The earliest known report of a Bloodhound’s trailing abilities comes from a philosopher, chemist, physicist and inventor born in 1627, Robert Boyle, largely regarded as the first modern chemist. He described how a Bloodhound tracked a man seven miles along a route frequented by people, and found the bloke in an upstairs room of a house. And that was just the beginning.

In 1900, Nick Carter, a Kentucky Bloodhound named named for a popular dime-novel detective, was credited with more than 650 finds that sent 126 criminals to jail. In one case, success came after following a 12-day-old trail. Nick and his handler, Captain G.V. Mullikin, became so famous that crowds often came out to watch them work.   

Nick held the record right up until 1954 when it was smashed by a Bloodhound who in 1954 found an entire family (dead from exposure) in Oregon – over 330 hours after they’d gone missing.

One expert evaluated experiments performed by experienced Bloodhound trainers, and combined the results with her training through the National Police Bloodhound Association as well as her personal experience in working successful cases with search dogs. It was her opinion that in optimal scent conditions (cool, damp areas with heavy vegetation and no wind) a trained trailing dog is capable of following a scent trail that is up to three, possibly even four weeks old.  Such a dog can track up to 200 miles over a variety of surfaces, as well as track the vehicle, so the next time an animal rights zealot tell you that purebred dogs have passed their “sell by date,” ask them who they’d want to include on a team searching for their lost child or aged parent with dementia: Volunteer searchers, or a trained Bloodhound.

Image of “Deputy Radar” shared by Marlene Groves; Radar became a member of the K9 Team for Necro Search International K9 team for NcMec (Network for Missing & Exploited Children) at just seven months of age.  Go here to learn more about this group.