Training young hounds on bear

southernutahhounds · Post by **southernutahhounds** » Fri Jan 11, 2008 3:43 pm

About two months ago I bought two walker bluetick mix hounds. They are now 4.5 months old. Very good dogs so far, we own forty acres and i just leave them out all day and they dont leave our property and usually come when called. Just like all hounds, they always have there noses on the ground. I have read a lot on training them for coon, but i think i'd rather do bear. I have no idea where to start training them for bear, and dont know where to hunt them in southern utah because i haven't heard of bear where i live. Any and all advice you could give me is welcome, thanks!

Dogger · Post by **Dogger** » Fri Jan 11, 2008 8:06 pm

Hey where do you live? I live in Cedar City. The best thing I found is to get them going and catching a lot of game (coon/cats). Once a dog know's how to trail and catch game any training helps. If you get bear scent and some how a coon gets the bear scent on him it will help your dogs to learn and hunt the new smell. It's hard to get dogs on bear here cause there is only like two of them. I usaully go other places out of state or in northern or eastern Utah.

southernutahhounds · Post by **southernutahhounds** » Sat Jan 12, 2008 3:47 pm

I live in new harmony, i know billy does cougars out here.

corbin · Post by **corbin** » Sun Jan 13, 2008 2:54 am

i raise bear dogs and in my opinion starting them on coon when there youg is a really good idea. i have a freind who raises coon dogs and i will take my poops hunting with them coon dogs tell there about a year or 2 years old, depinding on how your dog is, but never after there about 2 years old or you will have them treeing coons when u turn loose on a bear track sometimes. but i will just hunt them on coon tell they are about 8 months old then i will hunt them on both. coon is a little easier for a young dog to tree than a bear is and you can kill more to them that way. than a bear is and i feel like it helps the dogs to trail a tree better when you can give them somthing like that at a young age.

southernutahhounds · Post by **southernutahhounds** » Tue Jan 15, 2008 11:23 pm

Took my 2 pups out on there first drag today. They did alright for there first time. I soaked a raccoon skin i had in jimmy dean sausage stuff and let them kinda see where i was going. Didnt make them run to far cus i didnt wanna confuse them. Took them to 3 different places and they got better on each one. They were jumping up on the tree and scratchin at it, but they wouldnt bark. Hopefully that'll come with time. I'll try to get some pics up this week.

Arkansas Frog · Post by **Arkansas Frog** » Tue Jan 15, 2008 11:32 pm

Watch out they will be treeing hamburger joints

TRACKER · Post by **TRACKER** » Wed Jan 16, 2008 1:04 am

Yellow River Houndsman · Thu Jan 24, 2008 4:21 am

Turn them out on a hot coon track a few times when they are 10 - 14 months old. Get them fired up with him in a roll cage a few times and let them work the caged coon in a tree. Once they are fired up about it, turn the coon loose in a field and let the pups watch him run across the field but don't let em loose until the coon hits the woods, they will run him by sight across the field but they have to use their noses when they hit the woods. Once they are locating well and treeing hard start using a coon with some bear scent on him and about a quart of water. ( strengthens the smell) They will make the transition right away. Then you just have to get them on some bears, hotter the better, and stop the coon games all together. Once they get ahold of a few bruins they will be hooked. Just be sure to follow them as close as possible in case you get a fighter. Get pups off him immediatly, nothing wrecks them faster than getting swatted young.

Big-Shooter · Post by **Big-Shooter** » Thu Jan 31, 2008 1:40 pm

To get a real true mean bear dog is really something to be proud of!! This last year I had two pups i started. I found if you can get them catching lions and doing the works then get them on the bears to. My best bear dogs were started hunting cats.

Bearkiller · Post by **Bearkiller** » Thu Jan 31, 2008 2:05 pm

Catching coons while running bears shouldn't be a problem in utah. From my experience anyway. I'd hunt them on coons until bear season then hunt them on bears. Once they get a little older anyway.

Ike · Post by **Ike** » Sun Feb 03, 2008 6:51 pm

I hear that the Boulder Mountain, the LaSal Mountains and San Juan Elk Ridge have some of the larger bear populations found in Utah. And being more southerly, those bears are most likely out a little sooner than the northern bears and probably a good bet in the spring. The fall hunt a person might do better in New Mexico and Arizona since Utah has lost their pursuit season and bear tags are few and far between.

Coon hunting you hounds won't do anything but help get your dogs trailing and treeing, and is a good way to start. However, I'd move them away from coons after they're locked and loaded if you want to run off the rig later on unless you hunt bears where there aren't any coons.

good luck,

Training young hounds on bear

Training young hounds on bear

dogs

Coons work great