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Scent control explained- long read

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    Scent control explained- long read

    I'm no scientist or expert, but this is info I've gleaned over the past 10 years through reading and experience as a K9 Handler with tracking dogs that are also trained in other odor discrimination specialties, so take it for what it's worth.

    Picture this. You are standing in the middle of your yard with no wind. Your body temperature is +/- 98.7 degrees and it's 60 degrees outside. Heat is emanating from your body, so it rises. Your body is shedding thousands of microscopic skin cells per minute. Those skin cells also rise until the temperature stabilizes, then begin to fall. That is the human odor dogs (and deer and pigs) can detect. Add a little wind and the odor drifts before it settles. The odor dissipates with time, and is spread further with wind, reducing how strong the odor is.

    Now think about this. You know what it smells like when you walk outside right after your lawn has been mowed? If I walk across your yard your dog smells that same odor. It's called ground disturbance. When you walk across the ground you are crushing and damaging vegetation and moving dirt that allows odors beneath the surface to escape.

    Now, imagine walking across a concrete parking lot. The only odor a dog can detect is the human odor, there is no ground disturbance.

    From my reading and experience what I have found is that when a person walks across a field, the odor a dog can detect is 95% ground disturbance, 5% human odor. Human odor is much more difficult for a dog to consistently track. This can easily be shown with K9 tracking as many dogs that are outstanding trackers on vegetation are completely lost on concrete and cannot track.

    How does this relate to hunting? Glad you asked. :-)

    If you put on an astronauts suit with self contained breathing apparatus and walked to your blind, my dog could easily track you for several hours due to ground disturbance odor. When you walk to your blind there will ALWAYS be odor that can disturb the wildlife. Whether or not it does will greatly depend on their experience with odor. Does wearing rubber boots help reduce human odor? I think so, but it does not effect ground disturbance odor.

    I think the key is knowing a little about odor and how it is spread. You can reduce your odor with clothing, scent free soap, etc, but short of a rubber suit with self contained breathing apparatus, you cannot eliminate it. Reduce what you can, and always hunt the wind.

    #2
    Time to pack up and go shower with scent free soap!

    Comment


      #3
      Good info. So even if freshly sprayed rubber boots totally eliminated leaving human odor, (not likely) a deer that crosses where you have walked knows "something" has passed by due to ground disturbance. I guess a jumpy, pressured deer won't stay around to find out what it was that walked through. I've always thought if there was a camera on our set ups - zoomed in from above - we would be shocked at how many deer come in just out of sight, sense our presence then leave. We get back to camp and say "nothing was moving this morning!"
      Last edited by jerp; 09-29-2017, 09:24 AM.

      Comment


        #4
        Originally posted by flyby View Post
        I'm no scientist or expert, but this is info I've gleaned over the past 10 years through reading and experience as a K9 Handler with tracking dogs that are also trained in other odor discrimination specialties, so take it for what it's worth.

        Picture this. You are standing in the middle of your yard with no wind. Your body temperature is +/- 98.7 degrees and it's 60 degrees outside. Heat is emanating from your body, so it rises. Your body is shedding thousands of microscopic skin cells per minute. Those skin cells also rise until the temperature stabilizes, then begin to fall. That is the human odor dogs (and deer and pigs) can detect. Add a little wind and the odor drifts before it settles. The odor dissipates with time, and is spread further with wind, reducing how strong the odor is.

        Now think about this. You know what it smells like when you walk outside right after your lawn has been mowed? If I walk across your yard your dog smells that same odor. It's called ground disturbance. When you walk across the ground you are crushing and damaging vegetation and moving dirt that allows odors beneath the surface to escape.

        Now, imagine walking across a concrete parking lot. The only odor a dog can detect is the human odor, there is no ground disturbance.

        From my reading and experience what I have found is that when a person walks across a field, the odor a dog can detect is 95% ground disturbance, 5% human odor. Human odor is much more difficult for a dog to consistently track. This can easily be shown with K9 tracking as many dogs that are outstanding trackers on vegetation are completely lost on concrete and cannot track.

