Bones, The Missing Dog In Colombia

Dogs never tire of surprising us with their abilities placed at the service of man. Today, we’re going to learn the story of Bones, a dog that searches for the missing in Colombia. A milestone in a country punished by violence.

A dog trained to find human remains

Bones is an exemplar of Belgian Shepherd Malinois. From the age of 4 months, he was trained to detect corpses  in the region of Antioquia. This is an area particularly punished by several conflicts that have ravaged and devastated the South American country (guerrilla, drug trafficking, paramilitary militias, mafias, etc.).

The furry one works with the owner, John Fredy Ramírez, a CTI (Technical Investigation Corps) researcher. Bones was barely a year and a half old and had already found four bodies.

According to the Single Registry of Victims (RUV), there are 46,000 victims of forced disappearances in Colombia.

the drama of disappearing people

“They are neither dead nor alive. They are missing,” a sinister Argentine dictator once said. That was his answer when questioned by the victims of the repression of the military dictatorship established in the country (1976-1983).

The anguish and uncertainty that grips people who look for their relatives and are unaware of the condition in which they find themselves is a common story in many countries in the region.

Therefore,  finding the body, even if it has been many years, is the only way to end this feeling of anxiety. And the work that dogs like Bones can do is critical to bringing some calm to these families.

Meet Bones training

Unlike other dogs trained by the CTI,  Bones is a dog that works exclusively in the search for the missing.

His training consisted of learning to detect human remains through his sense of smell. To achieve this, the trainers used wooden boxes with some holes. Four of them were odorless and the other gave off the scent Bones was supposed to identify.

When the animal identified the box, it was congratulated with a clicker and received a reward. In the beginning, they were treats, which later turned into toys and games.

That’s how Bones, the dog who searches for missing persons works.

Bones, the missing dog, lives with Ramirez, his wife and three cats. He has training sessions every day. In the mornings, for 1 hour, he walks and plays with a ball that smells like human bones. At night, he takes another walk, this time of 30 minutes.

Ramírez believes he has found the ideal dog for this task: a resistant animal, capable of traveling between 60 and 70 km a day.

When the CTI team arrives in the area where they believe there is a buried body, the land is delimited and probes are placed in the ground, creating odor cones. That’s where Bones’s work begins.

When the dog detects the scent, it marks the spot, moving in circles. To confirm the result, Bones is removed from the scene. If he comes back, bends down and starts barking, there’s no more doubt and the team starts with the digs. Meanwhile, Ramirez rewards his dog with play and affection.

The great work of dogs looking for corpses

Let’s say, for example, that a body is supposed to be buried in an area of ​​5 square meters. Humans could take two to three hours to find it. The dog, in turn, is able to find him in less than 15 minutes.

Therefore,  once again, we highlight the great help that dogs give to men, even if they sometimes receive only bad treatment as a response.

In Bones’s case, although his name deals with black humor (it means “bones” in English), it contributes to bringing some peace to the families that suffered with the terrible drama of the forced disappearance of some of their loved ones.