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Author
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Topic: Changing Scents
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Miss Joyce
Knows what it's all about
Member # 584
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posted September 17, 2005 01:30 PM
For years, I've heard houndsmen claim that a Bobcat could shut down it's scent when being pursued by a pack of dogs. Maybe not fully turn off it's scent, but shut it down enough to make it very difficult for a dog to pick up.
I was just wondering if anyone here thought that this was true?
Can an animal change it's scent, based on emotion? Do some animals recognize certain scents as a way of expressing emotion?
Posts: 33 | From: ****** , AZ | Registered: Feb 2005
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Tim Behle
Administrator MacNeal Sector
Member # 209
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posted September 17, 2005 01:33 PM
Grrr....
Why can't that woman ever remember to log herself back off?
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Personally, I carry a gun because I'm too young to die and too old to take
an ass kickin'.
Posts: 3160 | From: Five Miles East of Vic, AZ | Registered: Jun 2003
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Leonard
HMFIC
Member # 2
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posted September 17, 2005 01:56 PM
Bust my bubble, why don't you? I thought Miss Joyce really was interested in this stuff?
Sounds like an old wives tale, though? Excuse from a man with a poor dog.
Good hunting. LB
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EL BEE Knows It All and Done It All.
Don't piss me off!
Posts: 32361 | From: Upland, CA | Registered: Jan 2003
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Cdog911
"There are some ideas so absurd only an intellectual could believe them."--George Orwell.
Member # 7
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posted September 17, 2005 02:25 PM
I've spent my fair share of life in the dark following a cast of hounds after coons, and I doubt that a live critter can alter its scent in such a way as to thwart pursuers. But, having said that, I do believe that an animal's "state of mind", if you will, does affect the scent being left.
For reasons I cannot attribute to my dog simply being brilliant, because I had plenty of evidence to the contrary, he would never want anything to do with a dead coon. Not just on sight, but on smell, too. He would track that coon running his blabber mouth like a fool. But, if we caught him, or any other finished hound for that matter, before they got hold of the coon, then shot the coon down and tried to leave a drag trail by pulling the dead coon along, none of the dogs wanted any part of it. They could obviously tell the difference. Yeah, once in a while, a pup would fall for it, but after a certain point in their learning curve, they just scoffed at the idea and gave you a weird look.
Healthy coons emit a specific scent as well. We were following the dogs just after we released them one night in a large pasture bordered by a cottonwood timber. Lotsa coons in an area like that. The wife and I walked to the top of a ridge overlooking a stock pond and I found eyes on the opposite shoreline in a marshy area. I yelled back to the other handler that we had eyes and that we should strike pretty quick. The dogs came along downwind of that coon, passed by it within ten feet, and not a one of the four even alerted to the smell. As I watched the coon, it just sat there. Never moved. Didn't react to the dogs. Red flags start going up. I yelled to everyone to catch a dog and lock them down while we checked this out. Upon closer inspection, the coon was blind sick with distemper and didn't even react to us shining lights right in its eyes. It just sat there swaying one way then the other. We paraded all the dogs downwind of the coon to see if any of them would strike in and none did, and my dog was well known for being able to get a strike looking into a soft breeze from a coon laid up in a tree nearly a half-mile away, his nose was that cold.
So, I guess, in short (LOL), animals do alter their scents, but I don't think they can do it on command.
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I am only one. But still, I am one. I cannot do everything, but still, I can do something; and, because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do.
Posts: 5440 | From: The gun-lovin', gun-friendly wild, wild west | Registered: Jan 2003
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Steve Craig
Lacks Opposable Thumbs/what's up with that?
Member # 12
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posted September 23, 2005 09:33 PM
Tim/Joyce,
It is my feeling, especially here in the arriad west, that dogs have a very difficult time smelling a lion or bobcat track on DIRT. Add snow, or just let that cat step on a hard surface, and more pressure is exerted on the pad allowing more odor to be transferred to the hard or wet surface. Making it much easier to smell. Every lion hunter i have talked to will tell you the same thing. Dogs have a very hard time on dry dirt. Add moisture, or let that cat step on solid ground or rock, and they have no difficulty at all smelling.
One of the main reasons they can keep on a track, although with some difficulty, is the hound is smelling the brush and weeds that the cat rubbed as they passed by.
Just my 3 cents
Steve
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Yes, we did produce a near-perfect republic. But will they keep it? Or will they, in the enjoyment of plenty, lose the memory of freedom? Material abundance without character is the path of destruction. - Thomas Jefferson
Posts: 442 | From: Cottonwood,Az, USA | Registered: Jan 2003
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Kokopelli
SENIOR DISCOUNT & Dispenser of Sage Advice
Member # 633
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posted September 26, 2005 03:08 PM
I've never ran hounds; just thinking out loud. Is it possible that when the bobcat realizes that it has a 'problem' with the dogs getting closer that it's adrenalin kicks in and causes a change in it's scent??
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And lo, the Light of the Trump shown upon the Darkness and the Darkness could not comprehend it.
Posts: 8231 | From: Under a wandering star | Registered: Apr 2005
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Steve Craig
Lacks Opposable Thumbs/what's up with that?
Member # 12
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posted September 26, 2005 03:39 PM
I dont think a "change" in the scent, Just more of it!
Steve
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Yes, we did produce a near-perfect republic. But will they keep it? Or will they, in the enjoyment of plenty, lose the memory of freedom? Material abundance without character is the path of destruction. - Thomas Jefferson
Posts: 442 | From: Cottonwood,Az, USA | Registered: Jan 2003
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Kokopelli
SENIOR DISCOUNT & Dispenser of Sage Advice
Member # 633
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posted September 26, 2005 04:12 PM
That makes scents.
Ah....that was so bad, I can't belive that I wrote it!!
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And lo, the Light of the Trump shown upon the Darkness and the Darkness could not comprehend it.
Posts: 8231 | From: Under a wandering star | Registered: Apr 2005
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Lonny
PANTS ON THE GROUND
Member # 19
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posted September 26, 2005 04:55 PM
Most every houndsman will have some stories of times when it sure seemed like a bobcat or lion could to some extent control its scent. I have seen a couple of times where good lion dogs seemed to have trouble sorting out a track that was made by a lion that ran across the road in front of the pickup. The same dogs would literally jerk the leash from your hands on a track that was 48 hours old. I read somewhere that a famous jaguar hunter said, "the tigre you see is the tigre your dogs will not catch that day"?
I've heard a few guys say they think a cat on a stalk can somewhat shut down its scent also. I don't think you will find anyone who will admit to truely believing a cat can control its scent. But most will have some strange tales of cats that should have been caught and got away. It's kinda like UFO's, you may think its all a joke but how do you know for sure? If we as humans with our poor noses could sit down and have a long chat with a canine about scent it would probably clear up a few things.
As far as the scent of a bobcat. There are lots of good lion dogs out there. But darn few really good bobcat dogs. Like Steve said, Bobcats are smaller and leave less scent for the dogs to smell.
Posts: 1209 | From: Lewiston, Idaho USA | Registered: Jan 2003
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Leonard
HMFIC
Member # 2
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posted September 26, 2005 05:10 PM
I can agree with much of that, Lonny. Especially that bobcat leave smaller footprints, therefore less scent.
I don't know about shutting off it's scent, but I have no problem with a change in odor, when pursued.
Good hunting. LB
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EL BEE Knows It All and Done It All.
Don't piss me off!
Posts: 32361 | From: Upland, CA | Registered: Jan 2003
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