When you bed your trap do you put the trap in the hole with the dog
facing towards the dirt hole or on the sides.

Doesnt really matter because you never know which direction the foot will be coming from. With the possible exception of bobcat specific dirtholes where you've got the cat blocked down so hard that theres only one way for the cat to approach the set.

I do mine towards the hole

I usually bed with the dog facing the hole, no real reason other than how I've always done it. What I have learned though, is I can tell somewhat which direction the critter came in to the set. If the dog is facing the top of the paw, it came in the front of the set or close to it, if the dog is facing the bottom of the paw, good chance it came in from behind or close to it. Be surprised how many times that alone shows me that they may have been caught while coming in from the backside of a set...

Both depending what style of dirt hole I'm using.

If he comes across the levers, then this all goes out the window.

That's alot guys

I always do to the side. No rhyme or reason. Just feels right. I doubt it makes a lick of difference either way

Very ture. It's a very rough guide, but definitely too many variables to be 100% accurate

Levers at 10x4, dog facing for coyotes. For all set types... That way it doesn't matter what direction they come from. It's the little things that add up over time...

Toward the hole, even with dogless. Not that I give much credit to dogs flipping feet. Possible but low percentage. I want the long end of the lever we call a pan to be the most accessible to a foot.
But that raises another issue, pan size. I'm not a fan of big pans that can be tripped while the foot is on a jaw. Fortunately most stock pans aren't that large.

H9w many times must the foot on jaw myth/foot 9n trigger myth be busted?

MJ 600 Sterling really cuts down on toe catches

Best I've heard from an elder, "Jamb that bleeper in there any way it fits and get down the road and do it again".

Also remember someone saying if the dog is at coyotes' heel, they get less chewed dogs.

I've tried others' ways and come back to my same old.
And leave a lip between hole and bed.
Confidence is more important IME.

Biting my Tongue right now!! lol.

I put mine at 3 o’clock with 12 being towards the hole. I also crowd the dirt hole and use a small guide stick or small dirt clod to keep him off the dog. So far so good.

I used to always put it facing either 3 or 9 oclock so if they came straight in they stepped between the jaws. Because I started out water trapping and that was the way I was taught as a kid. Now I but the dog facing the hole on longsprings, on coilsprings I usually put it with the dog either facing the hole or away from the hole, but frankly I don't think it matters and in particular with coilsprings I will bed it whatever way the trap will bed the nicest, if there is a rock or root or anything, I orient the trap whatever way puts the pan right where I think the critter will step.

Levers at 12 and 6. Loose jaw to the left. Doesn’t really matter what way the loose jaw faces, just a speed/muscle memory deal.

And I like the lever closest the hole to be lower than the outside lever, ideally.

Catch a few by the forearm every year that possibly might not have been nailed if the trap was oriented differently. Diggers, coyotes “bellying up” to the hole, etc.

Probably doesn’t amount to a hill of beans. Just how I do it.

Mine always towards the hole

Exactly!