While this is certainly not necessary, it does teach the young puppy search tactics that stand him in good stead later. Doing well at cadaver work is also something of an individual ability. Some dogs do become upset at finding human remains, although generally a young puppy taught to find cadaver material does not display this reaction. Adverse reactions are more common in adult dogs trained for live person search that are later asked to cross over to cadaver work. No trips to the morgue are necessary to train the dog.
Federal rules regulate the use of human body parts.
Many cadaver dogs and their handers are members of local or state law enforcement, which may provide access to actual human training material not available to civilian organizations or individuals Puppies can be started on training material by placing some within a tennis ball and having them find the tennis ball. This technique is very similar to how narcotic and arson dogs are trained. The only real difference between these dogs is the exact nature of the scent material they are being trained to alert on. To refine an adult dog's training, the scent material is commonly placed in PVC piping with end caps that have holes drilled in them. The material can be left for some period of time to build up a scent pool.