Dog sniffs out Indian remains

AUGUST 24, 2000

Eagle, an eight year-old Doberman Pinscher-German Shorthaired Pointer-turned archaeologist, has a nose like no other for locating ancient human remains, reports Brenda Smiley in the latest issue of Archaeology Magazine.

Sniffing out human remains is a field pioneered by Eagle--the only dog in the world certified for such work.

Gifted with unusual olfactory abilities, Eagle is the star of Canine Solutions Inc., a Virginia-based company that trains dogs for all manner of tracking and cadaver search. Sandra Anderson, a 40 year-old part Cherokee and mother of two teenagers who directs the Company's Michigan detection task training division and trained Eagle, doesn't think the dog has supernatural powers like some Midwestern Baskerville hound, but she does describe incidents involving Eagle that are downright eerie.

Once, he scouted the entire River Raisin battlefield in Monroe, Michigan, in a matter of hours, nosing out dozens of bodies and other artifacts that helped set the historical record straight. Two days later, he discovered undetected Indian burials in the center of Monroe.

"Without Eagle, it would have taken us years, perhaps decades, to accurately locate all the actual sites and correlate them with old historic records," says Ralph Naveaux, a local archaeologist and Monroe's historical museum director.

Police familiar with Eagle's work are also duly impressed. "I've worked with dogs before, but I've never seen anything like him," says Toledo Detective Sgt. Keefe Snyder.

"Every time he hits, there's something there. He never misses. He's the best thing since DNA" says Snyder.

Eagle stole the show at a recent Wisconsin murder trial when he was given a blind test to find a paper bag, concealed in the courtroom, containing a handkerchief with a washed-out human bloodstain on it. Two similar bags, also concealed, had handkerchiefs soaked in pig and cow blood.

Eagle astonished the court by making a beeline for the bag with the handkerchief stained with human blood. The feat confirmed Eagle's credibility and led to a murder conviction.

"The dog's nose is like our eyes--the main sensory link to the world," states Bill Dotson, a microbiologist and CEO of Canine Solutions.

What is it in that odor molecule that triggers a response, allowing Eagle to distinguish between human and animal--and to locate the smallest bit of human tooth, a drop of blood, a hair follicle, a fragment of a human bone more than a thousand years old?

"We don't know," Sandra Anderson concedes. "We humans say, 'Okay, we've got the body down, the DNA chains, proteins, amino acids.' But maybe a dog at Eagle's level is hitting that envelope because there's something out there we haven't discovered yet."

"I know that sounds sci-fi, but hey, that's exciting, isn't it?" wonders Anderson.

You can read more about Eagle and Sandra Anderson in the September/October issue of Archaeology Magazine.

Relevant Links:
Archaeology Magazine - www.archaeology.org

Source: Archaeology Magazine.