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I'm no bear hunter but I like to learn. I was just wondering how many dogs do most of you guys consider safe to run bear with I mean I know there's always accidents and bears will kill dogs but obviously the less dogs the more likely the bear is to kill the dogs. So I am just wondering 3, 4, or more?

I run 3 to 5 dogs and haven't had any problems with it.

I like at least four solid bear dogs with a couple up and coming young dogs

tman308 wrote:I like at least four solid bear dogs with a couple up and coming young dogs

Same here . one good dog can do it just not as fun . we have had up to 24 dogs at a tree lol . we had 12 tree it and some guys turned 12 more into the tree . it was loud and only one walker dog tried starting fights go figure .

As many as it takes. I know I kinda sound like a smart a** but every bear is differet to an extent. Some will run from one dog for a few hundred yards and go up, others will walk all day with 10 behind it and never tree

I like to run 3 to 4 good bear dogs and some young dogs. That being said there is nothing better than listening to a bunch of dog's running a bear.

justahunter wrote:

tman308 wrote:I like at least four solid bear dogs with a couple up and coming young dogs

Same here . one good dog can do it just not as fun . we have had up to 24 dogs at a tree lol . we had 12 tree it and some guys turned 12 more into the tree . it was loud and only one walker dog tried starting fights go figure .

Them damn walker dogs.

those walkers are good for walking a bear too.

Actually the more dogs you have in there on a bad bear can be worse in the long run. where we hunt it is pretty thick swamp with a lot of mud so the dogs can't move around as good as they could on dry ground. i turn 1-2 dogs out to start the track and feed a couple more in as they get it lined out. then i have room to add a couple if it crosses a road or to work on cutting pups in to a race. we can legally only have 6 on a bear at a time here. if they do tree, hauling 6 dogs out of a thick nasty swamp will make you realize you should have just let the 4 dogs do it themselves.

Generally a guy doesn't need more dogs in on a bear, he just needs better ones.

Most stories of bears killing dogs are greatly exaggerated. Granted once in while it might happen, but I'm much, much more concerned about some yahoo driving 80 than any bear in my zip code. A handful of bears are rough. Some of those simply look that way because of the dogs running it. But if you've got some verified tough dogs in there and it's a draw, the only thing you'll get from a monkey pile of more dogs is problems and a lighter wallet. Sometimes the rougher you get the rougher they get. You're better off to let them battle a bit and then pull and replace fresh tough dogs and then you might put that one up. Might being the key word. Or better yet, just slip in downwind and put some lead in the right spot. Done deal.