I Suspect It's Been Discussed Before But Why Can't We Track Bf With Dogs?

[JDL]

Some dogs will pursue bigfoot, but they've either got to be predisposed to overcome innate fear, or conditioned to do so.  Those predisposed are likely to be all around nasty, as Cotter suggests.

 

I'm not too familiar with cadaver dogs, but I know that by sense of smell they can distinguish between dead humans and other dead creatures.  It may take a dog that is not trained to ignore dead animals in favor of humans, or more generally, is trained to search for all primates.

[Cotter]

Hammer!
 

Put a call in to these folks:

 

http://www.belgrade-news.com/news/article_888b7b42-a122-11e1-b2a3-001a4bcf887a.html

 

They have trained dogs that track the rarest of gorillas, and sniff out invasive plant species.

Pretty cool.

 

"Traveling to Cameroon, Africa to track the rarest gorilla on earth, the Cross River gorilla, is a dream for many conservation biologists, travelers and primate enthusiasts alike. But a local dog recently did just that, for two months."

[Guest Scout1959]

Some dogs will pursue bigfoot, but they've either got to be predisposed to overcome innate fear, or conditioned to do so.  Those predisposed are likely to be all around nasty, as Cotter suggests.

 

I'm not too familiar with cadaver dogs, but I know that by sense of smell they can distinguish between dead humans and other dead creatures.  It may take a dog that is not trained to ignore dead animals in favor of humans, or more generally, is trained to search for all primates.

A dog trained to go after any carrion would likely make for a long and frustrating day as even a mouse carcass would attract it.

[Guest Darrell]

Does anyone else find it odd that tracking dogs bred and trained to track anything, and can track everything on this planet, for some reason cant track bigfoot? Dogs can track lions and tigers and bears, oh my, but not bigfoot. Maybe they cant track whats not really there.

[Guest DWA]

^^^Well actually there's plenty of bigfoot vs. dog reportage out there for anyone who cares to read it.

 

You are going to find it particularly hard to track something that scares you to death and has a uniform tendency to kill you when it gets hold of you.

And of course not just that.

 

Anyone who knows anything about this knows that dogs have to be trained to track something.  Specimens bearing that something's scent need to be available.

 

When one is in denial that the something even exists, OK, where are the specimens to train the dogs coming from?

Just like humans, dogs encountering sasquatch are meeting something nothing has prepared them for.  Tracking doesn't happen without intensive preparation.

 

Why don't dogs track sasquatch?  The same reason the human forgets there's a camera in her lap when one crosses the road.

 

Preparation.

[JDL]

Does anyone else find it odd that tracking dogs bred and trained to track anything, and can track everything on this planet, for some reason cant track bigfoot? Dogs can track lions and tigers and bears, oh my, but not bigfoot. Maybe they cant track whats not really there.

 

Depends on the dog.  I've witnessed three dogs pursuing a bigfoot and bringing it temporarily to bay.  Scariest moment of my life.

[Guest Scout1959]

Depends on the dog.  I've witnessed three dogs pursuing a bigfoot and bringing it temporarily to bay.  Scariest moment of my life.

 

It sure would have been nice if you'd have gotten a video or at least a still picture for the rest of us.

[Guest DWA]

^^^Well, sure, but not everything happens on everyone's schedule, and do get a shot or two when you see a unicorn.

[JDL]

It sure would have been nice if you'd have gotten a video or at least a still picture for the rest of us.

 

Yep, Just for you I should have had a camera or video at the ready when this unexpectedly and rapidly happened in the middle of the night in 1972.

[Guest Cervelo]

All the dogs I've trained have been deer and rabbit dogs, most are scent dogs, dogs smell like we see.

The way we did it was we always put young dogs with older dogs and would "run" them for numerous short distances.

I was often the "driver" being the youngest and I honestly enjoyed working with the dogs more than the hunting....the driver gets the dogs on a scent or track.

He makes a noise almost always a whopping like noise sometimes followed be his/her unique signature.

