Cuddly Bloodhound Puppies Destined To Become Tampa Bay Crime Fighters

PINELLAS COUNTY, FL — With their cute, wrinkly faces, pudgy bellies just begging to be scratched and feet too large for their bodies, these puppies hardly look like crime-fighting material.

But give them nine months to grow, develop their sensitive olfactory receptors and train at the Pasco County Sheriff's Helen A. Rich K9 Training and Research Complex, and these puppies will be transformed into expert sniffers, able to find lost children, criminals on the lam and people buried beneath tons of rubble at disaster sites.

In the opinion of Pasco County Sheriff's Cpl. Rob Wilkins, lead bloodhound trainer for the complex, there's no better animal for tracking people over long distances than a bloodhound.

"They won't rest until they've reached the end of their trail," he said. "Bloodhounds are tough, independent and possess an incredible sense of smell."

They can track people people through acres of dense forest land, across rivers and in urban areas where there are hundreds of buildings to hide in.

While German shepherds have traditionally been favored for all-purpose use by both law enforcement and military, law enforcement agencies are increasingly turning to other breeds for specialized tasks.

With their saggy skin, drooping ears, soulful eyes and tendency to drool, bloodhounds simply don't have the intimidation factor of a shepherd or doberman pinscher.

However, the portrayals of bloodhounds on television as lazy, dumb and slow-moving, like Jed Clampett's dog, Duke, in the "Beverly Hillbillies," is far from accurate.

While it's true they can be stubborn, bloodhounds not only have a keen sense of smell but they have powerful legs that allows them to follow scents over miles of punishing terrain.

It's Wilkins' job to turn the bloodhound's stubborn streak into dogged determination.

After acquiring five 2-month-old bloodhound puppy brothers in December from Bluegrass Bloodhounds in Leitchfield, Kentucky, Wilkins will spend nine months transforming the dogs into expert trackers.

Although they arrived from Bluegrass Bloodhounds weighing just a few pounds each, these pups will grow to stand 23 to 27 inches at the shoulder and weigh up to 110 pounds.

Two of the bloodhounds, Holmes and Duke, are destined to become part of the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office K-9 Unit. The remaining three will remain with the Pasco sheriff's team.

“Holmes is a more methodical tracker,” Wilkins said. “Duke is a little more reckless. He’s smash-and-crash. Both are effective, just different.”

“Watching these little guys track is unbelievable,” said Wilkins. “We work so hard trying to get patrol dogs (shepherds and Malinois) to track, but these puppies just do it. We just have to expose them to everything, and they pick it up so fast.”

Nevertheless, training dogs to become certified trackers takes a lot of time and patience, he said.

During a recent training session, Holmes watched Wilkins with wide-eyed curiosity from the seat of the sheriff's Tahoe cruiser as Wilkins shuffled his feet in the dirt, laying down a strong scent for the pup. Then he made his way into the waist-high grass in the adjoining field and dropped to the ground, disappearing from the puppy's view.

Led by his handler, Deputy Dalton Schomp, Holmes hopped out of the Tahoe and nonchalantly sniffed the dirt where Wilkins had shuffled his feet. Then, without hesistating, the puppy made a beeline to Wilkins' hiding place, receiving a cup of kibble as a reward for finding the trainer so quickly.

Over the next months, Wilkins' hiding places will move farther away and be better concealed as the puppies become more adept at tracking.

"Tracking training is a long, incremental process," Wilkins said. "First you start by just walking away but still in plain sight."

Once the pups master finding someone in sight, they're ready to search for someone who is concealed, Wilkins said.

“You make that transition where it’s, 'Hey, I can’t see the guy anymore. I have to use my nose to find him,'" Wilkins said.

When they complete training, these puppies will be able to track a cold scent for miles.

At the same time Wilkins trains the puppies, he also trains their handlers, instructing them on how to closely watch the dog's behavior for signs the puppy is on the right trail or has lost the scent.

“So if the dog gets off the track, he knows what that looks like," said Wilkins.

Handlers for tracking dogs also have to understand how variables such as wind velocity, outdoor temperatures and the type of ground cover in the area can impact the dog's ability to track.

In addition to learning to track, the puppies get regular workouts to ensure they're in peak physical condition for those long treks.

“They’re puppies and they’re just made of Jello-O, so we need to build their conditioning," Wilkins said.

Wilkins begins by taking them on long hikes in the woods without leads so they have to follow behind him.

“I’ll go over a log or something, and they’ll all scramble over, too, then stop and fight and play with each other," he said.

Related:

• It's In Their Blood: K-9 Puppies Destined To Find Lost People
• Video: Buster Helps Sheriff's Office Bust Accused Car Thieves

Eventually, he'll begin exposing them to different environments.

“Every little thing we can think of, we’re throwing at them,” Wilkins said. “Surface changes, terrain changes, anything we can get them on, we do it now.”

The training center in Pasco has a rubble pile the sheriff's office uses to train search-and-rescue dogs used at disaster scenes.

The bloodhound puppies make a game of following one another through the rubble. In the process, they learn to navigate the unfamiliar terrain.

Schomp said he's impressed at the puppies' single-mindedness at this young age. Even with other activities taking place at the training center, the puppies remain focused on their task.

“There can be some distractions," he said. "They’re young and still learning, but once they’re on the scent and know what they’re looking for, they stick to it. I’m excited by the process and by how far we’ve come already.”

Holmes concedes the puppy has won him over.