        How does this relate to hunting? Glad you asked. :-)

        If you put on an astronauts suit with self contained breathing apparatus and walked to your blind, my dog could easily track you for several hours due to ground disturbance odor. When you walk to your blind there will ALWAYS be odor that can disturb the wildlife. Whether or not it does will greatly depend on their experience with odor. Does wearing rubber boots help reduce human odor? I think so, but it does not effect ground disturbance odor.

        I think the key is knowing a little about odor and how it is spread. You can reduce your odor with clothing, scent free soap, etc, but short of a rubber suit with self contained breathing apparatus, you cannot eliminate it. Reduce what you can, and always hunt the wind.
        Great write up and appreciated
        because I don't have as many days to hunt as I did in the past I don't have time to worry about the wind so I cover my scent with something that appears they like ( vanilla ) and sometimes (strawberry). I know it does not cover it 100% but I have learned that its 100% better than trusting the shifting winds in the oak patch I typically sit in. Your write up makes a ton of sense and I never thought about ground disturbance aspect of a track job

        Comment


          #5
          interesting read thanks for the info

          Comment


            #6
            Originally posted by jerp View Post
            Good info. So even if freshly sprayed rubber boots totally eliminated leaving human odor, (not likely) a deer that crosses where you have walked knows "something" has passed by due to ground disturbance.
            Correct, but don't forget there is human odor there also, just not as strong as the ground disturbance.

            Comment


              #7
              One more quick bit of info. Odor dissipates faster in the sunlight. The UV rays help to kill it off. I have heard "claims" that a few bloodhounds can track human odor up to 24 hours. If that is true, those dogs are few and far between. With most LE dogs anything more than a couple of hours is really pushing the limit.

              Comment


                #8
                Thanks for explaining. How does a deer know the ground disturbance came from me and not another deer, a racoon, one of the million hogs on the lease or Sasquatch?

                Comment


                  #9
                  Originally posted by Cantcatch5 View Post
                  Thanks for explaining. How does a deer know the ground disturbance came from me and not another deer, a racoon, one of the million hogs on the lease or Sasquatch?
                  I was wondering this too, since we have a lot of Sasquatches where I hunt
                  Do humans give off a different ground disturbance odor?

                  Comment


                    #10
                    That's good stuff, Troy.

                    Something I've wondered about, and maybe you can shed some light from K9 experiece -- is there any merit to the idea of scent overload for a dog (or hog, deer) by using a strong cover scent such as skunk essence?

                    Humans will get scent overload. Like when you go shopping for Christmas gift perfume and after a few sniffs everything smells the same and then you can't smell anything else for a while. Or get a whiff of a rotting animal - your sense of smell is overwhelmed and history for a while.

                    Comment


                      #11
                      I agree with what you said which is why I will go out of my way to walk though some cow poop. In addition to taking all scent prevention and control measures I can.

                      Best of luck to all those ready to knock an arrow tomorrow. I have a mgt. 9 and or doe on tap myself.

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Interesting read..

                        Next on my hunting gadgets list. A helicopter to drop me in my blind..

                        Comment


                          #13
                          So how does moisture like rain or heavy dew effect ground disturbance. Does the dog then track more of the human scent than ground disturbance?

                          Comment


                            #14
                            I believe that a lot of what you say is true, but I don't know about the two hours. My JRT has found several hogs the next morning after we shot them from say 10:00 until midnight. (We don't track big hogs in the dark when we're not sure of shot placement) Of course, hopefully, the perp you're tracking doesn't smell as bad as a hog.

                            I'll add one more thing to the info you've given about disturbance. Deer have interdigital glands between their "toes" that will leave a different scent when they are scared and "blow out". Another deer can smell that much later and leave the vicinity. I've personally witnessed that.

                            We know so much more about deer and their habits than we did twenty years ago, and yet we have just scratched the surface.

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Originally posted by Cantcatch5 View Post
                              Thanks for explaining. How does a deer know the ground disturbance came from me and not another deer, a racoon, one of the million hogs on the lease or Sasquatch?
                              Good question that I don't know the answer to. I would guess my size 9 feet will cause alot more ground disturbance than a raccoon. Again, add in the natural odor to the ground disturbance (stinky coon or pig) and that may tell the deer all is well.

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