The dogs will at first follow into the woods, the mature dogs will "get on it" and the younger would follow....pack behavior.

Some deer dogs became rabbit dogs. You could tell based on the movement...running in circles in the same area....that dog became a rabbit dog, got a new home or got culled.

It takes a tremendous amount of time to train a dog to track anything but one thing you need is a source for that scent or object you want them to track.....so you kinda see where I'm going with this.

Can a group of dogs just spontaneously start chasing an unknown just for the heck of it, sure it could happen...maybe a feral pack that hunts for food sure.

But a working dog that's been trained to hunt something specific....I've seen bird dogs chase a deer for 20-30 yards and get recalled, same with rabbit dogs chasing deer and deer dogs chasing rabbits but this behavior is highly discourage early in their training.

Having worked with dogs all over the state of Va. I've never had a trained pack chase anything for any appreciable distance that it wasn't trained to pursue.

Now I have seen many dogs that were in training do this and they didn't get to come home

Edited March 8, 2014 by Cervelo

[OnlyASize12]

Oh, its been done at least once that I can remember.

A few years ago, there was a case where a man called the police and reported he'd it a "man in a fur coat" alongside the road in Louisiana(?) and couldn't find him.   Police responded and found that the car was damaged and that the driver was credible enough to conduct a search for someone injured.  I remember that they had a K-9 team involved and tracked "something" for several miles...were close enough to hear movement in the brush...but ultimately lost the trail.

 

In general, I'd say that the problem is going to be finding a trail...and getting a dog to understand "following this smell....NOT that one" when you don't have a sample scent for the dog to recognize and go "OH...you mean THIS".

 

Tim

[Guest Cervelo]

Yup dogs can track almost anything that's real

[Guest]

I am an amateur gundog trainer (I specialize in Labs) so this interests me.  As background I'll advise the program I use starting with a 7-8 week old pup takes 18-24 months to complete.  My 'finished" gundog has rock solid OB, is steady to wing & shot to include land, field blind, boat, and water platform, responds to voice, whistle, and silent hand signal commands, will do multiple bird marks on land & water (the dog sees the fall and remembers each one) out to 300 -400 yards, does blinds (the dog does not see the fall and the handler directs the dog to the bird using hand signals) as far as the dog can see the handler. 

 

At the end of their training I install some "fun" tasks (tasks the dog doesn't do as a regular part of his job, which they thoroughly enjoy as a change of pace), shed antler location, object search & location (keys, wallets, arrows, shotgun shells) and deer blood trailing.  All my dogs love to find & retrieve lost arrows and practically fight over which one gets to bring it back to me.  My oldest lab Josie is a legendary blood trailer, having trailed up & found every wounded deer I put her on.

 

You can teach a dog to trail anything, provided the dog is the right breed and you have the scent of the animal or object you want them to find.

 

When trailing an animal, it is either pushed until it tires and is forced to bay or tree, or the chase gets so close it bays or trees to defend itself.  I'm thinking the tough part of trailing up a booger is ever being able to tire it & force it to bay up.  But suppose you do. What comes next?... 

 

It is going to be angry and won't be open to a mind meld so you can tell it you just want to be it's friend.  A bayed up cat, hog, or bear figures out real fast the humans are the root of the problem, I can't imagine a monkee wouldn't arrive at that conclusion even quicker.  There are piles of reports on how boogers make short work of any dogs, so what do you do when it makes eye contact, blows through your pack, and heads straight for you?

 

Just my opinion, but you better have all your endgame options covered if you try this...

Edited March 13, 2014 by NDT

[Guest LarryP]

Yep, Just for you I should have had a camera or video at the ready when this unexpectedly and rapidly happened in the middle of the night in 1972.

 

But you still should've been thinking about the "rest of us" when this happenned, JDL !

[JDL]

Hell, it was '72, just five years after the PGF.  I was twelve,had never heard the term Bigfoot, and had no clue the **** things existed or what they were.