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I have a young pack a hounds. the oldest dog is 4 years old I got a 3 year old and two 11 month old pups. The oldest has been on a few bears, treed one by him self once. I'm using a bait to get some hot tracks and teach them to strike. I've ran them several times this spring of the bait. treed a couple in areas i couldnt get to due to fast water in the creek. So tell me if im crazy or what u think. We havnt had a lot if sucess for as much as we have been out. I think the problem is to many bears. I got trail cam pictures of ten bears consitantly hitting the bait. when i get the dogs even close to the bait they all explode and off they go 4 dogs ,4 different directions probably on four or more bears. how do i keep them together. I think our sucess would go up if they stayed together. Also wondering if anyone wanted to team up on these bears. There are not alot of roads so be prepared to do some walking. Ive only been hound doggin for 4 years. and i always hunt alone. i wouldnt mind hunting with a pro, for me and my dogs sake. Here is a couple of the bigger ones. I got cinnimon, blonde, chocalate, black of all sizes. Not looking forward to showing off my spot but my main priority is getting these dogs to some more trees. I dont kill bear directly off the bait so dont ask.

CJ, I don't know your hunting arrangements, but can you try letting just one start the track. Let them move it away from the bait then put one in at a time. Also try moving a piece away from the bait before you turn loose. If the bear is full he shouldn't be laying to far from it. If you don't have a chance to cut-in, then walk them in together and try putting them on the same track. Let one go, put the next in his pocket. Let me know if this works. HH

What Hi tech said sounds like the best way to go, let your older dog get it started and then turn in once it's moving away from the bait area.

Running off baits can be a tricky thing for this very reason. One thing that was already mentioned was to start with just one dog and after the first dog has lined
out then send in others. You can have a big cluster by cutting loose the whole pack before the lead dog is lined out. That is often what starts puppy races.
With all that bear scent around I'd bet the dogs are already going nuts but it is super important to maintain control as much as possible. Bears on baits are usually
living fairly close to the food source and if you can keep all the dogs packed up till the first bayup I think your success will get better. All those tracks coming and going
can be very confusing to inexperienced dogs. Sometimes dogs that normally take the right end of the track will backtrack off a bait particularly since you have so
many bears using this bait. If it were me I'd do wide circles around the bait trying to start an out track rather than taking the pups into the area where the bears are feeding
most. The nice thing about baits is they allow you to run the right game most of the time, the problem with them is you will often wind up with split races and with young
impressionable dogs you have to be careful not to let them get out there alone and get whipped.
Good Luck
Rigdogs

thanx for the tips i'll give it a try.

Also if you think that it will help to have another experianced dog to help lead your pups I have a 4 year old walker male that you would be welcome to use. He would appriciate it as I changed careers and no longer have enough time to take him.

Where do you run at? I live near pocatello.