Kevlar Vests on Bear Hounds

[duck duck goose]

Hi Folks,

I was just looking for opinions on putting your bear hounds in one of those kevlar vests the guys use when hunting hogs. I am going to post the same question in the Lion Hunting section to see what guys think over there as well, but from what I can tell at $90 for a vest, if it saves you one trip to the vet it is paid for. Do you think there would be any protection provided should a dog have a run in with wolves? I realize these vests are designed to prevent punctures from hog tusks and not to provide full protection from a wolf/cat/bear attack but I have to believe they would help a little.

Also are there any reasons you can think of why you wouldn't put your dog in one of these vests?

Thanks for the replies ahead of time.

[Chad H]

I think those vests have there place for hog hunting, but don't think they would work very good for running bears, long races, over heating issues, I think it would really slow a dog down on some 8-10 mile runs we have on our bears. just my 2 cents.

Chad H

[john porter]

I run strike vest on all my hounds and catch vest on my catch dogs. I never know if I am going to drop my hounds on a bear or hog (which ever track I find first usually decides it). The strike vest only protects the chest and half the rib area so a dog can run all day with these and not heat up much. If one ran a full vest (catch) then definitely a dog would heat up within the first hour most days....

[duck duck goose]

Good point about dogs overheating, it never even crossed my mind, probably because its so flippin cold out right now. I also did not know there were catch and strike vests. I'd imagine predators like bears would instinctively go for the neck if they got ahold of a dog so you would probably have to run a catch vest if it were to serve any purpose at all. Is there any padding in the neck of those vests or are they more designed to prevent punctures while letting the dog provide the padding?

Our bear season is typically pretty warm but cat season is in the dead of winter so for this part of the continent there might not be trouble with overheating dogs. Do you guys think the vest would hold enough "human stink" to maybe keep wolves away?

[DirtyDave]

If you are worried about the Neck, run a wide collar. Wouldnt run a vest unless hog hunting

[Tbblue]

I wouldn't put a vest on a bear dog here in mi. But places where there r a lot ofbig bear that don't run just walk n fight it mite work for some. N.c maybe

[john porter]

Cut collars are a good investment and I run every dog with one no matter what we are running.

[Bayemup34]

I think they would be ok during kill season in December. But during training season in August on a 90 degree day, your dogs would probably overheat. There are a lot of mean bear here where it would help, but if you're dogs are too worn out to fight anyway, doesn't serve much purpose.

[bearsnva]

Seems to me in the area we hunt in a lot, dense ivy thickets, laurel, blown down trees, etc a dog would be fighting the vests a lot just trying to get through them. Also if a dog is fighting a bear that doesn't want to tree and has been baying/fighting the bear on the ground and needs to back off rather than get bit or swatted isn't there a chance the dog vest could get tangled up in dense brush as the dog was backing off.(Yeah I know some dogs never back off and all that BS) If the bear caught the dog or had it down wouldn't the vest give the bear something to grab and hold to. Just my thoughts.

[Bayemup34]

Good point there too

[Outlaw 3]

Too hot.