The search for Dexter

Someone broke into Dexter's house last night, robbing the home, and leaving the door and the gate open.  Kelsy started her search about 20 hours after the probable time of escape.  She used a pillow that Dexter slept on as her scent article.  Kelsy spent a long time, probably about fifteen seconds, analyzing the pillow, sniffing all over the surface.  Then she started on the trail pretty decisively.  At the end of the driveway, she turned north for about twenty feet, ran out of scent, and turned south along 108th Ave SE.  Passing the yard of Dexter's house, she was very interested in the fence line, which makes sense.  She made her way south at a steady pace for four blocks, using her nose and not her eyes.  (When Kelsy first started training for search work, she ran everywhere at a gallop, dragging me along, but now she gets into a groove where she is walking/trotting, and the tips of her ears have a signature bob, while her head is held just slightly lower than level.)  Then she followed the scent trail west through a parking lot and onto SE 216th Street.  She started pulling harder after a block, indicating to me that Dexter had rested for a while and then started off again later, leaving a fresher scent trail.  Kelsy crossed the street and then followed the scent trail in the oncoming lane of traffic, which is not the place someone would be walking a dog.  I had to make her wait several times while waiting for traffic to clear, and then she continued on the same trail.  Near 103rd SE, she turned toward an area in the tall grass where an animal had nested for a while, and she sniffed around some shards of smashed pumpkin.  Kelsy followed the scent trail to the end of 103rd, to a house, and did not find any trail leading away from the house.  No one was home.  Kelsy was very interested in a spot in the back yard, where the grass looked like there might have been a scuffle.  Dexter used to get into fights, but hadn't recently.  The people obviously owned more than one dog, but none of the dogs were home at the time.  We left a flier on their door.  I will be very interested to learn if Kelsy was correct, possibly correct, or definitely wrong in the trail she followed.  My assessment of her behavior leads me to judge that I am about 85% sure she was on the right trail. 

The conditions were perfect, overcast, light rain, little wind, about 48 degrees, and the landscape was very damp from recent rains.  Although the area was near a busy four lane highway, the trail Kelsy followed was bordered by grass and brush all the way.  Kelsy started her trail about 3 PM, and the trail ran about half a mile. 

Based on something I had read about dogs becoming desensitized to a smell after too much exposure, I had decided to rest Kelsy frequently on future searches in order to refresh her nose.  I had forgotten about that on this search, but I ended up doing it anyway because we had to wait for traffic several times.