How far animals can detect human scent- graph

iron cat said:
I always wonder just how much and what the dogs is smelling when they have their heads stuck out of the truck window when we are driving - their olfactory senses must be in overload function! LOL
Cat
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I've read they can pick out a drug in a coffee can in a fuel tank. Kitchen is probably like the fourth of july
 
Years ago, the girlfriend took her cat with us on a trip, it never came out of its open carrier on the back seat on the 12 hour (each way) trip, until coming home, crested a hill a half hour drive from home and the cat came out and up to the front and was sniffing the vents. It's approx 30km as the crow flies, 45 km by road.

It could certainly smell it's home valley.
 
We are pretty sure our Bulldog runs on sight only - a rabbit crosses the road in front of us - dog hits the bush after the rabbit - hear that Bulldog start barking way deep in bush - then she comes back out, to where we think the rabbit started from - THEN she starts sniffing where that rabbit went - so all the rabbit has to do is hit the bush on the run, make a sharp turn and the Bulldog goes right past - chasing "something" - but then she comes back to check the scent trail - in mean time, the rabbit is probably 1/2 mile away telling his buddies about that stupid Bulldog back there! In Winter time, the dog has to about sniff every track on the snow - people, dogs, cats, etc. - has her nose down in the snow - not sure what she is sniffing for? We have seen her take on Momma Black Bears with cubs and antler-less whitetail deer on the road - she is NOT a "push-over"!
 
Ive read that bear can smell schools of salmon 3 km away and wait for them to come in and spawn up steams.
Just crazy how good animals noses are, not to mention cagey old buck ..
Been busted ,, 500 y away using the swirl of the wind coming over the ridge. Up wind
Smart environmental specialist w.t. deer are
Always grouse or squirrel helping out often..
 
I read somewhere that a dog’s sense of smell is 10 THOUSAND times that of a human, and that my dachshund can smell things 2ft underground.
 
Potashminer said:
We are pretty sure our Bulldog runs on sight only - a rabbit crosses the road in front of us - dog hits the bush after the rabbit - hear that Bulldog start barking way deep in bush - then she comes back out, to where we think the rabbit started from - THEN she starts sniffing where that rabbit went - so all the rabbit has to do is hit the bush on the run, make a sharp turn and the Bulldog goes right past - chasing "something" - but then she comes back to check the scent trail - in mean time, the rabbit is probably 1/2 mile away telling his buddies about that stupid Bulldog back there! In Winter time, the dog has to about sniff every track on the snow - people, dogs, cats, etc. - has her nose down in the snow - not sure what she is sniffing for? We have seen her take on Momma Black Bears with cubs and antler-less whitetail deer on the road - she is NOT a "push-over"!
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My hound I mentioned earlier would never chase deer or rabbit and would always watch them run away as she’d rather follow the scent trail. It was comical as she’d watch a deer zig zag or turn 90 degrees but she’d still take the long route following the scent trail exactly rather than chasing the animal.

It never got old watching her analyze a mess of tracks and somehow knew which one was the original anima she started tracking.


Best part? She was a free pup from a CGN member that required zero training whatsoever to be an absolute hunting machine.
 
Bears and deer can smell better than dogs.

I remember reading an article of cadaver dogs smelling human remains 100ft below just by sniffing the surface from a boat. Scientists don't even understand how they do it.

My walker coonhound has proved me wrong many times when I didn't see the track but he's going ape #### wanting to go. He's smelling the air, I'm just looking for actual physical evidence lol
 
I worked with two cadaver dogs a few years back on a water recovery - stunning is all I can say.
Ruby, the older one, discovered a body tgat drowned 75 years before the body they were actually looking for- in 150 feet of water no less!
In our case, she tracked the body in my boat as it bounced, hung up, them moved again along the river bottom
 Cat
 
iron cat said:
I worked with two cadaver dogs a few years back on a water recovery - stunning is all I can say.
Ruby, the older one, discovered a body tgat drowned 75 years before the body they were actually looking for- in 150 feet of water no less!
In our case, she tracked the body in my boat as it bounced, hung up, them moved again along the river bottom
 Cat
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Amazing. Did they determine who the 75 year ago body was?
 
MiG25 said:
Amazing. Did they determine who the 75 year ago body was?
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Yes they did in fact.
On further researching , I was wrong, they did not positively identify the remains.
This was on Priest Lake in Idaho quite a few years ago .
They wouldn't have found it except for the fact that they were headed across the lake so took a bit of a short cut because they had already done a grid search of the area they suspected the victim they were looking for was located so to save time the cut across a different area.
Debbie, (Ruby's owner) told me Ruby danged near dug through the bottom of the zodiac , the scent was so strong to her!
I will see if I can find the article.
Cat
 
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Bears can smell you from far away, but that doesn't mean they always do. I've twice surprised grizzlies at close range. One at 20 feet and the other (actually a mother with cubs ) at 50 feet. In both cases there was basically no wind. I was distracted and so were the bears 😀. They definitely didn't notice me until I made some noise.
 
iron cat said:
Yes they did in fact.
On further researching , I was wrong, they did not positively identify the remains.
This was on Priest Lake in Idaho quite a few years ago .
They wouldn't have found it except for the fact that they were headed across the lake so took a bit of a short cut because they had already done a grid search of the area they suspected the victim they were looking for was located so to save time the cut across a different area.
Debbie, (Ruby's owner) told me Ruby danged near dug through the bottom of the zodiac , the scent was so strong to her!
I will see if I can find the article.
Cat
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Is this it?
Screenshot_20260425-091649.png
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MiG25, yes it s, but there is no reference to to Ruby first alerting to the body that I can find anywhere.
Gene and Debbie( Ruby's handler) worked together on a regular basis all over the country, Gene was on the river when I had Ruby and Weibeaux, (Debbie's younger lab) in my boat.
He is a super intelligent and very guy to talk with .
Cat
 
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There was an older story I read about a GSD, an RCMP K9, that was taken out to find a prairie woman's $2 bill that had blown out of her milk pail in a blizzard as she was on her way home after she sold some eggs at the general store- a major tragedy for her in those days. The dog found the bill.
 
One of my friend's son is running a Custom dog between borders. Other than protection and drugs It's specialized for "money". No joke.

It smelled fresh cash (no drugs involved in the find) 2 feet down burried into gravel underneath a paved driveway. It also found 34 grams of Marijuana suspended in a zip-lock bag one 1 metre down in a lake.

It's amazing what dogs can do.
 
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