WHAT TO DO WITH A BEAR WHIPPED DOG?

[lionhunterdaves]

I had a black and tan 1 1/2 dog that was on his way to being a really nice dog. I'm not sure if he got his butt kicked by a bear or what but after the 2008 utah summer pursuit he wouldn't do anything. I kept working with him for the next couple of months and still nothing. I finally got rid of him. Does anyone have any suggestion on what to do if this happens again?

[Mike Leonard]

That's a tuff question: first we don't know if he is out of a long line of dogs that were bear dogs and reproducers of the same. 1 1/2 years is very young to put a dog in on bad bear. About like throwing an 11 year old kid in a varsity football game. He wil probably come out of it hating sports for the rest of his life.

Bears are big, stinky dangerous animals and beleive me they scare the dog shit right out of many old seasoned vetran dogs when they turn around and give the pack that go to hell look. A few hard smashes to an eager pup and he realizes this is not a coon or cat I am messing with this is a big terminal animal. Some young dogs get thru it and go on to make decent bear dogs.

Bear hunters as a whole are an aggresive bunch of hunters and that is good they have to be. But the best bear hunters learn a little as they go and learn to put that extra effort forth to make sure those young dogs first runs are good ones.

The Lee Brothers who were known for super tough bear dogs seldom hunted a young dog on bear until he had a couple of seasons of lion and cat hunting under his belt.


Dale would laugh at this and say: well if he whipped out he would have never made a real barr or jagwer dog anyway because he didn't have the heart for it. But then he would say we left a lot of them big hearted dogs in the mountains and in the jungles.

If you want to hunt him on other game work him slow but when they quit bear there is no magic potent to get them back in the game.


Sad but true.Sell him to a lion hunter who has to hunt when the bear are out. When this dogs comes back he will know the score.

[BlacktailStalker]

Thats too bad. Curious as to what you did/how you worked with him to try and get him over it?

I had it happen to me too.
Got bit through the face on his third bear @ 10 months old.
Absolutely terrified of them afterwards, as well as his sister after seeing him squeeling like a pig while we bashed on this bears head trying to get it to unlock.
I let him sit for 2 weeks before I tried him after being bit. Wouldnt go, no way(neither would she!)
He'd go 100 yards and look back at me, "you're coming too right ?"
Tried this 3 times with the same result, was i ever frustrated, thought he was ruined (both of them actually although I really thought his sister was just not gonna make it since she was scared so easily)

Coincidently a guy I knew shot a big bear, so I let them "check it out" with a few other dogs. He wouldnt come within 10 feet of it for 10 minutes. I had to praise him up the whole time, finally he started feinting in on it and eventually grabbed on and LOCKED on for good. He shook that bear for 5-10 mins and I just let him get in the "zone"

Well whatever registered during that episode was his fix because the next day and every day there after he's been as solid a bear dog as I've seen in my short hound career, tallying 21 bears up in the following 6 weeks.

[Brianshounds]

my best dogs i started running at 4-5 months on lion and start them on bear around 6-8 months old. at 6 months they should be able to catch there own lion if they cant they go down the road.... i figure if they are going to get run out of the woods better early then after i have feed them for two years and spent a lot of time training them. with my exsperience the best dogs start early and just keep getting better.

Brianshounds

[B&T man]

at 6 months they should be able to catch there own lion if they cant they go down the road....
Brianshounds

[BuckNAze]

at 6 months they should be able to catch there own lion if they cant they go down the road....
Brianshounds

X2

[curdog675]

[quote="Brianshounds at 6 months they should be able to catch there own lion if they cant they go down the road.. I have heard of starting them on coon that early, but i wouldn't turn a grown coon to go toe to toe with a 6 month old pup. but now if a 1 1/2 yr old got wooped out well, its got to go. i have started several 10 month old pups on hogs, they either got it or they don't. JMO

Brianshounds[/quote]

[fox hunter]

When I lived on the coast I started all my dogs on small game first. Now I live in Id it would take three years to put the amount of cats on a dog I could do in three weeks on the coast so if a dog is going to stay here it better be a bear dog. If they are 8 months or older when season opens I start them. Cream rises, shit sinks.

[Nolte]

I got to agree with Mike on here.

The only thing I would add is this which has been brought up before. If you can, let the dog win. Meaning, try to get him to a tree where you harvest the bear. Then let him see it and see if he works up his courage to grab hold.

I also think that it's real important for dogs to realize that your help is coming. If you get one that wants to bay and fight, get in there. The dogs will get more brave as soon as you arrive and sometimes the bear will tree right up. Other times it will just bust and keep moving. The more it's moving, the less time it has to sit back and single dogs out. Now, if you are trying to kill it on a bay up, do your best to not bust it and go in there for a nice quick kill.

Bear whipped dogs can still hunt but you just have to know their limitations and the situation. If they won't run bear anymore, they might do good on something else. Seen a lot of useless bear dogs become good coon, cat, or yote dogs.

[Spokerider]

at 6 months they should be able to catch there own lion if they cant they go down the road....
Brianshounds

X2

X3

Pretty young for such high expectations in my humble thoughts...... Kinda like sending a 10 year old boy off to boot camp and expecting him to hold his own.

[HoundDawg]

my best dogs i started running at 4-5 months on lion and start them on bear around 6-8 months old. at 6 months they should be able to catch there own lion if they cant they go down the road.... Brianshounds

I have to side with Brian on this one. I'm kind of the same way. I have a 12 year old and an 8 year old daughter. I told them they have until age 16 to be done with Medical school and be practicing medicine, preferably Surgeons, or they go down the road.

My kids know from birth that they got 16 years to be done with college, medical school and be established Doctors or they are gone. If they can't do that, even better because then I don't have to waste all that money feeding them for 18 or even 20 years.

The 12 year old is supposed to start Jr. High next week. I told her to get a move on because she's got 4 years left to finish Jr. High, High School, College, Pre-Med, and Medical School and have a job at a prestigious hospital somewhere. Or she's going down the road. Not wasting all that money feeding these kids if they aren't cutting it.

Good to know there are others out there who think like me.

[Coyote]

Heck I'd be happy with my four month old to outgrow his puppy teeth and quit trying to chew on everything!

[tracypayne]

hey brianshounds let me know if you ever have pups id like to get some of that 6mths cathing own lion stuff.

[BuckNAze]

My new pups love to bite on a bear at 6 months old but I usually dont send them in on the race, sometimes I do to let them get the trailing down but thats after all the big dogs have gone, usually I will find them at the next road with their noses to the ground and pick them up, because usually after they see me they forget what they are suppose to be doing and get all excited to see me. Gets them to use their nose on live game and doesnt put them in harms way usually. One of my pups has helped to kill a coon at 5 months and I was damn proud, dont know if Ill ever have a pup catching lions at 6 months.....guess you may get one of those that matures super fast but mine still like to roll around and play with each other and try to eat cat shit out of the litterl box when I let them in (well not anymore but they use to). I think if you have a bear whipped dog just take him off bears for awhile and get him to see you go hunting everytime or bring him with you and let him be the only dog not turned loose, see if wants to end up going or not to get him back into the swing of things, might take awhile, or hold him off till the next season and try him out again, maybe by then he will half forgot about what happened the season before

[B&T man]

hey b&t man let me know if you ever have pups id like to get some of that 6mths cathing own lion stuff.

? Wrong guy