Bakes
(.375 member)
04/02/06 10:32 PM
Scent

I read alot about scent and covering it up in the US mags. This is what I know about scent. Its based on what we learn at our dog school and this information is what we keep in mind when our dogs are tracking bad guys or wind scenting them.

As you walk around or sit in a stand, skin cells are falling off you. You can't help it, you can't stop it. They come off your face, you breathe them out. These cells are shaped like a corn flakes. The second they come off you they start to decompose (faster in hot temps, slower in cold). Bacteria eat them and the bacteria release a gas (they fart). Its this gas that our dogs (or a deer) smell. If your in a stand they are forming a pool around you. That pool gets bigger the longer you stay and can go in an oblong shape depending on any breeze. When you move you are laying a trail of the little buggers.

In hot temps the cells can rise with any thermo currents. In cold temps, they will be close to the ground. one of our dogs have tracked a man in the snow and the trail was 72 hours old.

They can move off a known trail as well, sometimes our dogs will track up to 4 meters off the actual trail. In short grass the trail can be blown quite along way. In long grass it will get hung up on the vegetation. Moving through water is bad as well, because you have to leave the water some time and the cells will be in the water that come off you.

Now with wind scenting (this is for when you are sitting still), the scent forms a cone going away from you. The lighter the breeze the bigger the cone. In a strong breeze the cone will be small. We see this in our training. We walk along across wind and the dogs will hit the egde of the cone. Some dogs will keep walking into the cone till they hit the middle then work there way up it to the target. Some will work the edges, turning back into it when they walk out of it.

The best bet is to hunt with the wind in your face and save your money. If it gives you comfort to cover yourself with deer and fox piss then who am I to judge, I mean hey...Ann covers herself with peanut butter



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