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its a long winter already. have a few younr dogs that started to catch on this year and hate to let them take winter off. i dont want to run anything but bear. anyone have some tips for some training activities for winter months? lets chat

I don't think hunting coyotes or cats is going to hurt. Keeps them in shape and so on. If u got time off and money go south and run. There's usually a bear season open somewhere

Coon hunting if there's many coon up there. Idk what Wisconsin is like, but all of our dogs, even the older broke ones, run coon during the off season to stay in shape. If they've already got treeing down from runnin bear, just put out a feeder to get coons comin in and turn the dogs loose on it. It can't hurt em at all. If you don't wanna go that route then I guess you'd have to go somewhere where there's an open season for bear. I guess you could be an outlaw and we know what I mean by that but it's not worth gettin in trouble over.

It depends on what you want your dogs to do. If you just want pack dogs run on as much game as you can. It keeps them in shape and it's just plain fun to hear a good chase and get some game to your dogs. But if you want to have a great jump dog bear only is the way to go. Our baits in the summer have so many coon,coyote,and fox tracks that they will cover a bear track up with the other tracks. Not as much of a deal with training season but for kill season nothing worse than walking to a coon tree when you put down on a 400 pound track. Roading the dogs some or maybe even cats would be ok not so many around to get on during season. But it just depends what you want out of your dogs and how much you hunt. Maybe if you have a start dog or two don't mix them and have a ball with the rest. Just my two cents

thanks for the advice guys!! had one dog get loose and he pinned a coyote in a culvert. was fun getting him out. been running a few of them. lots of fun. nowworking with a scent drag with my start dogs. trying to keep busy.

I recommend keeping your dogs in shape with raccoons!

The best way I have found to keep my dogs in shape is raccoons as we'll. It is a good way to get younger dogs going too.

if you want to work your dogs on cold trailing the best time to do it is in the winter. putting a dog or 2 down on a cold coyote or bobcat track will help their training for cold trailing. For me the bear and coon combination dog never mixed well because of where we hunt and the number of coon on our baits. Bear and coyotes or bear and cats has always worked well as a combo dog. if you have a dog that will consistently jump older coyote or cat tracks more than likely you have a good bear cold trailer on your hands too. a good coyote races really keeps dogs in shape. i prefer starting my pups in the winter vs throwing them in to a hot bear chase time after time. it teaches them to trail and then pick their heads up when jumped instead of running with their heads up and never wanting to put their noses down to cold trail when its a tougher track. just my opinion and what i try to do.

yeep run cat , fox and coyote..

thanksguys. we have been using a drag with the start dogs, and ending with it in thetree. seems to work ok, but gonna try to run coyotes next winter. we have alot of coons here so didnt try to run any this winter. will try some next winter with pack dogs. just hate to sit around till july doing nothing. let me know if anyone else has some tips. also, whaqt is a good way to start to work them into shape in summer