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Bert, After Typing this much I figured someone else might add to, or possibly benefit from the info so I put it in a post.

There's not much more you can do but keep trying. Training a dog to rig is more complicated then just exposing them to some scent. I don't know of a dog that started rigging bear before they had been under a couple bear trees and showed some interest in bears. Thats why driving through some bottled bear scent doesn't work well as a training aid.

The reason is, When your dog is cruiseing down the road with you, it is being bombarded by scents of all kinds. None of them trigger any response in them because they don't correlate the scent to any reward or any anticipated chase. To become a rig dog a series of dots need to be connected in the dogs brain.

A. I know what a bear smells like...
B. I like to chase the smell and get the reward(ie petting, praise etc or simply the desire to follow an instinct) that comes from catching.
C. I learn that when I smell the scent and bark I get down from the truck and get to chase the bear.
Eventually in the dogs brain something clicks and bear scent = Bark
Alot of Bear scent = Try to rip the chain from it's mooring and bark like crazy

In your situation with no Rig dog to train with, your only real options are to try to find a fresh bear track and get your dogs to follow it. This time of year a bear is gonna be near food and water and when you find both there should be bear. It's a hard row to hoe for sure. In this neck of the woods at least 50 % of the time I don't see a track till I look up a tree. The terrain that bear hang out in just doesn't make for good conditions to see a track. That means you may have some trash chases to deal with too.


Another option is to send one of your dogs to a reputable trainer. Honestly in the long run that is gonna be cheaper and have less headaches then trying to go the route you are attempting. If you think you have a dog that is mature enough and ready, even paying for a month of training may just give you the jumpstart you need. If you can find a trainer near your area and don't have to ship the dog you might get a dog started for 3-500$ Pretty cheap comsidering the time and expense involved in just hoping to stumble into a hot bear. It takes repetition and success to make a rig dog and that is hard to come by with out a reliable bear dog to learn from.

Ricky

good advice

lot of good info thanks

Ricky, Thanks for the info. Just so the other guys know, I wasn't
talking about driving down a road with some fake bear smell on
a rag dumped off someplace. What I said was bears had been
seen in this area BEFORE. But last week after 3 times of driving
down the same road and ME not seeing a sign of bear in the road
should I continue to drive this same 30 mile stretch of road or do
you think I should look else where.

I don't want to Pi$$ you off but I never used the words easy
or cheap. Yes it would probably be easyer and cheaper and
I know ahell of alot less fustrating, but ----being as I can't
openly let a dog chase a bear on his own , I have to pretty
much find a bear or a track, put a lead on the dog and go for
a walk after the bear following it hopefully.

No-----I don't ever expect to catch a bear this way but it's the
only way I can find out if she is even interested.

By the way what is the latest you can run bears??

Thanks Ricky

Dry-Run

a dog that is inclined to run bear will be very interested in bear scat. In fact, even a dog that is afraid of bear will be very interested in the scat, and the hair on his back will probably rise when he smells it, just by instinct.
At this time of year, my hound and I find bear scat everywhere there's a blackberry patch. Bears also like to leave scat in the middle of the road. I don't intentionally run my hound on bear, but its in him. Even though I've pulled him off bear trails repeatedly, I never really broke him off bear by shocking him, or anything like that. He still opens when he finds reasonably fresh scat.

I would just take the hound to a likely spot with berries and water etc and walk around with the dog on leash. If the bears have been there, you will find the scat--they don't hide it. Chances are good that the hound will start trailing from the scat, and all you have to do is praise him when he opens. Once he is doing this reliably where you can see scat on the ground, you can start driving through the area where you've found scat before. Sooner or later, he will get a whiff of it when you drive through and he will open.

I

Ricky

You had some really good info in there.

I think our conditions and bear population are much different than yours. I've had numerous pups who have never ran, seen, or treed a bear rig on them. I normally try to let pups ride along and it's funny to watch a little bitty pups get all hackled up and bark at a bear. Some do, some don't. They don't really know what the hell they are barking at, but they know it's something different. I've confirmed it's been a bear by fresh tracks. I've also confirmed they were barking at something that isn't a bear.

It seems that good rig dogs will bark at almost anything when they are young and constantly are winding. I think it's later on after they've been on some trees that they get dialed in on what they should be rigging.

I know this won't help Dry-Run, but riding around with a good rig dog shortens the learning curve immensely. After a few times of the good rig dog barking and you getting out and getting them excited/praised they figure it out quick.

This is probably the worst time of the year to work on rigging in WI. Spring/Early summer are much better around dawn and dusk. Right now the bear are hunkered down at some kind of outdoor buffet and not on the move. If they do move you can be it's during the dark.

One thing to add is that not every dog can or will make a rig dog. Sure you can get almost any dog worth a crap to strike a red hot track but to be a real rig dog and strike tracks that need to be cold trailed off the road is a different thing. There is no training for a dog of this caliber either they are born with it or they are not. All you can do is help bring it out in the dog that posses the certain trait. JMO

treeing walkers wrote:One thing to add is that not every dog can or will make a rig dog. Sure you can get almost any dog worth a crap to strike a red hot track but to be a real rig dog and strike tracks that need to be cold trailed off the road is a different thing. There is no training for a dog of this caliber either they are born with it or they are not. All you can do is help bring it out in the dog that posses the certain trait. JMO

Very true

Dry-run, where are you bear hunting? If you live in cle elum and are bear hunting with dogs you may raise some eye brows. If you are hunting legally, pm me your number I have a friend who lives close that has very good dogs and may be able to help you out.

Sent you a P.M.
No!!!!!!!! I wouldn't hunt illegally or anything else.....


Dry-Run