Hare and Cottontail

[K.C.'s Beagles]

I went running hare for the first time in upper lower Michigan. Beautiful weather. We had one run for an hour. Four dogs down and they were picking for an half an hour. My dog, Chief, struck in first and he has never run a hare. I was not thinking he would have struck first. I have a question: I do have an understanding that hare do smell different, but am wondering if they smell similar to a cottontail. I am thinking their differences are the food that they eat. Just like a deer in upper Michigan vs. lower Michigan. Any comments?

[K.C.'s Beagles]

Come on, no one has thoughts of this? So cottontail smell the same as a hare? How can a dog that has never run a hare strike in first? Its a big question for me. They have to smell similar to the dogs. I was told that hare smell very different, I'm thinking hare smell stronger, because of what they eat. A hare is a hare and a cottontail is a cottontail, but there has to be a difference, right or not right?

[jim matuszewski]

I would think that they smell the same to the dogs hare probably lays more scent down with big back feet ,more area on theground just because they lay down more scent don't make them easyer a hare will strech out more and scent will be farther apart could be the eaqulizer

[mybeagles]

Kill a hare and kill a cottontail. Hold them up to your nose and take a deep inhale. Only way your going to know if they smell different.

Dogs cant tell you if they smell different.

I think this is more of an opinion based question. In my experience a cottontail has more scent based on how a dog reacts. Dogs generally run a hare smoother because of the straighter pattern they run. IF a cottontail would run long and straight (spring running) I think dogs would run a cottontail just as good as a snowshoe.

Ive always run both with my dogs and there doesnt seem to be any difference to the dogs. All the difference seems to be on how the rabbit wants to run.

Mybeagles

[fasttrackpa]

I believe they smell different, but a rabbit smells like a rabbit. I think that you are right that the hare smells different due to what he eats. But if a dog did not have enough brains/nose to smell even a difference between 2 cottontails or 2 hare you would never get anywhere when hunting a spot that is loaded with game. They would switch everytime they cross another track. I have seen dogs that never ran hare before act like the hare is trash the first time...but not a really good one.

[TallPaul]

I believe there is some difference, but not as much as you would think. For example, your hound may be a straight shooter and only run rabbits/hares, why doesn't it run and tree squirrels, because you trained it not to? or was this never a issue. Being that we don't have a fraction of the olfactory power as a hound, I cann't tell you the degree of difference. But just by judging by how dogs drive on a day of transition, there is some difference. I have a female for the past year, she's been driving hare at the club, and doing very well. went gunning cottontail for one day, and she didn't do as well. On the other hand her son, who is loaded with brains, makes it look like there is no difference. Both started on cottontails as pups. So each hound takes the transition different.

I was inquireing about a hound in my dogs pedigree and was told that this particular hound would drive one hare to the gun and as soon as it saw that the hare was dead, would return to the bush and pick up a different track it had crossed while driving it's original hare. Now I don't know if I should have worn boots when I heard that or if what was being observed was just good hunt in a dog. Because what if that owner shot the last rabbit in the woods, would that dog have just returned to the truck "Honest boss there's no more rabbits in there."

In the past I would often switch between cottontails and hares in Jan and Feb, and never had any problems. Being that it was the first time your hound smelled a hare it's hard to say why it took some time for it to roll. It could be conditions. Why sometimes do you see a hound not be able to run a jump rabbit, ever heard a jumped rabbit leaves no scent or that Does it the spring are scentless, maybe they are, but what human has to the nose to confirm this, or how could you scientificlly prove this.

Hope you had a good time running regardless, northern lower holds some secret honey holes.

[jim matuszewski]

I don't know about this one way to many ways to have a slow start to the day to put it on that hare and cottons don't have the same scent ,what is hare population like,what were scenting conditions like, and what kind of jump does said dog have? lets start there before we go anywere I think anyways

[Rabbit Fever]

I have been running both Hare and cottontail for 30 plus years and I havn't noticed a deference between the two critters smelling different. In my opinion a rabbit is a rabbit to the hounds.

[jmdown]

it is my understanding, that the question was, how much scent difference,(opinions) is there between hare and cottontail..also..could diet effect scent??..from personal experience, if i spend an evening , drinking scotch, eating garlic chips, the next morning, you may not prefer to sit next to me on an airplane!!! ( of course deer camp, does not apply!!!) rabbit-hare-rabbit-hare, very close scent, does diet in certain geographical areas affect scent???

[T LEE]

We run Hare in the U.P. every October. With our dogs going from cottontail to Hare we can tell a HUGE DIFFERENCE. The Hare seem to put off about 3 times the scent. Several guys will argue but we can run a Hare 6 feet off the line (Heads UP and as fast as a dog can travel) and have little to No breakdowns. Try that on a cottontail and the race would be very , very short. Also, some dogs smelling Hare for the first time refuse to run it , thinking that it may be some type of offgame. I've only seen this happen twice but after a day of hearing the pack run the dog will join in. To all the guys that will talk about the Hard condictions of running the Hare on snow.....think if it was a Cottontail in the same conditions ( same location) with even less scent. All this talk of Hare has me looking forward to this years Hare trip.

[B-man]

To all the guys that will talk about the Hard condictions of running the Hare on snow.....think if it was a Cottontail in the same conditions ( same location) with even less scent.

I myself think that it is whatever your dogs are used to running. Here in Wisconsin we have snow all winter (and some of the fall and spring too). The areas I hunt have both cottontail and snowshoes. One race will be a cotton and the next a hare, the ONLY difference is the size of the run. They don't run one better than the other. Under the same conditions the dogs run both equally well (or poor).

[K.C.'s Beagles]

Thanks! Very good comments!

[SMITTY1233]

The biggest difference I see is Conditions...

If your running in the dead of winter here your likely to be in much worse conditions in hare country than you are in the lower MI if just running cottontails. In deep snows cottontails don't want to run a whole lot either. They usually go from cover to cover or straight to the grounds. Some of the toughest test I have ever seen on a bealge were in Northern MI in Jan and Feb with zero temps and winds.