In Woodbury, Connecticut, State Police K9 Officer Izzy is being commended for her actions finding a missing 10-year-old girl on Monday afternoon.
According to the Connecticut State Police Facebook posting, investigators covered an area of more than a mile and a half with Izzy leading the way. The child was found in good health in the area of the Whittemore Sanctuary in Woodbury, Izzy led her handler through the wooded area near the girl’s home, which ended in the pair finding the missing child near a nature center.
Bloodhounds are known for their keen ability to track scents and have historically been the breed of choice with police departments for this kind of work. Now imagine that these dogs sense of smell is at least 1,000 times stronger than a human’s sense of smell.
When searching for a missing child, the dog is usually introduced to a piece of clothing which presents to the dog an “odor image.” The bloodhound then uses this image to follow a scent trail. Interestingly enough, there have been reports of bloodhounds following scent trails for over 130 miles and 300 hours old.
And one more interesting fact about bloodhounds and their amazing abilities. Not only are their noses and their scent of smell beyond our imaginations, their wrinkly skin also helps to trap scents; their long ears acting as sweepers and helping to drag the scent they are following up to their noses.
Congrats K9 Officer Izzy – you are one amazing dog!
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