These ‘Cadaver Dogs’ Stumbled Upon A Centuries-Old Remnant From The Past

 How good is a dog’s sense of smell? When you find out, you’ll be even more disgusted than when you see them sniffing each others’ butts. But that’s what makes them such good detectives! When a group of specially trained canines was hired to sniff around an archaeological site, their noses made a history-defining discovery.

The term “cadaver dog” doesn’t conjure up the most appealing visual, but it’s certainly accurate. Their job is to literally “smell death.” How else do you think we find bodies in the middle of no where? They might have the strangest jobs of any animals.

Photo by Luke Anderson

Cadaver dogs are trained exactly the way you’d expect. Human remains are sent to dog trainers to help coach pups on finding the “right” scents. Sometimes, old graveyards are used with the fresh remains to train the dogs on spotting the difference between old and new decomposition. Grossing you out? We’re just getting started.

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These dogs are so reliable, they have a 95% accuracy rate. They even know the difference between human and animal cadavers! They undergo over 1,000 hours of training (which is, like, 10,000 in human years) and have smelling abilities 10,000 times greater than our own. Their sense of smell runs really deep.

Photo by Carlos Lucas

Cadaver dogs can smell a decomposing body up to 15 feet underground and 30 meters underwater! But sorry, mass murderers, that doesn’t mean you can bury a body 16 feet deep and call it a day. A single drop of blood or piece of bone is enough for these dogs to discover any body.

Photo by Staff Sgt. Daniel Yarnall

When it comes to completing the mission, these pups never give up. Seriously. All they want is to impress their master by tracking the scents they’ve been training for. Forget Liam Neeson — we want to see a dog save a little kid from certain danger! They can even help with medical dangers.

Photo by Peder Lundkvist

Thanks to their ability to detect lightweight compounds and evaporated odors, dogs can sniff out melanoma cancer and even pregnancy complications. They can differentiate between bodily fluids, tissues, bones… you name it, they smell it. That’s how researchers got the idea to bring cadaver dogs along for archaeological digs.

U.S. Air Force photo/Airman 1st Class Zachary Wolf

Typical surveillance for archaeologist sites requires techniques like fielding the area, using photos from above, or infrared imaging through satellites. However, none of these processes utilize the power of scent, which one field worker pieced together.

Photo by Peder Lundkvist

An archaeologist named Vedrana Glavaš from the University of Zadar in Croatia had heard all about the wonders of cadaver dogs. With an interest in studying Croatia’s centuries-old past, she decided to bring in the trained pups for a very promising excavation.

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In 2014, Vedrana and her team uncovered something remarkable. They were working on Velebit Mountain and came upon an old hill fort estimated to be 3,000 years old! To see what was inside, Vedrana called in the cutest experts she knew.

Photo by Boro 1

After spending time excavating the old-fashioned way, Vedrana asked trainer Andrea Pintar and her crack team of police cadaver dogs to assist. “Some of the police cases Andrea had worked on are 30 years old,” said Vedrana. “We both wondered how far back in time her dogs could smell.” Turns out, very far.

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Andrea brought four dogs on for the search using both a blinded and a double-blinded study. When the dogs were let into the 3,000 year old fort, they started searching the only way they knew how.

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At first, it didn’t seem like the dogs were making headway. They each seemed to be tracking different scents and wanted to go in opposing directions. Vedrana thought perhaps any human remains left to discover were far too decomposed by now. Still, they kept looking.

Photo by Staff Sgt. Daniel Yarnall