We have a couple of smaller Long Haired Dachshunds (not your typical larger short haired type).



Both of them definitely have a hunting instinct despite being mostly house dogs. They will catch and kill any rabbit, mouse, gopher. etc....that gets in the yard but we don't let them roam the property.

Anyway...on to my question.

This morning I let both of them out in the back yard (60' x 80' fenced area) to do their 'business'. Maddie went about her routine but Gracie (the more hound looking one) lifted her nose to the wind and went straight to the fence line...looking out into the pasture.

I keep the grass mowed short and you can see about 300 yards to the tree line. She started whining and acting like she wanted to get out of the yard.

I couldn't see anything in the pasture that would have attracted her attention. She wouldn't come to me when I called her (has never done that). I had to go get her and bring her in the house. A bit later I went to check a hog trap I keep just past the end of that pasture and had a couple of small pigs in it. They were just sitting there when I rolled up.

Then it occurred to me that Gracie might have been smelling the pigs. But that's a long way from the house (over 300 yds.) The wind was indeed blowing back towards the house but I'm just not sure a Dachshunds nose is THAT good.

What say you?

Small pigs. Not like there was a big stinky boar in the trap.



Gracie (the dog) with my Daughter. I know Dachshunds are hounds and originally bred to hunt badgers/etc....but they aren't exactly bloodhounds.

Definitely possible. Many breeds have amazing noses.

Huh.....just learned something (depending on how accurate this is).

Sense of Smell sensitivity.

List has the Dachshund as number 4 (of popular breeds).

Didn't know that.

https://be.chewy.com/behavior-breeds-15-dog-breeds-with-the-best-sense-of-smell/

My next door neighbor uses a Dachshund to track deer he has shot. We have lived here for 10 years and I bet he has found over a dozen deer for the guy.

I could see any number of breeds being adequate 'tracking' dogs where they can pretty much follow a hot trail with nose to ground.

I guess I was just surprised that seemingly my dog was picking up airborne scent from such a distance with no more wind/breeze than was present.

I've caught/killed boars that I think I COULD have smelled at that distance but these were small 50 lbs shoats, just sitting in the trap over 300 yds. away.

I suppose I just underestimated the ability of the dog.

300 yards is no big deal for a dog’s nose.

She smelled them

I can tell you for sure that the distance from the back bedroom to the kitchen table is no big deal for them.

They KNOW in an instant if I get anything out of the 'fridge' and will be there in seconds.

I have heard for years that Dachshunds or "wiener dogs" were bred for blood trailing. Is it true? Not sure, but they are very capable at the job.

Or she might have heard them? Dachshunds make excellent trackers and are very easy to train. I'm surprised we don't see more of them being used to find deer.

I can smell BBQ from about a mile, so..yeah, I would say so!

That occurred to me.... but I am very familiar with her body language and she didn't perk her ears up, but rather was lifting her nose, kept testing the air it appeared.

It is certainly possible the hogs had made some noise, but they had been in the trap all night and were sitting down when I drove up. They naturally start running when you approach the trap.

Strongly disagree with this. A good tracking dog can follow a blood track that is two days old. Smelling stinky pigs at 300 yards with a good wind is just nothing for a dog. Tracking a two-day old blood trail is the real deal. John Jeanneney, who literally wrote the book on blood tracking, used, I think, a wire-haired dachshund. If you look at his book LINK and look at the cover pic closely, you can see his dog in the background.

Originally way back in the day the were bred to hunt and fight badgers. That’s why they are so fiery and have so much heart. The full sized ones are a good bit bigger than the miniature ones that are most common now. They make excellent dogs for tracking as they have a great nose.

Mine would do it, he can smell a pint of ice cream a lot further than 300 yards. Here he is on a pig I killed a while back.

[video:youtube]https://youtube.com/shorts/3mxvkbjSQEk?feature=share[/video]

They all know that routine!

Haha.....he's gettin' him good!

I've always known the history of the breed, just didn't realize they had that good of a nose. Live and learn I suppose.

Plus, they are built low to the ground. Making it even easier to follow a trail. They're already down there.

Neat to see beagles ranked second on the list. Mine sounds like she has a dang vacuum going on the end of her face she is always sniffing so much. She trailed a hog I shot late after it sat all night. Never found any blood I could see but she took us directly too it.

Had many dachshunds over the years, bred a few litters of them. Ours were outside dogs they hunted the yard in a pack killed many a critter and slept in a pile in the cold, were good dogs but are not sticker/grass burr resilient, but neither is my beagle.

"Whitetail Deer have up to 297 million olfactory receptors compared to humans with just 5 million and dogs with 220 million. Whitetail deer's sense of smell is nearly 1/3 greater than that of a canine or dog."

Most likely, she did smell it. If the wind was blowing straight from the pigs, she would have no problem in doing so. Dash hounds have good noses and I had one that could work a wounded deer track like a bloodhound.
Adios,
Gary

So.....are you saying we need to train a deer to track a wounded/dead deer?

The wind was slight but was indeed blowing right our way. I've just underestimated the breed I suppose. Our other Dachshund didn't show any signs of detecting the scent, or maybe didn't care. But she is much older.

Anyway....I've learned something about Dachshunds I didn't know before.

Thanks for all input.