seeking advice

[catcrazy_406]

i'm curious as to how all of you bear hunters out there make a bear dog? I imagine that a bear dog is in a sense like a cat dog and breeding can have a lot to do with it, but I also understand there is a big difference between a "cat dog" and a "bear dog". so I suppose the question is, how does everyone go about starting dogs and bears and creating "bear dogs"? what is everyones tricks of the trade? not looking to steal any secrets just looking for some advice, techniques, trick, etc.

[treetalkingjp]

Well i I think breeding helps alot , but how i train my dogs is start them on coon and get to learn how to track but mostly just hunt them with experienced dogs . If that's not possibly find a hot track and help them trail it . A good friend I knew trained his dogs by putting bear scent on a live coon but then to me that's two different scents I personal think hunt then with older dogs will work the best.

:Justin

[beardogger]

Why do you think bear and cat dogs are so different all my dogs catch bears and cats just fine I just prefer bears more so only catch a hand full of cats

[cobalt]

[Utahhoundsmen88]

Agreed... My dogs run cats and bears. I would say tho that a bear dog needs to be physical and in great shape and a body that would hold up on a ten mile bear race. I think good blood does matter tho. I dont give a crap about pure breds, as long as your breeding the best dog to the best dog is all that matters to me. To have a good rig dog I do believe that it does need to be in their blood. It needs to come natural to the dog. In my opinion if you have a physical cold noise bear dog then you can catch any cat in America!

[imchestnut]

A bear dog does all the same things a cat dog does. I think there are plenty of cat dogs that will not ever make a bear dog. Bears put fear into dogs much more than a cat does. A bad bear will sort out the bear dogs from just dogs in a hurry. I’m not sure the training is terribly different. I think a bear dog, just like any dog is born a bear dog. All my dogs will run both but not all my dogs are bear dogs if that makes any sense.

[catcrazy_406]

Ian that makes perfect sense... all of our dogs will run bears just fine but putting them in a tree is a different story! we've had days where we watch the dogs run right with the bear all day long inches from it and will bay one up fine but putting them in the tree is the tricky part! what does it take? I know a lot of guys say it takes a real aggressive dog others say its just pressure, and so on and so fourth, but how do all you bear hunters put up bears on a consistent basis?

[BuckNAze]

Speed, pressure, enough grit, unwillingness to quit. Some just wont tree, have to finish things on the ground

[imchestnut]

I won’t claim that I have bear dogs or anything like that. But here is what I think on the subject. In the area I hunt, I think about 1/5 bears is a difficult one that either walks or tears into dogs. About 4/5 run until they are tired and either just sit down or tree up. I have a range of dogs. I have two that are flat crazy and I won’t post what I have in vet bills on them each year because if my wife ever found it I would have hospital bills. I have another 3-4 that I think give pressure but are smart enough to only see the vet a few times in a year. I will say that most bears I catch are eventually treed. There are a lot of times that I get in and see them on the ground but given enough time for the dogs to work on them, they choose to climb. The ones that we have bayed have been a 7-10 hour deal where the bear is really shut down at the end. Some of these bears I could have killed with a knife if I had the balls. They have stopped prior to that but have always had enough energy to move again if they choose too.

Everyone has their own opinion on what it takes to do this and I’m not sure there is a right or wrong answer. I know that I have gone through 20 dogs or more to find ones that “work” for me. Most of mine are not incredibly gritty but most will scrum if it happens. None of the ones that I consider bear dogs have never quit a bear even if it means working through the night on one until the dogs or bear physically just shuts down.

I have two males and a female I really like right now. They all bay good and tight. None of them are crazy. They all seem to have a desire to circle a bear up, so as the bear moves away from them, they try to get it stopped and turned. I bayed a bear with these dogs on the ground for seven hours and never left a single square mile basin. If it was not pursuit season here I could have killed him multiple times. Eventually, he treed but it took hours and hours in the July heat to get it done. Those dogs pressure good but don't get caught much either. Those dogs work for me, low on vet bills but they have a very high catch rate. Some guys wouldn’t like them because they don’t pull hair unless a bear runs a dog down and has them.

I think it also depends on where you run. If your running an area that a TON of guys are hunting, the bad bears probably end up dead the first time they are ran by the right dogs. We have areas here where I don’t think bears are too hard to catch. It also gets hunted hard and I think bears more or less get sorted through each spring. I find bears in places not many people want to hunt (steep, no roads, backcountry, rocks…) that are much more difficult to get shut down. I also think every area is different so I am specifically talking about where I hunt.

Again, I don’t think you can train dogs much to do a better job at working a bear. They either know how to work them or don’t. I think except for an exceptional dog, it’s a team effort. Again, I have sorted through a lot of dogs until I have found some that seem to do what it takes to get it done. I believe a lot of this was finding the right combination of dogs not a singular all star dog. If a bear does not want tree and does not want to stop, it takes some real dogs to get them shut down not matter the country you are running. I think if you want bear dogs, they have to be born (bred in most cases) bear dogs and this can mean sorting through dogs until you find the right ones. I hope that kinda made some sense.

[Utahhoundsmen88]

I agree a lot with what (Imchestnut) has to say. I have run enough bears to know that just some of those stubborn bears just won't tree. But I have a few tricks that I use when I come across those stubborn bears. I believe that it comes down to being smart on how you use your dogs. You have to have some DOGPOWER!!!!. If you want a good solid bear pack. You got to have two or three dogs in my opinion that will tack charge and take a mouth full of hair. But the most important thing is that you have to out smart and wear that bear out! I like to only run four or five dogs on a bear at the start. And when the point comes that you know that you have a runner or a bear that won't tree. Then you have to find a way to ship some fresh dogs on the race. I find that if your original dogs that you first shipped have moved or walked that bear afew miles then that bear and dogs are tired. And if you can send four or five more fresh dogs on that race. That changes everything and I find that those new fresh dogs use their energy to overwhelm that bear and they put it in a tree.

[imchestnut]

Aww what it would be like to be able to cut dogs into a jumped bear. I have really almost never done this. Some of mine won't even go when I try. I don't have the road system to do this. Most of the time I walk from the turnout or can maybe get a bit closer. All my dogs go from the original track or a bait till the tree. It only takes a few times (and ALOT of miles roading) to get them in shape.

[azhoundhunter88]

Gotta have dogs that ain't afraid of gettin smacked or bit and keep going. They need to show that bear who's on them. My best bear dog is a gritty SOB and I pray every year he makes it through bear season because of it but he puts em up trees when u need one treed.