There's a big difference between trained hounds running in a pack and "parlor parasites" better known as pets.
I love the pets but the working dogs aren't going to run away.

Lurker guy here. Always found this report interesting --

http://www.bfro.net/GDB/show_report.asp?id=5770

Reno area feral dogs. Same person submitted this one also (no dogs in this one) --

http://www.bfro.net/GDB/show_report.asp?id=5697

Nice story but I don't believe it for a second.
He mentions dobermans and then 2 to 3 inch hair found from them ..... 1/2" to 1" maybe.
and then, a 2 legged animal outruns 4 legged ... I doubt it.
Ever see a doberman run after someone?
Nothing to cooberate the story, but an interesting story.

I was reseaching in the Cascades between the gap of the 410 hi-way and I-90 (about 40 miles of mountain. I came upon a camp of bear hunters and decided to stay the night with there camp. Around the fire it came out what I was doing up there and then slowly these 3 spoke up and told of there experiences. I have no reason to not believe them and I dont think they had any reason to lie, no drinking less some hot coffee and good company. Now exactly where they were at when these things happened I cant remember, but they were each sepperate experiences. As for taking pictures, cmon have you met a bear hunter before, between gathering and tracking dogs and keeping his wits about where he is at there is no time to take pictures and if pictures are taken it would be back in camp. As for coming up on the fight scene/kill zone each must have been in complete shock and then the fear sets in with the fight or flight for safety...Not to mention each dog costs a butt load of money to buy....any way thats how I came across this info

i read through most of the posts but didn't see these mentioned.

1. put cameras on the dogs!

2. put gps on the dog collar and train the dogs to hang back and... i don't know, observe?

3. watch the monitor on your laptop and you might get an idea, where to look?

seems like it might work while not being too destructive to bf or the dogs.

cheers

Feral dogs if I understand this term correctly means wild but not naturally wild ? If thats the case I can tell you the most bizzare thing I have ever seen is on the island of Okinawa Japan on a military base. There are packs of dogs, like 10-20 dogs, domestic breeds, Labs, shepards, beagles, ect. abandoned by military personel apon transfer, that roam the jungle and housing areas like a pack of wild animals. We called them "Boonie dogs" and a pack of them were killing cats and other dogs on base so the MP's started shooting them. They abandoned all fear of man in search of food. I witnessed an MP standing in the bed of his truck dropping dogs with a pump shotgun and the dogs were still trying to get him and attacking the dead and injured dogs.

FanofSquatch,

i gotta tell ya, that story really freaks me out eh! the thought of being eaten alive by a pack of dogs, especially dogs that at one time had owners that cared for them, is just disturbing to me.

but i would venture a guess that a pack of even 10 or 20 feral dogs, as ferocious as you could get would do nothing but die horrible deaths at the hands of a pissed off and determined sasquatch. the brief sighting that i had showed me a couple of things that i think are relevant to such an encounter. 1st is the sheer size at around 9ft tall and i would guess almost 3ft thick at the chest in profile. massive! 2nd was how fast it moved, it's part of what made it so surreal. i think the number of dogs that it would take to bring down one of these creatures and actually be able to do it harm, is just not realistic to imagine a pack that big? i would always put my money on the sasquatch. your story was as disturbing as it was sad though.

cheers

I remember reading that report on BFRO about one running down a street and in the the back yard while crashing in to the corner of the house, while running from a pack. It made me think of Hyenas.

This in stark contrast to other stories where ferrel dogs seemed to accompany a BF in a field, or domestics cowaring and hiding indoors.

Perhaps as with a lot of other conjecture related to this mythical creature, there isn't a "one size fits all" to describe how things are.

.

I imagine you could train griz dogs, to stay at least 20 feet away from an animal. Still barking and howling, etc, but not getting close enough to it for death. Letting the dogs loose is better than being dragged by a leash. The BF would still outrun or outmanuever you. They can tree the beast, without getting close enough to be grabbed by one. Special training for that I imagine. A pack of griz chasers seem to like to get close enough to bite at it, from all directions. BFing would need a whole new set of skills for the dogs.

Well, I know I've found more, but I'd say dogs probably want nothing to do with squatch based on what I've read!

Then there's this:
http://www.hecklerspray.com/wp-content/upl...10-911-call.mp3

And two weeks later he made this call:
http://www.bigfootsounds.com/call911.mp3

tirademan

[bolding mine]

Jay you make an excellent point. I never thought of this before. Smart lady! I just figured they'd all smell the same ... you know ... distinctive from other animals ... and stinky. But to a dog, each human has a different scent. It's why the police (for example) use a piece of clothing from the person they're tracking, to get the dog to follow that specific person. So I wonder if that's the case for these things too. If they would each have a specific odour like we do.

