A path is shared long before you arrive. Scats, tracks, chewed stems and scratch marks tell you which animals use it, how recently, and where they cross. Walk the route once without a dog, read those signs, then keep your dog on a short lead through the sections that carry them.
Read the path before you walk it
Start with the ground. Bare patches, culverts, fire trails and the edges of creeks collect prints better than leaf litter. Look for four toes with claw marks on canids, three toes in a hopping pattern for macropods, and five toes with a wide rear pad for wombats. Width matters: a print the size of your palm is not a fox.
Scats are easier than prints for most people. Grey kangaroo and wallaby droppings are small, dark and blunt, often in loose piles on mown grass. Wombat scats are cube shaped and left on logs, rocks and trail edges as markers. Koala scats sit at the base of a trunk, smell faintly of eucalyptus and look like small dark olives. Bird scats under a branch tell you where kookaburras and rosellas perch.
Then read the vegetation. Chewed grass at ankle height with clean angled cuts means macropods fed there overnight. Bark stripped in vertical strips from a trunk points to a climbing animal. Diggings, scratch marks on fence posts and worn runs through the grass all show regular traffic. If you find fresh signs, the animal is likely within a few hundred metres and probably resting in cover.
Knowing which species you are dealing with changes how much room you give them. Kangaroos and wallabies look similar at distance and behave differently when a dog appears, so it pays to sort out the kangaroo wallaby differences before your first walk rather than during it.
How do you recognise the signs that wildlife is using a path?
Signs fall into four groups: tracks, scats, feeding marks and resting places. Check all four at the same points each week and you build a picture of when the path is busy.
Tracks. Walk the first 200 metres slowly and look at soft ground: mud at a creek crossing, dust on a management trail, sand at a car park edge. Photograph what you find and compare it later. A single clear print is worth more than ten blurred ones.
Scats. Fresh scats are dark and damp. Old ones are pale and dry. Position tells you as much as shape: scats in the middle of a trail are usually dropped by an animal moving through, while scats on a raised rock or log are territorial markers left deliberately.
Feeding marks. Look at the height of the cut. Grazing at ground level, browsing at hip height and stripped bark above head height point to three different animals. Chewed seed pods, torn grass tussocks and shredded bark under a tree are all recent activity.
Resting places. Flattened grass in a circle, a scrape under a low shrub, a hollow at the base of a tree. These are the spots where a dog off lead will find an animal before you do. Mark them on your phone and slow down every time you pass.
One more sign is easy to miss: silence. When the birds stop calling and the insects go quiet, something has moved through. Treat a sudden hush as a signal to shorten the lead and change direction.
How do you keep a dog from following a scent off the trail?
You do not train a dog out of scenting. You manage the walk so scenting does not turn into chasing.
Use a fixed-length lead, not a retractable one, on any route with wildlife sign. Two metres is enough for the dog to sniff and not enough to build speed. Keep the lead loose so the dog is not pulling against pressure, which is what triggers the lunge.
Teach one cue that means turn around and go. Pick a word, use it every time you change direction on ordinary walks, and reward with food the moment the dog turns. Practise it on pavement before you rely on it near a wombat burrow.
Watch the head, not the lead. A dog that drops its nose and freezes is about to commit. A dog that lifts its head and scans is deciding. In both cases, step sideways, put your body between the dog and the scent, and walk away at an angle rather than straight back.
Avoid the hours when wildlife moves most. Dawn and dusk are when macropods graze and when scent is strongest. A midday walk on the same route is usually quieter.
Do not let the dog investigate burrows, hollow logs or dense shrubs. A wombat or a koala cornered in a burrow will defend itself, and a dog that puts its head in will be bitten or scratched before you can pull it clear. Keep the lead short at every burrow and log you pass.
If the dog does get loose, do not chase it. Stop, call once, and wait. A dog chasing a macropod will usually break off when the animal outruns it. A dog that has cornered something will not come back on its own, and that is when you call the local wildlife rescue line rather than wade in.
Which wildlife calls and colours should a walker learn first?
Learn six sounds and five colours. That is enough to know what is nearby and whether it is alarmed.
Calls. The kookaburra's laugh is a territorial call, often at dawn and dusk, and it tells you the bush is active. The whipbird's crack and following whistle is a contact call between a pair. The rosella's sharp rolling chatter is a feeding call. The black cockatoo's harsh cry carries a long way and usually means a flock is moving to a roost. Add the thump of a wallaby's foot on the ground, which is an alarm signal, and the low hiss of a wombat, which means back off.
Colours. Grey kangaroo fur is uniform and pale grey, with a small head and long ears. The swamp wallaby is darker, with a reddish tinge and a longer face. The red-necked wallaby has a reddish patch across the shoulders. The bare-nosed wombat is brown and blocky with a blunt head. The koala is grey with a large head and no visible tail. Learn these five and you can identify most of what you see from a distance without getting closer.
Use your ears before your eyes. Most wildlife on a shared path is heard first: a rustle in the leaf litter, a foot thump, a bird alarm call. When the birds go quiet and then start scolding from one direction, that is where the animal is.
Plan the route around the wildlife, not the dog
Choose a route with wide, open edges rather than narrow single track. Fire trails, management roads and mown verges give you room to step aside and give an animal a clear exit.
Walk the same route at the same time for a few weeks. You will learn where the signs are and where they are not, and you will notice when something new appears.
Carry a short lead, a spare, water for the dog and a basic first aid kit. Know the number for the local wildlife rescue service before you need it. If you find an injured animal, do not handle it yourself unless you are trained and permitted; call the rescue line and stay with the animal at a distance until help arrives.
Check the rules for the land you are on. National parks, council reserves and private land all have different requirements for dogs, and some prohibit them entirely. A route that is legal on a lead is the only route worth planning.
Finally, accept that some days the wildlife wins. If the signs are fresh and the bush is loud, turn around and walk the other way. The dog gets a shorter walk, the animal gets its path, and you get to come back next weekend.