? about bear hunting

[moose]

i was talking to a some one today and they said that porcupines and bear small the same. he said that you can ruin a good bear dog if you break them off of porcupines. is this true? please help. thanks

moose

[Shorty]

Well I can honestly say that I don't know what a porcupine smells like. I can tell you this though. A dog can smell the difference between two different animals of the same species. If you talk to the old timers they've found this to be true many different times. Is you think about it we can smell the difference between two different people with BO so whats the difference. Some people also believe that if you break a hound off bobcats they won't run a lion. False again and thats been proven also. I think you'll be fine breaking them off any game you considder trash. That is as long as you don't use too hard of a hand and completely take the hunt out of them. Good luck and happy hunting.

[Bar X Bar Ranch]

Well said Shorty. I agree 100%
I'm not an old timer by any means, but I've got a redbone female who is mainly a lion dog, but will also run bear for me- except one particular bear that made a run at her 2 years ago. After that day we've run and caught the bear two more times, but Fire hightails it in quick once the track is started. All other bears she sticks with for the duration.
A bear smells like a bear, a porcupine smells like a porcupine.

Be firm while trashbreaking, but make sure you are in situations where the pups are able to determine right from wrong.
Like Shorty said- don't knock the hunt out of 'em- don't make them think that they will get in trouble for ranging out to hunt.

[Frontier]

Shorty and Bar x -100%. They are different critters. 25 years ago my hunting partner had a top rig dog (we hunted off the hood then also).This one old dog was a finished and broke hound, but on occasion would hammer a porky and then hit the deck! We knew exactly what was up - and he did too! Boy could we keep those young dogs honest. It's easy for a hound to get started striking them when the bears are grubbing old logs and stumps and such - the old dogs are striking a two day old stump and the only thing the young dog is getting is the fresh porky ( be careful on old strikes some dogs might not be smelling what the top dog is ).
Frontier

[onalimb]

I quit hunting coons because of all the porkies, they hit the ground at night, and I shocked the hell out of my dogs for getting near one, never had them open on one, theuy'd just run into them and have me pulling quills, all those dogs hunt bear, and , Knock on wood haven't hit a stick pig in years.

[Ike]

That's funny, cause I told a hounddogger who thought he was a real bear man a few years ago that a hound could not only tell what animal he was running but which animal in that species it was after. He laughed and told me a lion smells like a lion and a bear smells like a bear, and then I laughed to think he'd run hounds for thirty years and didn't know that.

If you send a good dog down a boar and a sow track he knows the difference and will run which of the two he wants to run; likewise, if you send down a tom and a bitch track and old experienced dog for damn sure knows the difference.

ike

[chilcotin hillbilly]

Ike , on friday I was out looking for a problem female. the 2 pups (10 months) were following a day old track through the dirt and snow and we cut a nice tom track about same age, A couple sniffs and it was back to the female track. I think we have to give our hounds alot of credit, when they do screwup it is really them checking to see if we are paying attention.

[Ranger]

I had a very good rig dog a long time ago that could be trusted 100%. But it would be bear, lion, bobcat or porky. Dog was 8 when I sold him. Never did stop him from doin that.

[moose]

thanks for the replys guys. thanks again.

moose