I am writing a book and I have tried to research this point but I haven't been able to find a clear answer. Say that there is a body found in the woods and the police can identify some footprints belonging to the victim. They follow these for a bit, but then they come to a road and cannot find where the footprints re-appear. Is it possible for a tracker dog to follow a trail in the direction that someone had been rather than the direction that they were going? I have seen a few tracking demonstration videos in which the "hunted" try to back track so as to confuse the dog. The dogs follow the trail exactly as the person had run it - up around the corner, stop to turn around and then back. This makes me think that they are trained to inherently follow the trail in one direction, the direction that they went rather than the one that they came from. The dogs don't even skip that detour and follow the trail off in the final direction that the person ran. Anyway, interested to hear what you have to say! TIA.
