will be checked prior to testing by the Training Coordinator or his designee.

ORAL QUESTION/ANSWER REVIEW

Testing participants will be subject to an oral review over legal foundation, legal issues, scent theory, types of scent articles, scent article preservation, scent article collection, canine knowledge and deployment issues. Handlers should be able to articulate search strategy and describe canine’s behavior, trained alert, and ID. The handler should be able to respond to and answer correctly questions prior to and during the trailing test on canine behavior. All questions will relate to best practice guidelines established and acknowledged by scent canine handlers and law enforcement.

TESTING

Handler and canine must demonstrate the ability to find and correctly identify a subject by tracking/trailing a distance from 3/4 to 1.5 miles in length, over three or more varied surfaces. Trails may be run in an area of moderate contamination area (school yard, industrial area, mall area, or similar used area) that has unlimited access and moderate traffic during all phases of the test (laying and running of trails). The trail will be at least 4 hours old but no more than 16 hours old and will follow a “natural wandering path,” including two changes of direction, one of which must be a turn of at least 90 degrees. The trail may also include additional people in it. The trail may have terrains that have potentially contaminated conditions in either a rural or urban environment. The handler will be able to identify from a scent article given, a positive trail, which handler and canine will follow to a successful conclusion. Handler and canine must demonstrate the ability to correctly eliminate areas where no trail is present. While on trail Handler will be required to put canine in a HOLD Position and be asked to keep the dog on hold for a minimum of 2 minutes. At such time the Canine Team should restart and continue on the trail to finish. Canine should correctly I.D. the trail layer at the end of the trail.

Certification will be given if the Handler and Canine Team makes a Find of the Trail Layer, and give an I.D.

TESTING GUIDELINES AND PROCEDURES

Mantrailing Level 3 (MT3);

Mantrailing Level 3 (MT3) trails are open to all dogs that have successfully passed the Mantrailing Level 2 (MT2) test and maintained their records log. Training logs will be checked prior to testing by the Training Coordinator or his designee.

ORAL QUESTION/ANSWER REVIEW

Testing participants will be subject to an oral review over legal foundation, legal issues, scent theory, types of scent articles, scent article preservation, scent article collection, canine knowledge, and deployment issues. Handlers should be able to articulate search strategy and describe canine’s behavior, trained alert, and ID. The handler should be able to respond to and answer correctly questions prior to and during the trailing test on canine behavior. All questions will relate to best practice guidelines established and acknowledged by scent canine handlers and law enforcement.

TESTING

Handler and canine must demonstrate the ability to find and correctly identify a subject by tracking/trailing a distance from 1 to 3 miles in length, over many varied surfaces (grass, dirt, asphalt, and concrete). Trails will be run blind, in a heavily contaminated area (movie theater, public park, forest, industrial area or similar heavily used area) that has unlimited access and heavy traffic during all phases of the test (laying and running of trails). The trail will be at least 20 hours old but no more than 36 hours old and will follow a “natural wandering path,” including several changes of direction, one of which must be a turn of at least 90 degrees. The trail may also contain a scent pool from the missing person or have a back trail set in it. The trail may also include other persons on/in it. The trail may have terrains that have potentially contaminated conditions in either a rural or urban environment. The handler will be given two scent articles of any of the following types: i.e. hard article, soft article, or scent pad. The negative article will be obtained using appropriate scent article handling procedures, prior to testing by the Training Coordinator/designee from persons who reside more than 30 miles from the testing area and have not traveled to the testing area within last 90 days. The handler will be given a PLS and instructed to start his trail. While on trail Handler will be required to put the canine in a HOLD Position and keep the dog on hold for a minimum of 3 minutes. At such time the Canine Team should restart and continue on the trail to finish. Canine should correctly I.D. the trail layer at the end of the trail.

There is no time limit for completion of the test trail. The handler should be able to articulate an exact alert to be displayed by the dog and the dog should give a readable, visible alert as stated. In the absence of a readable alert, the success of the trail will be subject to the evaluator’s discretion.

Certification will be given if the Handler and Canine Team makes a Find of the Trail Layer, and give an I.D.

While working the trail a Handler and canine must demonstrate the ability to correctly eliminate areas where NO TRAIL is present from the scent article given. The handler must demonstrate the ability to rule out areas of possible “sightings” using the scent articles available to him. The handler must be able to read, interpret and correctly predict the canine during a NEGATIVE article presentation and articulate how canine will indicate NO TRAIL. The handler will be able to identify from a scent article given, the article that produces a POSITIVE trail, which handler and canine will follow to a successful conclusion. In the event that the canine takes the trail from a negative scent article and the handler does not identify this as a false trail and stop the canine within a reasonable distance, it is up to the evaluator’s discretion to end the test.

anyone interested in obtaining a K9 Mantrailing Certification may contact us at

817-891-0689 or email glpotts13@gmail.com

TEXAS BLOODHOUND

EMERGENCY RESPONSE ASSOCIATION

Certifications