“He’s very playful,” Schomp said. “He loves any kind of toys, and he loves playing with my other two dogs. He has a lot of energy and loves to run. He keeps me on my toes."

Although neighboring counties have bloodhounds in their K-9 units, the Pinellas sheriff's office hasn't had a bloodhound since the 1960s. Its K-9 unit consists of German shephards, Belgian malinois and shepherd/malinois mixes.

Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri felt a bloodhound wasn't needed in urbanized Pinellas County where there are no large expanses of woodlands or rural areas where bloodhounds might be needed for long-distance tracking.

Gualtieri changed his mind, however, in September when sheriff's Deputy Michael Hartwick was struck and killed by a construction worker driving a front-end loader on Interstate 275.

The construction worker, Juan Ariel Molina-Salles, 32, fled the scene and law enforcement agencies across Pinellas County were unable to locate him using the sheriff's three helicopters and K-9 team. Finally, Gualtieri called in the Pasco sheriff's office to use one of its bloodhounds to track Molina Salles.

The bloodhound quickly picked up the construction worker's scent and located Molina-Salles hiding in some brush.

After that, Gualtieri decided his office needed a bloodhound.

He's not the only Florida sheriff who's been impressed with Pasco's bloodhounds. They are often called in to help search for missing people in other counties. Investigators searching for Brian Laundrie called in Pasco's bloodhounds several times to search for Laundrie in North Port. They also have been called to Broward County for a missing person search and to the Everglades to assist in an FBI case.

Pinellas sheriff's K-9 Sgt. Mike Kilian said the deciding factor to bring bloodhounds into the Pinellas County K-9 unit was the breed's ability to carry a scent for hours while German shepherds and Belgian malinois can only hold a scent for about 45 minutes.

"It is very difficult with contamination and foot traffic to get a German shepherd or a Belgian malinois on that track," he said. "With a bloodhound, you give them a scent from an article of clothing, and they can quickly pick that track up."

He said using the Pasco sheriff's facility to train Holmes and Duke was ideal not only because of trainers who are experienced with bloodhounds but because the two counties share a border. The handlers and dogs train four days a week so the proximity eliminates a long commute.

“With bloodhounds we’ll be able to track missing children, or elderly citizens suffering from dementia who have wandered away, or follow a suspect who left the scene of the crime hours before," Kilian said.

Wilkins hopes to have both puppies and handlers trained and ready to hit the streets by September.

Pasco County's Bloodhound Gang

Unlike Pinellas County, Pasco County contains cattle ranches and large tracts of environmental lands where children, hikers and people with Alzheimer's disease or dementia can easily become lost.

Pasco Sheriff Chris Nocco said the sheriff's office most frequent calls are reports of lost people so having bloodhounds in the sheriff's K-9 unit only made sense.

Not only can bloodhounds carry a scent longer than other breeds of dogs, they have the ability to distinguish the scents of different people and can track those scents through areas like creeks and swamps where other breeds will easily lose a scent.

The Pasco sheriff's office first bloodhound was Buster, who was just 11 weeks ago when he came to Pasco County in 2015.

A year later, following training and certification by the National Police Bloodhound Association, Buster astounded his handler, Deputy Chris Miller, and fellow deputies with his uncanny ability to distinguish the scent of a single person in a crowd of people.

Buster proved his value many times over during his tenure with the sheriff's office including in March 2021 when the dog single-mindedly led his handler through woods and swamps for 30 minutes, eventually leading Miller to one accused car thief hiding in a bush and another hiding behind a house.

Buster's unique ability prompted Nocco to create the sheriff's SafetyNet Tracking System in which caregivers of people with dementia, Alzheimer's disease, autism or Down syndrome are invited to swab their loved one with a gauze pad that is placed in sealed jar and stored at the sheriff's office.

If the person gets lost, the sheriff's office has that person's scent on hand and doesn't have to wait for the family to find and bring in a personal item with the person's scent. The jar is simply unsealed and the gauze given to the bloodhound to sniff, allowing him to track the person regardless of how much time had passed since the scent was preserved.

After Buster's impressive display of his ability to find lost people and track criminals, the Pasco sheriff added bloodhound Knox to its K-9 contingent followed by 11-week-old bloodhound puppies Hemi and Shelby in April 2021.

Last year, Buster retired at the age of 7, and is spending his retirement pursuing his three favorite activities: swimming, jumping on the trampoline and acting goofy.

Why Bloodhounds Are Superior Trackers

The National Institutes of Health decided to investigate what makes bloodhound such good sniffers.

Researchers conducted a study to evaluate the reliability of bloodhounds in identifying and trailing the scent of humans in high-traffic areas on 48-hour-old trails, five trained and experienced bloodhounds had a success rate of 96 percent with no false identifications.

The researchers discovered that the ability to track a single scent amidst a sensory mashup is made possible by millions of olfactory receptor cells located in the back of the dog's nasal cavity.

Bloodhounds have 300 million receptors, compared to German shepherds, which have about 225 million receptors. Humans have about five million receptors.

Scent cells are not the only reason bloodhounds can track people over long distances. Their droopy ears and wrinkled skin play an important role because they help collect odor molecules and sweep them toward the bloodhound's nose.

Additionally, their muscular necks and shoulders allow bloodhounds to keep their nose to the ground for long distances without getting fatigued.

Instances have been documented of bloodhounds tracking a scent for more than 100 miles and following a track that’s more than 300 hours old.