Frankly, if you boil and wax your snares, you won't have to worry nearly as much about scents on the snare itself as you do about laying scent trail as you go hang them.

To be honest, I don't put much stock in "scent controlling" my traps and snares. After 20yrs of trapping, I just don't see much difference. Around my area, I'm the guy people call to alleviate "coyote problems", and I keep an extra set of snares in my bedbox in my truck for that purpose. I don't do ANYTHING to these snares, just take them out of the box (I use a "rope can" like for cattle roping lariats, found at any farm supply store) and go hang them up. As long as I do my part to minimize my scent as I'm hanging them, and I put them up in the morning, it's a good bet that I'll have a dog in one of them that night.

Snares DO need to be "steeped and rotted" before use. Boil them in water, then hang them outside for a month or two before use. This should make the snare cables dull, not shiny. A little spray paint also helps to camoflage the snares with their surroundings. In general, I boil mine in baking soda, set them outside for a month, then spray paint them, then set them outside for another 2 months (yes, it takes 3 months to make a set of snares "hunt ready"). I have a few hundred feet of cable that I prepped when I bought it, that way I can cut new snares any time I need them. About 2/3 or 3/4 of it is sprayed tan, while the remaining portion is sprayed white. We don't get much lasting snow around here, but it's good to have a set of white snares for when we DO get snow.

The biggest KEY, absolutely critical in my experience, is to meander along the game trails as you're setting your snares. If you walk quickly to your snare-set, then spend time there setting and staking the snare, you'll lay very minimal scent along the way, but a HEAVY scent at the snare. This will send up a red flag for the dogs. In general, I like to move quickly, but stop a few times along the way and kneel down, walk in a circle, etc, then I WALK PAST MY SNARE POSITION along the trail and make a few "meandering stops" further up along the game trail. That way there are a few different spots, not just the snare, that have varied levels of activity (bootprints) and scent.

Different snare-hangers disagree about moving their snares after they catch a dog. In my experience, I tend to move my snares further up the game trail after I catch one. Once I catch a dog, he lays a TON of scent around that snare as he's fighting, and greatly disturbs the area. I also don't have any reference for whether other dogs were with him when he got caught. I've seen tracks in the snow several times near my recently caught snares that show dogs traveled straight up to the trap along the trail, then refused the crossing. When I was in college, I used to get "off spec" meat from the local locker and place it under where I just caught a dog (without a snare) to entice the dogs back through that area, then move the snare a little further up the game trail.

Frankly, how and where you hang your snares, and how you prevent them from freezing, is much more important to me than controlling my scent on them. Coyotes WILL smell your scent, period. It's just a matter of minimizing your scent, and not allowing the dogs to associate the snare location with your scent.

I've had coyotes follow me while coon hunting at night, and I've seen coyote tracks overlapping "yesterdays" bootprints when I've gone out to check my snares (and usually find a dead coyote caught). If you don't give them a reason to avoid your snares, your scent alone isn't reason enough either.

How and where... that's all you need...