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I'm in the middle of The Longwalkers by Jerrry A. Lewis, and there is an interesting part where he talks about animals being able to control their scent. And he does bring up a very interesting topic. heres a quote from the book " The concept of animals being able to control their scent is one that crosses my mind alot. I know something very complex hapends when a pursued animal discovers the enemy on it's trail. (an exmple he uses) Why is a coon that just ran in front of your truck so hard to catch with hounds that never have trouble catchin any coon they strike when they are out hunting? why do hounds have more trouble tracking a cougar away from its kill? (pg 88)
Sometimes this explanation is the only plausable one I can think of when somethin gives me the slip. Yet I was also thinking that perhaps it isn't the animal holding it's scent but the terrain it just ran across dont hold it's scent very well. But that still doesn't add up in most cases. So what do you guys think can they control their scent?

There is another post in Lion or Bibcat hunting that talked about this.

Lions arn't hard to trail from kills, its just hard to find the right end of the track because there is so much scent and tracks left. If a lions been feeding on it for three days there might be as many as 10 different sets of tracks where the lion has come in and left.

I personally dont believe anything can knowingly hold their scent. Scent is microscopic skin particles falling off as old skin dies and new skin comes in. This process happens constantly with all animals.

However what I do believe is when that animal gets scared, something happens with this process for a short period of time. I think just like when you get scared there is an adrenaline type rush that goes through your body. I believe that the same process happens in animals and it stops the microscopic particals from falling for a short period of time. Ive seen it happen more than once.

I have nothing to base my theory on except personal experience and spending way to much time with dumb long eared hounds scratchn my head trying to figure out what just went wrong!!!!

cannot argue against this! like Big Mike said I seen some strange things happen with no reason..
some years back the Lee brothers were involved in a discussion about this. they sure had noticed it mainly when a road crossing or an unexpected confrontation would happen.
many times Ive seen coon cross the road and it would be over 100 yards before those ol hounds could trail them. hounds that could work tracks that were known to be a few hours old
there is definately some reason--- I always thought that the lingering exhaust fumes from vehicles killed the scent.... but that would not explain it on a road that had not been traveled for a week.
to quote an old time hunter- Millard Cox--- "If I could smell the track I would not need these dang hounds!"
enjoy the chase fellows

I never believed it but this year I cut a fairly fresh Lynx track no more then an 2 hours old. The track was in about 2 feet of snow and the lynx was sinking in about 6 inches. I first put down Cookie an 18 month old female a Chilcotin Treeing Pisshound who is ok on cats been under about 50 biggame trees. She took one look at the track and came back wondering what was up. I then put down her brother and my black and tan who have more cats under their belts and have colder noses. All three walked down the hill wandering back and forth looking for scent walking over the lynx track numerous times. About 30 yards off the trail it was like the scent turned on and the race was on. Until then none of the dogs acknowledged the track event exsisted. Those days make you realize they are still dogs.

Beaglewalkerhunter4,

Big Mike is right on the money in our opinion!

He is also right as in the Archives, I think in Big Game with Hounds there is a great thread with lots of good info from the Truly Great Hunters on here concerning "Game Holding" its scent and scenting conditions in general. Mr. Budd Denny had some insightful thoughts as well as Mr. Mike Leanord.

The Archives are a great tool that I use often in researching who has said what on a given subject. Buddyw has it set up so tht even a dummy like me can use it.

CJC

I'm not sure about the animals holding their scent but I have watched my dogs on what I thought was a "cold" cat or grey fox track and have the dogs trailing and come into an open hillside and see the cat or the fox walking just out of site ahead of the dogs and the dogs are zig zagging working the track but can't run it...............then all of a sudden the cat or fox will start to run and when the dogs get to where the cat or fox started running, then they start running.

Funny how that works. Obviously when the game runs, it puts out more scent.

Scent is an odd thing and i guess we will never get it all figured out.

As far as holding it in I am not sure but I was in the elevator the other day and this big old gal got in there and we started up. Well we got going pretty good and she sneezed. I mean she really let out a big old aaahhh chhuuuuu!. I said bless you! she said thanks, and the elevator stopped and she got out but I was still going up. When the door closed I realized she had blessed me a little too and she dang sure couldn't control her scent. LOL!

roflmao.........yup, if that fat lady can hold her scent on a deal like that until she gets out of the elevator, and then release it for you to enjoy after she's gone, then a lion or bear can probably do the same!

ike

I have always attributed that to dirty nose,Getting the hound out of the dog box,into fresh air for a couple minutes seems to help get the track going from the road. Also I have always thought that when the game is jumped, the hounds switched to breath scent,allowing them to drift tracks.I am no expert,just my opinion.