And if they each has a distinctive scent, it would make it that much harder for a dog to track one, since first you'd have to present the dog with that individual bf's scent, train him on it, and send him searching for that particular one ... ach ... the mind boggles.

Anyway ... good thinking.

Thanks Pat!

I wonder if their environment would have an effect on their scent also. The food they eat, ground they sit on, trees in the area, etc. I would think that depending on the area of the country they are in would have a profound effect on their smell. In other words, would a bf from GA smell the same as a bf from OK?

Don't know, but it's interesting to think about.

That's an interesting idea, Jay.

Returning to the thought that they might each have a distinctive scent like we do, I wonder if apes have scents that vary from individual to individual? Or if it's a feature that's distinctive only to humans.

Pat, I would almost bet that these guys do have unique individual scents. We do, as to all other animals(dogs can easily ID a "new" dog just by the scent, for instance). As to if they can detect that difference that's likely a debate, but I'd have to guess they can. Humans can detect "individual" scents even if we don't realize it, and my guess is their sniffer is better then ours if only due to a lack of environmental damage we endure from chemicals and stuff nearly from day one, and the fact that natural selection would push a better sense of smell.
We need Rod so send us some "natural" hominid scent to use as camera bait!

A unique scent makes sense to me. I think there's going to be some commonality, but what it has recently eaten, and where it has been should have some bearing.

After a nice swim might make some difference and if you got a good week long sweat about you, probably gonna smell like arse.

I think life long bad breath is a given.

.

Might it be prudent then to pass the scent of Tom Biscardi on to your scent tracking dog??? I mean, this way, if you are out in the woods, and you suspect you may be the target of a Biscardi led hoax, your dog can take you right too him.... I'd like that opportunity....to catch him red-handed.... Just a thought....

I like the dog idea , wonder what would happen if you put a few IR cameras in a area in a few trees looking down at a spot in a clearing ,, stake the dog there with food and water for a few weeks ,,

i know i know but you could switch it to feral cats , put a goat out there my mother in law ,

any way from what i have seen with my dog is he is tuff he will run right in on a pack of coyotes and tear them up ,
but on the other hand if he doesn't know what it is ..he will not run in like before he will stand back and bark but he's not getting into any thing he don't know what it is ,,

I'm heading out on Tue for Cody Yellowstone and Idaho just out of the park and grand Tetons for a few weeks , from what i have seen most sightings are in the stretch between Cody and the east gate , and i noticed a pattern where they all say its about half way ,

and in some of the reports there was construction replacing a culvert , and deciphering it all i came up with this spot as it seems to have a high number of sitings in this stretch , i plan on a stop in this area i will be equipped with a 1000 mm lens running raw files at 13 mb and tripod and get my self up on a ridge so i can see , i will also be taking my steiner night-hunter 10x50 along so i can glass it out ,,

and no im not taking my dog ,

LOL!!

damn, you beat me to it, LOL!!!

At the very least, having a dog around you on your BF hunts, will let you know one is near, when the dogs wimpers and trys to run away. Just tie off the dog and go from there, if you want to get closer to it.

Ok, I want to preface this by again by saying that I have been hunting with dogs since I was a kid. I own around 15 hunting dogs right now, and use them for hunting wild boar on a regular basis. You can check in my profile and find my website if you need to see pics to back up what I say.

After reading three pages of post on this very interesting (to me) subject, there are few things that come to mind:

1. You can find dogs brave enough to hunt ANY animal. However, my personal theory is that BF might be close enough to human, but just different enough, to really freak out most dogs. Basically a boogie man, in their eyes - a huge, woolly, smelly, scary person. Just a theory, but I think thats why dogs react the way they do. If you want to see for yourself, put a dark big blanket over yourself walk with a strange stance or gait up to your dog. Watch how he reacts. You look like a person, but yet, don't. It will seperate fearful dogs, from truly brave dogs real quick, but you usually will get a strong reaction, either extreme fear/flight, or much rarer, anger/fight. Careful though, you could get bit. If that boogieman theory is true with BF, protection trained dogs, dogs that are screened to pass "boogie man" type tests, and used for attacking humans might be better suited. But then again, maybe not....because

2. It seems pretty likely that sending any dog or number of dogs to try to attack or kill a smart, , fast, agile creature weighing 800lbs or so, and 8 feet tall is pretty much a death sentence for the dogs. It would probably be over before you could even get there to take pictures.


