Can someone explain this?

[Big Horn Posse]

Okay, I took the hounds out today like I usually do a few times a week. I always freecast them and well today something strange happened. I'm not a bear hunter so maybe one of you bear hunting guys can try to figure out what happened today. Anyway, I was about 3 miles into hiking a new ridge and the dogs start going nuts in the meadow. I looked for tracks in the grass to see if I could figure out what they were so excited about. I couldn't see anything but a couple rocks that had been disturbed. Next thing I know Ozzy and Puma are taking off barking down into the timber. Bella and Onza joined in when they heard the excitement. I continued walking the ridge listening to the dogs below. Bella and Onza came back not too long after. Seems my pack has paired up. Ozzy and Puma and Bella and Onza. I listen and watch Ozzy and Puma on the GPS. Puma cannot keep up with Ozzy and she starts back trailing. I figured she would eventually find us on the ridge and continue to watch Ozzy on the GPS. He ends up going a little over a mile and a half then is making some circles in one area. The GPS finally says he is treed and stays that way for awhile then he would move but only a few feet and it would say sitting then treed and this continues to go on and on in the same spot for 20 minutes or so. I finally decided to head down to him. Bella and Onza with me as Puma is a mile plus behind us. After we get down to where he is we could hear him but he didn't sound treed. Bella and Onza go into him. I get there and Ozzy is working the gound in one area giving voice here and there. I start looking in trees just to make sure there isn't something there and don't see anything. He was whining at me and barking wanting to go and then would continue working around that area. Now, everytime he has ran trash and I catch him he will put his head down and slink up to me like he knows he did wrong or he would just quit it and come back or go back to the truck. This time he just wanted to go and was wanting me to let him. I didn't know what was going on but it was obvious whatever he had trailed that far got him hung up in that spot. I decided that we better just call it quits and head home as the wind was blowing hard and storm clouds were moving in and we still needed to find Puma. So we climb back up that sonovabitch face we just came down and started walking back to where I last got a reading on Puma. GPS lost contact with her before I started in to Ozzy. We finally find her and she is near the spot they started whatever it was they were running. When we pass that spot again the dogs go nuts working the ground and wanting to go. This time I didn't let that happen and called them back. Again Ozzy started barking and really wanting to go on that scent. Now Im not saying it couldn't have been elk as he is known to run his share, but he will never do it right in front of me and bark in front of me like that he waits till he is out of shock range He is the only dog I have that has been used on bear, but I am not a bear hunter so I don't know much about it. Does this sound like a bear race? Cause if it was a trash race it was the strangest one I have ever seen him do.

[zachvu]

Sounds just like a bear race to me. I'm no expert by any means, but all the races we've run seem to go a little something like that. Flipped rocks may be where they're searching for food, and their tracks are usually more of a blank spot than an actual track. Many times the GPS will say treed when they've either treed momentarily or stopped to fight with the bear. Often times if the bear hears you or more dogs coming it'll jump ship and head away (you said he treed, then was on the move again, sounds just like this situation!) As far as not seeing anything in the tree and the dogs insisting it was in there, what type of trees were you in? We've seen bear run back and forth across branches from tree to tree in big enough pines. They're perfectly comfortable doing that.

[TomJr]

Bigfoot!

I don't know if I can add anything constructive but I have had runs like that and never realy figured out what they were on. Some times I can make an educated guess as there is fresh scat near where they started or along the route. For me its been any number of critters Fox, Bobcat, Lion or Bear. If its a day that I have time I have tried to take the dogs in the general direction of travel and they sometimes got a race going again and caught. But I can't say for certain that they caught what they were on origionaly...

[Big Horn Posse]

Here is a pic near the area where I finally got into him, but he was in the pines.

[Redwood Coonhounds]

Sounds more like a fox or coyote to me. I've never seen dogs make a loose on a bear like that. I have a dog that loves fox, and she does that to me all the time. She knows she isn't supposed to be running them, but she'll give 'em hell for a little while then kinda drop off and act like she's cold trialing once she's a little tired. My other dogs outrun her and make her look stupid, and on a bear, they are lucky to be able to keep up. I do know this much, dogs don't trail around when they are running elk and deer.