I DON'T BELEIVE ANY ANIMAL CAN HOLD THERE SCENT. I BELEIEVE IT TO BE A COMBINATION OF DIRTY NOSE SYNDROME [IT TAKES A FEW MINUTES FOR ANY DOG TO CLEAN OUT AFTER HE HAS BEEN IN THE DOG BOX] LAYING DOWN WITH OTHER DOGS OR STRAW BEDDING, OR AN OLD BLANKET. PLUS THE FUMES THAT WE ARE PUTTING OUT OF THE EXHAUST, NOTICE I DID NOT SAY WHEN THE DOG WAS STANDING UP WITH HIS HEAD OUT OF THE BOX USUALLY WHEN GAME CROSSES THE ROAD ALL THE DOGS ARE IN THE BOX
ALSO WE HAVE THE ROAD ITSELF HOW MANY TIMES HAVE WE RUN A FOX OR CAT OR EVEN A BEAR AND WHEN IT CROSSES A ROAD THE DOGS LOSE IT FOR A SECOND OR TWO AND THEN THERE BACK ON IT, UNLESS THE PURSUED GAME RUNS DOWN THE ROAD FOR A DISTANCE AND THEN GOES BACK IN THE BUSH, FOX USUALLY LEARN THIS LITTLE TRICK IN A HURRY.
THEN THERE ARE DIFFERENT ROADS LIKE DIRT, GRAVEL, OR EVEN ASPHALT. ALSO THE WEATHER HAS ALOT TO DO WITH IT. WET, DRY, FREEZING, OR ANY COMBINATION CHANGES EVERTHING.
IF ANIMALS COULD HOLD THERE SCENT ALL THEY WOULD HAVE TO LEARN TO DO, IS TO HOLD THEIR SCENT, 100' FROM A TREE AND WE WOULD NEVER TREE ANYTHING. AND IT WOULD NOT BE LONG BEFORE WE CULLED OUT THE ONES THAT COULD'NT FIGURE THIS OUT.
WHAT EVER JUST MY OPINION

I don't know about "holding" scent, but I do know that at times there is no way that a dog can smell a particular cat. There used to be a female lion that lived in the Bloody Basin country north of Phx. We attempted to trail her multiple times to no avail. We could see her fresh tracks from that night, but the dogs never acknowleged her track. We caught some of her kittens through the years, but never trailed her. She also raised a kitten that we couldn't trail. I credit this to nature. Toms are brash and bold, and they want everyone else to know that this is their territory. Females on the other hand, need to be a little more stealthy in order to get their kittens raised. Just some thoughts--I don't believe that I totaly understand it all.

The topic of animals holding their scent is interesting. I think that everyone that's hunted hounds have some story to tell about having an animal run across the road in front of them and putting dogs down on it and have them act as if there was nothing there. The number of old time big game hunter that have spoke about it should say something. I myself have had bobcats run in front of the truck that I couldn't start and others the dog sailed out on, go figure. Scent is something we will never figure out. How can a dog strike and work 12-24 hr old track and not run one that is red hot? maybe it because they didn't sneeze right before they left out. LOL.

sourdough

I think it's Dub Evans that mentions this in his book too. Strange concept, who knows?. I have seen bobcats run across the road in front of me too that hounds couldn't even start.?? They say antelope fawns are born scent free. I have seen video of coyotes within feet of them and could not smell them. I think it would be darn hard to fool a coyotes nose.

Last year while checking a fence line during the summer I took my hounds with me for exercise. I was walking down a brushy trail and there was a new born elk calf lying in the trail. I had 6-8 hounds some in front, some around me. Not one hound smelled that calf and I was within 10ft of it and some of them passed just as close. I had some young trashy dogs that would chase anything too. I just walked around the calf and it just laid there flat of the ground and never moved. Shortly after them young hounds found mama and got a little E-education!!!!

As Dad's Dogboy said this subject has been beat to death on here before. It is like one of those theories that may never be solved. But it is interesting and much like Wiley Carroll's theory and discussion of lion scratches. Many different opinions come in on but trending seems to indicate how much actual field experience influenced the comments.