Luckily there are other ways to go about this. Not all breeds of hunting dogs have the metality to go in and engage an animal at super close range, or try to "catch" it. Some dogs have been bred to hold an animal "at bay". Basically work to together as a pack to keep an animal spinning in circles. When the animal goes after one dog, that dog evades as another dog comes from behind and nips it from the rear. When the animal turns after THAT dog, that dog evades as another dog nips the animal in the rear, so on so forth - basically keeping the quarry spinning in a circle watching it's rear. Usually an animal will get tired of getting nipped at and find some cover to back up to, and dare the dogs to come at it from head on. The dogs won't. They will circle from a distance and bark, and as long as the animal stays put they will not press the issue, just hold it there, barking. Since the animal is not getting nipped anymore, he is usally content with this "mexican standoff" type scenario, thinking the dogs will give up and go away. This is how a well trained pack of "bay dogs" works. They can hold big, agressive animals at bay like this for a long time, because the quarry doesn't know people are coming, to change the equation...of course with BF, this part might not hold true. He might be smart enough to know that people will be coming soon, so you migt not have long. Still, it is a chance.

The main issue with using dogs at all, is that BF is known to move really fast, and appears to be smart. IMO, the only type of dog that would likely have a chance is a pack of small dogs like Jagterriers, Jack Russell Terriers or Feists. These dogs are so fast, small and agile they will give most animals fits trying to catch them, big or otherwise. Jack Russells are used for lion hunting, and cape buffalo hunting for this reason. Neither of those animals can catch one, and while the animal is chasing the dog around, the humans have more time to react to the situation.

If you had a couple (or more) gritty terriers with you at a planned BF search/outiing and you had some form of suspected BF contact, you might be able to turn them loose and occupy a BF (or other subject) long enough to get close to determine what it is, get pics or video, or if you were so inclined, a shot. Still, if it were a BF, it would be probably be long before he got one or more of the dogs (if he is close to human smart and ambushed them), or got so far away so fast, that you could not keep up with them.....still I think it could by you some time to get close while it was preoccupied. Much closer than trying to sneak up on one that is sneaking up in a camp in the dark or something...


Just my two cents.

That's really good info Rex. I'm already thinking about trying the blanket out on my Blue Heeler lol.

Thanks for the great information, Rex. I learned a lot!

I believe a Bigfoot could simply hurdle a pack of "at bay" dogs unless injured or a juvenile perhaps. Good information though and easy to see what the bear hunters
are capable of now. The quick engagers, "get in and get out" with the picture kind of dogs sound like a better shot to me like the terriers also. Maybe some day.

I saw an example of this just this past weekend, when Nightwing was over at my parents' place for my son's open house. He typically gets on well with dogs and pets, isn't a scary guy, no freaky facial hair, no rough booming voice, nothing like that. When my aunt got there with her dog Sophie, a little white maltese mix who's normally very jiggly and friendly and loves everybody, the dog was her typical self until she got to NW, and then she started yapping at him, backing away, looking at him sideways, and acting really nervous around him.

He was talking to her in a calm, friendly voice, was clean-shaven all the way around, had a nice, light-colored short-sleeved shirt on... the only thing we can figure that freaked her out was that he was wearing camo pants and dark boots. She reeeeeally seemed to not like that and wouldn't go near him for the rest of the evening or the next day (he stayed over at our place and went back out with us the next day for leftovers and a car show, wearing the same pants).

So, I think your theory that the similarity of BF to humans -- but just being 'off' a bit with the hair and dark coloring -- freaking out dogs, could have some merit.

My two Ridgebacks survived their encounter but they were both pretty beaten and torn up. As I related in my first of two brief yet seperate encounters I reached the conclusion that I would never see either of them again. They were intitally very scared, but although physically mature my dogs were not "Old Salty" hunting dogs. It took them awhile to find their courage and I think that only happened because the creature was being threatening towards my brother and I. If they had their druthers I think they would have just run home if he and I had not been present. We only heard most of the commotion between the dogs and the creature, all we saw was some barking and feinting until the creature bolted and the dogs persued it. After so many years of hindsight and mulling it over I have come to the conclusion that if my dogs had ever encountered a Squatch before in those woods, being the romaing farm dogs that they were, that the two species had kept a mutually respectful distance at most. I think any natural animosity between the two mainly exists in that dogs call attention to them that they dont want. Something had been killing turkeys in that pine glade. I remember 2 fresh kills on the ground when we got there and seeing old feathers scattered around. At the time we assumed either dogs, yotes or bobcats had done the killing but it was apparant that we were in it's space and needed to leave.

I was reading this book :
HUNTING THE GRISLY AND OTHER SKETCHES, by Theodore Roosevelt, Putnam's Sons, 1902
An Account of the Big Game of the United States and its Chase with Horse, Hound, and Rifle

These passage seems relevant to hunting for Bigfoot with dogs:

This first one, mentions hunting with terriers as was my idea above:



And regarding hunting grizzly bears with large big game hounds:


Here is the whole book, in e-book format:
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/3337/3337.txt
It is in the public domain now, and may be shared freely.