For those of you who use bite suits, are they made out of jute anymore? Does jute give off a heavy odor and if so, are the dogs scenting the jute instead of human odor? If they are not made out of jute, does the dog scent the same bite suit each time or the person wearing the bite suit? I have seen several guys use the same bite suit.

I think that you'll find that most of them are made with a coarse linen covering now.

The only Jute suits I know that are commonly used are the Leather & Jute KNPV suits. All the other suits I've seen around have been french linen.

Don't know about the scenting, but I imagine that a dog can smell equipment a mile off regardless of what it's made of.

In fact dogs see with there nose. Most times there eyes only confirm what they already know. That said the dog can smell equipment just like they can smell fear. That's how a K-9 can follow a criminal that he has never seen, by the smell of his fear, learned from his previous apprehensions.

It is a common mistake to use equipment in all training involving searches with police dogs. It makes little difference what kind or make up of equipment is used the dogs can use it in locating the subject with ease.
A muzzle is a partial soliution to the problem but by far the best solution is no equipment.
Too much emphasis is placed on the physical apprehension at the end (don't confuse this statement by thinking I don't want a dog to be fully capable of a physical engagement with a combative of fleeing subject) of a search. The first thing that must be done is to find the suspect. Once found the situation evolves from there but first we have to get there.
i would expect that in the work I do greater than 70% of the searches I do in training result in no physical apprehension and the simulated suspect has no equipment.

 Quote: Norman Epstein

In fact dogs see with there nose. Most times there eyes only confirm what they already know.

I agree with this, but there are the sight hounds that rely on sight. (not that they do bitework though)

Sight Hounds

Carol of course you are correct and I should have written,

except for sight hounds which are specialist and because of that use there vision first and in most instances in lieu of all there other senses.

 Quote: norman epstein

Carol of course you are correct and I should have written,

except for sight hounds which are specialist and because of that use there vision first and in most instances in lieu of all there other senses.

Norman,
I really enjoy and learn from your posts, and I just wanted to point that out since I forget about "the others"....having a Bloodhound around tends to do that to ya.....

Like in any other type of "detection" training the trainer must be conscious of all associated odors. The detection of "man" is no different. In a sense you would conduct training to proof the "suit" or other equipment.

DFrost

Sandra,I have one bite suit that I use on all my training tracks. The same suit is worn by several different track layers. I usually place the suit near the end of the track and the decoy will lay the track then go by and pick it up. He will then carry it a short distance to the end and put it on before the dogs get there. The main reason for this is I dont have a track layer that can carry the suit two to six miles which is the length of the training tracks.There is no noticable change in the way the dogs run after he picks up the bite suit. I have had the decoy lay a track, pick up the bite suit and carry it some distance then lay it down and leave it. He then continues on and lays another half mile of track. The dogs will sometimes stop and play tug with the suit briefly then hit the track and locate the decoy. This dont seem to confuse them at all. They seem to know its the badguys body I want. A good dog that has been used on real deals a few times seem to sense the fear and desperation of the perp and develops an unshakable drive to catch him. The harder and longer my dogs are required to work to catch a man, the more intense they become. Anyway my advice would be to keep confusion to a minimun at first, he will soon figure out its the body you are after and not some stinky outer garmet.