best breed for bear

[Smiley]

[Vance M.]

Bla bla bla every one has heard this a dozen times. There are people out there that know what bear dogs are. You misunderstood what I meant any way what I meant was that there are a lot of bear dogs out there in different breeds and there are!

[larry]

[Vance M.]

[chilcotin hillbilly]

So Larry, top bear dogs according to you mostly come from Plotts. To make a top bear dog what percentage of races need to end in a tree. 60 to 70 %, 70 to 80% , 80 to 90% or 90 to 100 %. Does cutting in on a long race count as a catch, or does the dogs have to go start to finish with no thrown in help? Just trying to figure this whole rating system to see if my dogs are doing anything close to your eat the heart out before they tree'em plott hounds. By the way do bay ups count or are bayups for dogs that just don't have enough grit to make them climb?

[not color blind]

Hey Chilcotin Hillbilly, you should know by now they could tree every bear in the woods or rip the balls of every boar that didn't climb, they still probably wouldn't be bear dogs if they don't have brindles on there back!

[papa]

I hunt with a man who trees 35-40 bears a year consistently...at least since I have been around him for the last 6 yrs. Every color in his pack except...Plott!! Lead dog is walker...blue dogs...crosses of several dogs...cur dog...apparently he still don't have a bear dog! Wonder how many he would catch with a real bear dog? I'm wonderin if "plott" ai'nt a disease!

[wiblueboy]

I dont konw why people always have to fight over this stupid topic. Theres no such thing as the BEST BREED if you ask me. In my point of view its the OWNER and the TRAINING that make a hound a good one. Everyone is gonna have a breed they like the best. Does that mean it IS the best? NO! In my oppinion if you take enogh the time to work with a dog it makes a hound. And i think it all depends on the traits you like as well. Like yote hunting for example. Some guys want a hound that is just going to run the crap out of the coyote and bay it up. Some want one that will run at kill. While others want ones that are kinda slow and get on the track and kick up the yote so you can shoot it. I think its all personal prefferance on what style of hunting you do and what traits you want in the dog. Not the breed.

[Catch]

[larry]

Catch pretty much summed it up

[Ike]

I'll agree that a hound will often tend to favor one over the other, either a bear, lion or bobcat. But hounds are trail dogs period! Not bear hounds, not lion hounds or bobcat hounds, just hounds that have a bred in trait to trail and tree game. And I'll disagree that a man doesn't have any say it the issue, cause I figure a good handler has lots of say or they'd all be deer and elk hounds..........

But a guy that is really into bear needs two things: a hound that loves the bear and a hound that is pyhsically tough from his attitude, to his body and feet. Toughest bear hound I ever had or was around is that blue Ryan dog of mine. He never missed a tree while I was hunting him and he made several bear trees where he was the only dog there, the other dogs were just too beaten up to finish a tough run. Ryan always loved the bears (whether alone or in a pack) and was in his elimate with his head up running up a bear's butt. His littermate Rowen (both now twelve) had the same love of the bears but wasn't blessed with that thick, tough pad a really great bear hound has to have. They both would and could move a cold, dirt lion track all day long but rose to a different level when behind a bear.........

If a guy sees his hound favors one over the other then it's probably best to give them both, but they can and do make both good lion and bear dogs. I've been working with a three year old plott dog for two years now, and he's gonna make a bear dog. But whether he ever makes a really great dirt lion hound like some of these other dogs of mine or not has yet to be seen.

ike

[Catch]

Ike, I agree with what you are saying about the handler in a sense of keeping the dog going in the correct direction. What I meant was, a dog with little or no courage can't be taught or trained to gain courage. A dog that lives to get in a bears face is not taught, they are born, and that is what I call a bear dog. JMO

[Ike]

I can't argue with that...........

[Nolte]

It's good to see that bravado and bullshit are alive and well on the internet.

[Ankle Express]