Fear after smelling something!

[Andres]

Long time no posting here. Romeo is now 3 years old and is a more adult, calm, self centered dog.. well, as much as a cairn can be, of course.

During today's usual 1 hour evening walk something super weird happened. Romeo smelled what appears to be a dog marking (business as usual) and suddenly he went into a position close to the floor, tail between his legs, ears back. Clearly a fearful stance, and he started looking up like waiting for a giant bird to attack. He then started tracking a smell for couple blocks in the same manner.. close to the floor, tail between his legs and always looking up and around expecting imminent danger.

I'm super aware that dogs can, from time to time, have irrational fears or behaviors, but this particular situation was really awkward for Romeo. Has any of you seen something similar to this after smelling something? Romeo, as most cairns, fears nothing, so I discard smelling the mark of an aggressive dog (he just gets mad at them, not scared). My best guess is that he smelled the marking of a very sick dog? Or a diseased bird poo?

What do you think?

Thanks!

[Andres]

Forgot to mention: this happened for 20 minutes, then he was back to normal

[bradl]

Hard to know *what* he smelled but in the sense that every scent tells a story he might have read something frightening indeed. I feel I *have* seen that reaction before, at least for a moment or minute. We don't tend to dwell in places where our dogs are spooked, so not long and not often.

[Kathryn]

Not sure what kinds of predators you have in Chile. Here in Minnesota it could have been a coyote marking -- yes, we have coyotes in the city. Could he have been reacting to something like that?

[Hillscreek]

That does sounds like fear. 

Perhaps Romeo smelt/felt an imminent threat you could not see or feel. In urban areas here In US coyotes have been known to be threatening if they feel cornered

 We have plenty of fox, coytes and bear who left their messages where we walked - Angus left his also of course! He was cautious at times but never seemed affraid. 

 

 

 

 

[Andres]

Thanks for all your answers. This was in the city, but I don't discard some wild animal marking. Couple years ago we had a puma (!!!) walking in the city so maybe a coyote or something. 

I also take this with me: "every scent tells a story", so maybe he read something very awful.

Thanks as always for your insight!

[Andres]

Update: for the last three days some forest fires started like a 100kms from the city, but today we're seeing the smoke in town. So our safe guess is that Romeo started smelling that and felt that imminent threat. Perhaps this post will help other cairn humans understand better their furry friends in the future!

Thanks everyone!

[pkcrossley]

interesting. would he have had occasion to smell smoke previously?

[Andres]

On 12/31/2022 at 10:03 PM, pkcrossley said:

interesting. would he have had occasion to smell smoke previously?

Well, we usually take him to grills and bbqs, but we can all tell that a wildfire might smell different.