[Big Horn Posse]

Ozzy, won't run yote and there are no foxes up there. We have very few foxes around and they are usually found in the ranchland where the phesants are. It would have to be elk or bear. I only found some old lion scat above where they started it, but it wasn't a lion. Ozzy only opens up on lion like that when it is jumped. I'm beginning to think Tomjr is right and it was Bigfoot of the Big Horns Main species of game in that area are elk, deer, lion, bear and wolves I should mention it was really windy with wind gusts over 40mph if that would make a difference?

[lonehunter]

Just my guess, it sounds like a Bear chase, if your other dogs quit the track because they have not been on Bear before, this may explain why they came in to you. Your other dog may have had the Bear bayed. The type of pines you show on your picture are not lilely to hold a large Bear, so it just may have bayed for a while. With only one dog on it it probably moved around a bit in the same area, thus leaving alot of scent there. This may be why your tracker showed stop and go movement. When the dog heard you and the other dogs comming into him he probably left the Bear just long enough for it to slip away. With all of the scent around the bay area and not being able to line the track out he was confused as to where the Bear went and thus acted as he did. I don't think it was Deer or Elk, they just plain run and do not mill around like that, plus if your best dog took after one the rest would have joined in as well.
Just my two cents worth!!

lone hunter
"I have never rode a good horse or hunted a good dog that was a bad color"

[coastcathunter]

sounds to me like they hit something red hot most likely a bear and went backwards.

[Big Horn Posse]

Never occured to me he could have been running it backwards.... Wish he would have lined it out the other direction and then my legs wouldn't be so sore tonight Was a nice gradual slope on the other side unlike that nasty face I had to walk down and up.

[zachvu]

I should mention it was really windy with wind gusts over 40mph if that would make a difference?

Another scenario...a steaming hot pile left behind by a bear on a nearby ridge, wind picked it up and the dogs trailed hard on it, talking while they had the trail, then the wind shifted and they had no idea what happened, so they circled around looking for the scent they'd been following?

[mark]

May have been the right end of a bear and when he caught up to it decided he wasnt a bear dog after all. Seen that happen more than once

[TomJr]

Wind can cause dogs to do strange things. I had my dogs barking treed about 50 yards from the lion earlier this year. It was super windy and I guess the scent was not hitting the ground near the tree. Dogs were barking treed then milling about looking up but never did totaly locate. I just happend to glance across the revine and spot the cat other wise I would have just called them off and moved on.

[Big Horn Posse]

Mark, he was used on bear in NM for 3 years. From what I understand he was on more bear there than lions. When I had him the first 3 years of his life I only ran him on lion but every so often he would bust out on a bear and there was no stopping him. This would be the first bear he has been on since I got him back last Sept. Like I said I'm not a bear hunter so it is hard for me to know how bear dogs run them. It is completely different than cold trailing a lion, but kinda exciting hearing them really go an blow and not open up here and there. He is the old man of my pack of young dogs. Bella 1 1/2 Puma and Onza 5 months so I have to put trust in him and let him go so they can learn to stick with it. They have no problem going it is mainly staying with it, Puma I would say even at 5 months is number 2 in the pack as she is a little rip roaring go getter and I think that's why she hunts so well with Ozzy. Bella and Onza still need to build confidence but that will come with age and experience.

[Big Horn Posse]

Wind can cause dogs to do strange things. I had my dogs barking treed about 50 yards from the lion earlier this year. It was super windy and I guess the scent was not hitting the ground near the tree. Dogs were barking treed then milling about looking up but never did totaly locate. I just happend to glance across the revine and spot the cat other wise I would have just called them off and moved on.

Wow, I'm glad I posted this topic. I'm learning alot. Maybe I should have checked the trees better. Ozzy is one of those dogs that is very good at locating in the tree, that could have been why he was acting so frustrated when we got into him. Guess I will never know. Wish I would have had more time to stay out there then I would have spent the time to really check out the situation.

Thanks guys for all the advice and thoughts. Like I said I'm learning alot about something new to me,

[mark]

My mistake, i didnt know he had been on alot of bear in the past. was just thinking that maybe he found a real mean one. Have seen dogs do wierd stuff in that scenario.