The incredibly inventive science vlogger Mark Rober used quite a number of tricks from his scientific arsenal in an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to hide from a determined German Shepherd (the bloodhound) named Zinka whose job it is to search and rescue.
…I’m being hunted by an animal specifically trained to find humans. …these days, bloodhounds are almost never used. The most common dog breed for search dogs are German Shepherds like Zinka, because research shows they’re just as good at discerning smells as a bloodhound, but they’re also extremely intelligent.
Zinka works with Shay Cook of K9 Search and Rescue.
Now what makes Shay so cool is she’s been working as a volunteer, expert, search-and-rescue handler for over 30 years, which means with all that experience, she and her dogs have pretty much seen everything.
In his efforts to debunk myths about bloodhounds, Rober also consulted Adam Savage of Mythbusters fame.
In addition to talking about everything he’s learned about scent-trailing dogs over the years, we talked about the best mental model for even understanding how Zinka’s brain works. Because one way to think about it, is everywhere you go, you leave behind a trail of scent molecules.….you shed 40,000 dead skin cells into the air every minute.
