# Evading a dog's scent

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evading-a-dogs-scent/309318>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [June 22, 2005, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evading-a-dogs-scent/309318 "2005-06-22T05:24:04Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![marshmallow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@marshmallow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/marshmallow)\
**Post date:** [June 22, 2005, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evading-a-dogs-scent/309318/1 "2005-06-22T05:24:04Z")

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In a commercial for “New Axe” deodorant our hero is running from some men and their dogs. The dogs have a scent on him when with a flash of genius the man uses said product and disappears off their radar (getting in touch with a babe in the process, _of course_).

Is this as absurd as it looks? Canines in general have excellet senses of smell, especially those trained to hone it for our ends. I very much doubt a dog would become confused if you just covered your pit aroma. Even if you covered your entire body in some sort of masking agent it seems the dogs would be able to smell what you left in the air behind you.

Let’s just say a family member disagreed and one of us needs to say “told ya so boyeeee!.”

Standard disclaimer: I do not intend to commit a high crime and then use said information gleaned from this thread to evade blood hounds. I’m not a good runner, anyway.

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**Author:** ![Lissa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)\
**Post date:** [June 22, 2005, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evading-a-dogs-scent/309318/2 "2005-06-22T13:33:21Z")

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Your suspicions are correct. A dog would still be able to smell your tracks even if you washed your body and feet.

Just as an example, a dog trained to locate narcotics can detect them no matter how well people try to conceal the smell. My husband works with local law enforcement sometimes, and has seen drug dealers try to conceal the scent of drugs with huge amounts of onions and garlic, wrapped in countless layers of plastic, to no avail. The dogs can still smell it.

Dogs’ sense of smell is about fifty to a hundred times that of a human. Some believe that dogs can even smell cancers, and can be trained to be a diagnostic tool.

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**Author:** ![lno](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a8b319/32.png) [@lno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lno)\
**Post date:** [June 22, 2005, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evading-a-dogs-scent/309318/3 "2005-06-22T14:22:31Z")

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> [@Lissa](#):
>
> Dogs’ sense of smell is about fifty to a hundred times that of a human. Some believe that dogs can even smell cancers, and can be trained to be a diagnostic tool.

[Exactly.](http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6081728/)

> [@](#):
>
> Now, in research published in the British Medical Journal, scientists have shown dogs can identify bladder cancer by detecting chemicals in urine emitted by cancerous cells.
> 
> …
> 
> During the training phase of the study, the dogs consistently identified a urine sample from a healthy control patient as cancerous. Further tests confirmed the volunteer did in fact have the disease.