Evening star., 1933-03-12
"Man -Trailers' of the Lorton ReformatorX
BY JOHN L. COONTZ.

n EFT in here, boy!"
H/ The Negro youth crawled into
the car.
Better get them dogs, Cap
where are they?"
Down there in the brush. We tied them to
q sapling with our suspenders. They may
starve"
The Captain chuckled. He was Capt M M.
Barnard, general superintendent Of the Dis
trict of Coumbia's penal institution at LOrton.
The Negro boy was one who left on his own
responsibility The dogs were bloodhounds be-
longing to the institution for use in just such
emergencies.
"Every now and then one Of our boys takes
It into his head to wander away from the in
stitution without any thought of returning"
says the Captain, "and when he does we just
unleash our 'trailers,' post ourselves at strate-
gic road positions around our 2.7o0-acre res
ervatien and await results. Results usually
take the form of the above-described con-
yersation.
The training of these man hunters at Lorton
is part of the routine work Of the institution
There are now nine hounds there, Of fine pedi-
gree, under the supervision and training OF
Paul F. Pegelow. assistant to Capt Sanford OF
the guard Capt. Pegelow loves dogs and has
devoted many patient hours to bringing these
intelligent but lugubrious and clumsy fellows
ID to their present state of efficiency.
"The most important thing to consider in
developing a reliable man trailing bloodhound,
says Capt Pegelow. lis first to secure weL-bred
pups from parents that are known to be de-
pendable trailers No person following horse
racing would attempt to develop a racer out
of Percheron or other heavy breed, but would
choose trim-built animal that was descen-
dant from the racing type. Although they are
all horses they have been bred for years for
an entirely different purpose. one for speed.
the other for strength. Conditions similar to
this exist with the bloodhounds. 1t is impos-
sible to make an expert man trailer from every
bloodhound just because he happens to be OF
that particular breed Of hound.
In choosing a bloodhound pup to teach the
art of human trailing secure from some reliable
breeder of thoroughbred English bloodhOunds
. pup. or preferably two. as they do much bet
ter working in pairs, both in training and
when trained. Where there are two pups each
will do his utmost to follow the trail and keep
ahead Of the other. just as foxhounds do In
chase. Also, when making your selection be
sure that the pups parents are OF good type
and have been bred to the man-trailing pro-
fession.
uCEMAL.ES, as q rule make the best trailers.
They have more life. are very ambitious
and intelligent and the easiest to train.
The male as a rule, has more courage and is
seldom shy in locating the person being pur-
sued if that person conceals himself in a build
ing or crowd. Further, he quite often attacks
II the trailed person attempts to escape after
being located.
Here at Lorton we follow the accustomed
practice of beginning training at . very early
age The younger the hounds are started the
easier they are to teach and the better the
results obtained We give them their first les
sons at the age of 10 or IL weeks.
when we have selected our pups for train
ing we handle them as much and as often as
possible until they are 10 or IL weeks old.
We then take them to an open field where
there is nothing to attract their attention or
injure them. We then have some person they
are not acquainted with hold them by their
collars in a position so that they will face
their trainer. The trainer pets and fondles
them and then walks quickly away from them,
at the same time attracting their attention
by calling to them. At distance Of about 200
feet he drops from sight and in the path they