I would say yes. If the item the dog is scented on, still contains the scent, then it is possible for a trailing dog to be scented on this item and pick up the scent of the dog that had walked in that park, if the dog had been there recently. We work with old scent articles all the time. However, we do keep them in a sealed article bag.

A good trailing dog can work through the contamination of the other dogs, people, etc. They train for this.

That being said, it is also possible that the dog is just following the trail of another animal, dog or otherwise. It really depends on the dog, the handler and how good the handler is at reading his dog. I would suggest the owner, take a good look at the dog as he would obviously be able to tell if it was his.

Thanks for the info namewithheld. (quote: A good trailing dog can work through the contamination of the other dogs, people, etc. They train for this.)

It's nice to know that the poor owner is not being duped. The owner has been in the park looking for his dog. He has a reward tied to the safe return of the dog. Personally if it was me I would double the amount. What he is currently offering would take double that amount to buy a well bred puppy.

Anyway, I just wondered if the owner was being given false hope. Unfortunately he had a poster up that the dog had been stolen. If someone does have the dog and actually sees this they would be inclined to not come to the park and hide the dog.

I'm over walking my dog in that area quite a bit. It's a way to visit my Mom and also get her and her pup out of the house. Obviously I'll be on the lookout also. I do notice that people seem to really check out my dog when we are in that area. So I think other people are also watching. And here I thought they were checking out my pupper because she's so cute!

IF the bedding was properly stored in a sealed container, yes the tracking dog could get enough of the scent to follow fresh tracks by the same person or animal.

A good tracking dog can follow a child through a shopping mall a few hours after the child has been there. A reallly god one can do it a couple of days later.

AHHHHHHH just my kind of question.
A well trained bloodhound can actually track a scent without much trouble. Even a scent which is weeks old (sometimes months old depending upon the conditions in which it was laid) can be tracked.
Hopefully his dog was chipped, and he has notified the nearby vets that the dog has been missing, also I would suggest posting photos at the park where the dog was seen. If the handler and tracking dog are good, the sniffer dog should be able to follow the scent right to the home of the missing dog, even if that dog was put into a car and driven to the park I suggest the guy contact the local search and rescue, they are usually looking for this type of work to help train their dogs.....hope this turns out good. Good luck

Lazygardens that is what I was wondering is just how long can they track by using old scent. Sounds like as long as the original scent is secured the dog can work the area. This dog has been missing since September.

Mazer the dog was chipped, but if someone doesn't want to actually check there is no law (at least around here) where a vet has to check a chip registration. As mentioned before the owner did post pictures and does have a reward. Supposedly he did have a search dog that supposedly found scent, but then either lost it or someone picked up the dog. Don't know if this was a search and rescue dog or just someone who specializes in finding lost pets.

If someone has had this dog since September they probably have no intention of returning the dog. One thing the chip will do is show proof who is the owner of the dog if they can actually locate the dog.

Hopefully they will find their dog. They really do become little fur kids.

If the owner has made a police report about the dog being missing, and takes the time to notify local vets. Then when a dog comes in to the vet for care, the vet should scan the dog if it matches the description of any dog the vet has been notified of. This is standard practice no matter what part of the country a person lives in.
Hope the owner finds the dog.

I think the owner should redo his signs and state the dog escaped and MAY HAVE BEEN ADOPTED by a kind dog lover.

No need to accuse someone of stealing a dog he just found in the brush. If someone does have the dog, that someone found it and didn't steal it. In fact, that person might not even recognize himself and the dog--his dog was a stray!

Cadaver dogs can actually locate a dead body under several feet of running water, or buried deeply. And have you seen the articles on dogs who detect melanomas before they are readily recognizable to humans? With those possibilities, I would think following the scent of an individual dog to be easy.

Very interesting thread -thanks, Folks. I'd like to add that asking the vet office that accidently lost the dog to throw in their "connections" and "abilities" would not be out of line at all. Seems that it would be the VERY least they could do.
Good luck to the poor owner (and the dog).