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OK bear hunters tell me if your hound could only have one trait what would it be???? Would it be speed,grit,nose,color,heart,size,desire,good feet. If your looking for a hound what is most important to you as far as traits???

If a it only has one trait,its not a beardog

Yes I know all bear hounds need all kinds of traits smart a$$!! But what trait is most important to you? Every good dog has a trait that stands out.

You should reread your post.smartass!

Well Larry I'm sorry that you just don't get it.


A lot of guys I hunt around are after speed. And I think DESIRE is the most important trait for hounds. Every body has hounds that will run a bear but not many have hounds that run to catch. And I think that takes DESIRE.

All the traits you mentioned are important,except color.I think the most important would be brains

Thanks Larry,
Your right I forgot about brains that is a very important one.

That reminds me of a dog that I hunted with that had more nose than brains. He could smell the track but that was about it.

I think intelligence is the ingredient that seperates the "great" from the good. An intelligent dog will beat any dog with the same traits, but not as intelligent, hands down every time. JMO

in my humble opinion intelligence is just as important as desire. all the smarts in the world dont do any good without the desire to catch a bear. and the same is true in reverse. but without a good nose it could all be for nothing so i dont know. in some situations being able to work as a team with the other dogs is important to so its a matter of opinion. whatever ya like i hope it works and good luck to yall.

i'll stir the pot, intelligence is overrated a hound does not need to know physics to catch bear. I have to go with desire! If brains were the key component a 50lb dog would figure out that chasing a 300lb ball of fury is not very intelligent... Don't get me wrong i love a smart dog, but if i'm looking for one trait desire will help all the other traits like speed, grit and nose...

I think that both of these traits have to go together,Brains are no good without desire or heart.It takes brains to be able to track down a bear,That being said when you realy think about it ,Like piglet said when a smart dog catches a bear if all he had was brains he would probably turn around and go back to the truck.lol After they catch it thats when heart desire and grit realy kick in a smart dog wouldnt crawl in ahole and face bark a bear.Thats what seperates real bear dogs from dogs that chase bears.Thank god the bears dont realize how easy it would be for them to kill the dogs down in those holes,if they did there wouldnt be any real bear dogs left,But there would still be some smart ones around.JMO

Well it's true! I can't disagree! Hounds do need both brains & desire. But just like us hunters it's desire that gets us out of bed to go chase hounds all over the country not brains. I think desire has to be the strongest trait for a hound. Just like us hunters hounds need that desire to push them to get that bear to tree!!!!! And we need desire to push through the brush and up that mountain too the tree so we can prase the hounds!!!!!

A dog can have it all, but without desire, it is about useless.

its all about HEART when it comes to a all around good bear dog

DESIRE!
A good hunter can take a hound with alot of desire and catch most of the bears he's ever gonna catch with a hound...........and I'll agree, a bear dog doesn't require alot of brains!


ike