Q: My questions are more than likely stupid but I know NOTHING about these animals... There has been a small mountain lion sighted 2 blocks from my home, I have 3 dogs, a cat and 3 kids... I have not been letting the kids out and keeping a close eye on the dogs.. Anyways, the guy that lives a couple houses up from us has 4 Blue tick hounds, and he uses them for cat hunting.. My question is.. If the hounds smell a cat wont the spaz out? And also if the cat smells/hears them wouldn't it stay away?? Or if its Hungry enough would it ignore the fact that there is these hunting dogs smelling its stink?? We live in town, but there are a lot of deer that hang out around here not to mention the slew of house pets, this would be a great place to get a snack for a cat! This lion has tried to take a couple of dogs already and has been seen stalking another... a few miles over a small hungry male took a dog that was on a leash walking with the owner
A: hard working bluetic hounds vs say a golden retreiver someone has as a pet is like comparing the US olympic swimming team to john Cubicle, i.e. one is a very very fit athlete and the other is weak, even if not overweight. Plus hounds that work together work quite well in unison. A hound in a pack is going to be more than a cougar can handle, but a ditzy porch dog, that would be an easy meal (and that doesn't even get into little yap yap dogs) If the hounds smelled a puma, yes, they'd start a rucus. (but then, most predators know to approach from down-wind so they don't get detected) At one time mountainlions would stay away from all dogs due to wolves being their main enemies. However, while packhounds (being athletically fit and working together) would be fairly equal to a wolf in a mountainlion's mind, too many placed don't allow pack hunting of mouintanlions and hence these animals eventually overcame a fear of canines that was at one time instinctive. Now they see Rover as lunch, so until a mountain lion has a run-in with a pack of dogs, or an extremely large and phyiscally fit dog (like a rottweiller that is trained in shutzhund, or runs with a biker 10 miles a day) no, mountain lion won't balk at the sight, smell, or sound of a dog, but will instead come closer and investigate. If it seems like an easy meal (a singe lone dog not paying attention) it will take it for lunch. However, like they tell young women on college campus, there is some safety in numbers. Having 3 dogs (provided they are all medium sized) will be somthing of a deterent. Really, what your community needs to do is lobby for the reintriduction of mountain lion hunting at a sustainable level, to reinstill the fear of both man and dong into the pumas.