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How many dogs do most people put on 1 bear?

1-20 One dog can do it if its the right dog, but it sure sounds better when there's a bunch!

It depends on how many dogs you want to pull off a tree.

In Maine we are only allowed to run 4 hounds at a time

I think that one or two is impressive dog wise "damn that dog(s) sure get it done"
But, now this is just me: we can run 6 dogs in WI so, you an a couple friends each get some dogs in. When 6 dogs get going on a good track there's no better music, each dog trying to out do or drown out the other...or if you have a young pup in there that puts their two cents in for the first time..IF THAT DOESN'T MAKE YOU SMILE...YOUR DEAD!!!!
So I say the more dogs the better the music.....THE GRAMMY'S SHOULD HAVE A CATEGORY FOR THAT KIND OF MUSIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

1 dog can get the job done if he is a good one i ussualy use 4 my 2 and my friends and they do good

mean bears, and one dog... hard to get them stopped, but i have seen it, i usually like to run 4-6 but when buddies come huntin everybody puts in some dogs, i prefer under 10, because if you shoot a bear, then you have the bear and dogs to look after, and leading out a bunch of dogs a couple mile through the woods isnt fun when you have to go back in and drag out a bear lol.

Here we are only allowed to put 6 dogs out but we can usually do it with our 3 best ones.

I can tree most any bear with one dog. For all others I use two, maybe three. But heck, thats all I own. I tell ya my three together make plenty of music, the best music of all is caught, when they roll up on that tree. I've hunted with people and seen an upwards of 16 dogs at one tree. I wouldn't call it music, I'd call it one or two dogs treeing a bear, with ten more me tooing, babbling their heads off chasing the others, or standing on there heads doing nothing, a real "cluster" LOL.

3-6 More get in each others way. 2 is ok... Your only gonna tree chicken sht bears with one dog. Good way to get a dog hurt too.

cobalt wrote:It depends on how many dogs you want to pull off a tree.

10-4 on that!!!!!

B&T man wrote:3-6 More get in each others way. 2 is ok... Your only gonna tree chicken sht bears with one dog. Good way to get a dog hurt too.

Well like a said i like a nice little group of dogs, BUT i have treed mean bears with one dog, the most recent was a nice 180 lb bear, but mean as a snake, we treed him the first time and didnt know he had already killed a dog a mile back, so we thought we would go after something bigger, we walked the dogs off the tree after about a 3 hour brawl, well on the way out my buddies dog elvis got unsnapped and went back after the bear, anyways 5 hours later we were walking elvis out with a dead bear that TREED, not saying it will always happen but it can be done on occassion

Yep one dog can tree a mean bear. And 20 dogs can't at times. If your packing a pack of dogs that by themselves can only tree a chicken sh.. bear. Why even keep them? If they can't do it alone, or damn near die trying, then they shouldn't even be ran on bear to begin with. I don't believe in having just "pack dogs" that are only useful in a pack.

Cassandra, i do keep pack dogs, not for lack of drive, but a couple of my dogs dont have great noses or trailing abilities, BUT you get them on a bear by themselves or a warmer track and they arent going anywhere unless the bear does, i just find your percentages go up when you have a handfull of dogs on a big bear rather then 1 or 2 JMO. Last year i was in the woods without a gun (typical lol), seen my buddies good pack dog P-nut, couldnt smell his on arse if his nose was in it i dont think lol but he will ALWAYS be with the bear for some reason, anyways we all had one dog in on the bear, i watched that big snarlin bear just walk and charge, i was there soon after they jumped and he never ran a lick, coolest part was when p-nut ran around jumped off a log like a stunt man and planted himself right in the bears face, that caused a scene and the bear broke for a ways and ended up walking for another few hours before stopping, he was just one of those bears that wasnt going to tree, and trust me the dogs were sinking teeth.

I like to run 4-6 on a bear and this is why. I have caught a pile of bears with only 1 or 2 dogs but it makes them work so much harder. When you walk down to a bear that is bayed up what do you see? I see a dog that grabs the bear from the butt and then jumps back, usually that bear will turn and try to run down the dog that just bit him, well when he does that two more will grab his butt from the other side. They work together as a team and they usually don't get hurt. You get one dog or even two dogs a mean bear will focus on that one dog and run it down, and I guarantee eventually that bear will catch the dog. Now I have also hunted 10-12 dogs at a time and when that mean bear goes to run down a dog he will usually catch him because that dog can't run because there are a cluster of dogs behind him. They can't get out of the way because there is no room. This is just my opinion and what I have seen in the bottom of those nasty canyons on bay up jobs. I am sure there are a lot that disagree with me but I am sure there are a lot that know what I am talking about.