sorry, cross posted.
The dog's training records were taken by the police, and examined by dog handling experts who agreed that the dog had had some formal tracker training, although she was not fully trained.
People have asked why it was, then, that the dog did not react on the way up the path, when Luke was alone, but did so on the way back down, when the family members who met up with Luke insisted on "double checking."
Luke was 14 years old, he was on a dark, secluded path, his girlfriend was missing, he had told her mum he would check the path and, if he didn't meet Jodi en route, he would make his way to the mother's house. He said at the time, he just wanted to get up the path as quickly as possible - 14 year old boys generally don't willingly admit to being scared, but he said Mia the dog waas very excitable on the way up the path, and he just pulled her in, to keep her moving forward.
On the way back down, in the safety of numbers, he put her into "tracking mode" which he had not done on the way up, so he was actively looking for an "alert" or signal from her - on the way up, he had only been checking the path - on the way back down, he knew Jodi was not on the path, but if she had been in the field or the woods, the dog may have scented her. At 14, alone in the darkness, he was unlikely to go checking in the woods or the fields on his own - the arrangement had been clear - check the path, then up to the mother's house if he didn't meet up with Jodi. it was a catch 22 situation for Lue - he knew Jodi's mother was waiting for him to come up the path - if he'd gone off searching about in woods and fields, her mother would have been frantic that he was taking so long. Anyway, he has said many times since that he wasn't looking anywhere but the path, because he was afraid - if anything bad had happened to Jodi, he didn't want to be on his own.
