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Why Dogs Lose the Trail

by David Lockard :: Featured: March, 2003

Often we have seen from our elevated view of the landscape, a rabbit running, laying a trail which our dog fails to follow. We call our dog to the location to put them back on the trail but still the dog seems lost. Often our dog loses the trail as a result of a sharp turn that the eager dog simply misses and in the process, overruns the check. With a young dog these errors are frequent but with experience a dog learns to turn back, search the area and pick up on the trail again. It is all a part of the fun of the hunt. In time your dog becomes more educated in trailing. Still there are those times when he seems to just lose the sent and no amount of showing him, gets him back on the trail.

The dampness of the soil and the air has a lot to do with the quality of the sent. Under wet conditions the sent will be strong and you will find your dog tracking more consistently. Under dry conditions the trail left behind by the rabbit may be so weak that your dog will be constantly struggling to follow the line.

The wind can also effect a dogs trailing ability. Some dogs keep their nose to the ground all the time while others will lift there heads and smell the air above the ground. The wind can drive the sent from where you saw the rabbit and you might see your dog trailing a parallel line which is not exactly where the rabbit had traveled.

There are times however when your dog simply seems not to be able to follow the scent that appears to us as a sure trail. You might be interested in knowing another factor effecting your dogs ability to trail, and that is, Olfactory Adaptation. Have you ever noticed when you put on cologne, how strong it first smells but in a short while you are not even aware of it. This reduced awareness of an odor is olfactory adaptation. The cells that pick up the smell in your nose simply tire and become less effective. When you smell a flower, have you ever noticed that you pull away from it to take in fresh unscented air so you can again get the full effect, as you continue to enjoy the odor. Your dog has the same problem.

It is said that it takes about two minutes for olfactory adaptation to set in after your dog has picked up a strong scent. At this point your dog will do the same as you do with a flower and come up for fresh air, to regain the ability to smell again. It is for this reason that hunting with a brace or a pack of beagles is so much more effective then hunting with a lone dog. While one dog is recovering its sense of smell the others are still on the chase and the recovering dog will tag along until it has recovered and will resume baying after the rabbit. If you are hunting over a single dog he will often fumble around until his smell recovers and then become reoriented to the trail and resume the chase. If your dog is inexperienced, the trail is dry, or a strong wind may be diluting and spreading the sent. He may become too disoriented and not be able to relocate the trial again. There is not much we can do about the condition except to allow your dog to obtain a lot of experience. In time he will learn to adjust and will become better on the trail. Another effective adjustment that you could make, is to hunt with a pack of dogs. Being aware of the condition however, will help use understand what may be happening when our dog loses the trail and will allow us to adopt new strategies for overcoming the problem.

Oh honey! You know, I really need to get another beagle.