I have no idea what either.
Took him out to go pee, and he started sniffing something on the ground, scent trail of some kind (not unusual, between neighbor dogs, coyotes and possibly foxes, not to mention other wildlife this is pretty normal). He peed on it a couple times, but kept getting more and more agitated, till he finally dragged me back to the house, in the door, and proceeded to check every window and door he has access too. He’s now switching back and forth between front and back windows searching for whatever it is….
I wonder what a “game camera” would turn up around your area…
Well, depends on where you put it. The one in the one back trail gets deer all the time, and I've seen turkeys with my own eyes, possum and rabbit too. Folks we bought from had coyote and fox pelts that they said they took out back (along with turkey and deer trophies), and I've seen what I'm pretty sure are coyote tracks. we keep meaning to pick up a couple more cameras, ones with infrared flashes so we can put them elsewhere with out annoying folks, but haven't had the spare cash…..
This was up by the road though, so I'd assumed it was a dog (one neighbor doesn't understand the concept of “leash laws”), but he doesn't react that way to dog. Didn't smell skunk….
He doesn't react that way to people smell usually either, though I've never had a truely uninvited guest to try him on…
Are there any wolves, cougars, or bears in your area? Sounds more like he was protecting you from a predator.
not that I'm aware of, though it wouldn't surprise me if there was such a predator of some kind considering our deer population. And we do occasionally have a bear problem in areas not that far from us.
It just seems like an odd area for such a scent. In the back of the property is miles and miles of undeveloped land, trees, farmland, and what have you. Up front, where Apollo was reacting is the road, and on the other side of the road is more houses with dogs….though there IS a signifigant brush line between us and our immediete neighbors that side, and I don't let Apollo GO out back after dark (cause its, well, dark), so maybe tomorrow we'll discover more scent in the back.
Husband reminded me we aren't that far out of mountain lion range either…..could be
Well, whatever it was it wasn't such a big deal this morning, he sniffed carefully, peed on it, and then went on to do his business. No obvious tracks of anything, but I'm not a tracker!
With dogs, the nose knows. I had a Rhodesian Ridgeback that was acting sickly. One night the Shihtzu cautiously approached him took a sniff and backed up rather quickly.On that I decided to take the Ridgeback to the vet. He had liver cancer. The little dog would never go near him again.
Rhodesians are cool…..and that doesn't surprise me at all.
Husband says Apollo reacted very strongly to something along the southern brushline and the stream area in the back when he took him out for a run around this morning after I left. Hmmmm, I didn't see the psychotic german shepherds this morning and they're directly across the street from where the original scent site was……