UKC Forums - How Many Dogs in a Bear Pack?

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Posted by Redwood Hounds on 06-30-2007 02:30 AM:

How Many Dogs in a Bear Pack?

Chris sparked my imagination wiith his post, so I figured I'd start one relevant.

How many dogs do you typically run in your Bear Pack?
Just on an average day.

Give what you think is the BEST number of dogs is, then how many you actually have, and why.

When alone we run what we have, and at present we have 3 dogs we run. We have 3 littermate pups that will start this year. Now if we hunt with others we can sometimes run into 11-15 dogs in one race. Way to many in my opinion.

One dog can tree a bear. All of our 3 can, have, and will. I like a race, and hearing one dog isn't much. LOL. So my vote is for 3-6 dogs.

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Posted by Travis Stirek on 06-30-2007 03:32 AM:

Redwood we always run as many as we can stuff in the dog box(Dodge Dakota=6-8,Ford F-250= a ****pot full)LOL love to hear that roar to me its not as fun to hear 3 or 4.We own 12 grown dogs now and it varies from 8-16.But when running the larger packs ya gotta be careful and have a pretty even pack,cause I've seen it alot when there is a bunch of dogs baying a bear,if ya got some gritty ones and some "cheerleaders" the cheerleaders can make it dangerous for the gritty dogs ie.they can't get outta the way as easily.But if ya got mostly one or the other they make a good team and man the noise.JMHO

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Posted by Melanie H. on 06-30-2007 03:45 AM:

Well if I was running my dogs on bears.. We prefer 3 to 4.. 1 or 2 can do it.. I know this But I like just a couple more in there.. Somehow we have 5 running age dogs with another pup that will be old enough for cat season and another pup or 2 coming <sigh>

I wish I could just leave it at 5 or less but somehow we always just up.. I don't like running a whole lot of dogs.. Just like Travis mentioned.. Seems like the more dogs the more likely the chances someone is going to go the the vets office...

Because 1 or 15 if it isn't going to climb, it isn't going to climb...

I was always told by the old timers.. All you ever need it 1 good dog..... Course you can't just stop at one...

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Posted by Travis Stirek on 06-30-2007 03:52 AM:

Something else,nothing can make ya prouder than turning 15 dogs,that you yourself bred,loose and having all 15 there in the end treed or bayed.Saves alot of money on gas driving around looking for the ones that didn't make it.LOL

Posted by mudman on 06-30-2007 03:53 AM:

with my uncle we run 9or more on a bear but we dont like throwing 12-15 dogs we turned 40 dogs once there was 13 trucks in our group we wont never do that again i think that day we had 3 diffrent hunting groups dogs get mixed with ours but by my self i will put all i have and thats 4

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Posted by Travis Stirek on 06-30-2007 03:59 AM:

I'm not talking party hunting.I hate it.Just a way to get people mad at each other and dog fights started and trash races and Blah blah blah.I prefer to just hunt alone(my pack including wife and kids LOL) or maybe with one other buddy(his pack including wife and kids)Just my pack is that big and I hate leaving any home LOL(and they hate getting left at home LOL)

Posted by mudman on 06-30-2007 04:27 AM:

thats why i sai dwe wont do that again we dump about 9 dogs to start teh bear and then we dump pups in

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Posted by pete on 06-30-2007 09:16 AM:

6 is the law here - im almost glad we have a limit- lol

id need a bigger truck if we didnt-

ive hunted quite a bit in maine and the law is 4 ---that makes it tougher to train pups-

ive seen one dog tree a bear many times-- and ive seen bear that i dont know how many it would take--- lol

Posted by Kyle W. Graf on 06-30-2007 09:52 AM:

Six is the law here. I wish we were allowed more. When I get together with my buddies it is hard to decide which dogs to leave in the truck. I hate the politics.

I have seen a few coments on this forum insinuating that three or less are as good as six or more. Does anyone really believe that? No one voted for 1-3 yet.

Kyle

Posted by Redwood Hounds on 06-30-2007 10:07 AM:

I do really believe that one good dog is better than most, and that you could use one dog for just about everything. No matter how many you run there is only one lead dog. Chances are, that dog would have still run and treed it the same, with or without the company.

But like I said, all my dogs could be singled out and hunted alone and put up bear consistantly. All of them have strengths and weaknesses, so it's hard to single out just one and say "this is the best one and this is the worst one." Or have a whole pack thats all the same. We try hard though, and every drop everyone gets brokendown and thier weaknesses evaluated...

I don't like the term "pack dog" cause like I said, the lead dog would on most occasisons have done all the work with out that "pack dog" even around. Having that one extra noise maker isn't justifyable reason to keep around "just a pack dog."

But together, one is still the leader, no matter what... Unless you can train them all to run the exact same speed in a line fanned out... I'd like to see that

I think we all have more than just the "one" just in case something happens to it. Running just that one great dog, in the end eventually end up with no dog.

Posted by Kyle W. Graf on 06-30-2007 11:40 AM:

I can gaurantee you that in the state of WI. six good dogs will tree a higher percentage of the bear they run than one good dog.

Are terminology is different also. Here a pack dog is a dog that can not be relied upon to start the cold trail. They are held back so they are available when the cold trailer / trailers get the bear jumped. Then they are packed in to help tree or bay the bear. Hence the title "pack dog".

An extra noise maker is called a cull here.

I can not count the times that the cold trailer was baying a bear and then pack dogs were packed in only to have the bear treed in the next half hour.

I can not count the times I have seen six dogs working over a bear sometimes taking them off their feet and evenually tree them. One too three dogs were not going to tree these bears.

I can not count the times I have seen a bear bail out of the tree into the pack only to get their butt kicked and go right back up. One dog will not keep all of the tougher bears up.

Kyle

Posted by Bear on 06-30-2007 11:49 AM:

quote:
Originally posted by Kyle W. Graf
.

I can not count the times I have seen a bear bail out of the tree into the pack only to get their butt kicked and go right back up. One dog will not keep all of the tougher bears up.

Kyle

I AGREE!!!!!

Posted by track on 06-30-2007 03:20 PM:

I like to hunt alone or with a couple of guys that all get along. We have treed a bunch of bear over the years with 3 or 4 dogs. I think that 3 dogs that will bite a bear can put alot of pressure on the bear.
Charlie

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Posted by Travis Stirek on 06-30-2007 03:31 PM:

Kyle sums it up perfect.The one dog by hisself catching every bear ya turn him loose on is a nice thought but experience confirms Kyles post.I also LOVED the statement about pack dogs being culls,AMEN this is something I've posted on here before and something my wife and I practice religously.

Posted by Redwood Hounds on 06-30-2007 05:51 PM:

I didn't say one dog will tree any bear every single time. I said consistantly. Just like a pack of 15 dogs will not put up a bear any bear every time.

I said it before in my post. A rank bear isn't going to climb no matter how many you put on him. You don't change a bears mind. You just get a pile of chewed on dogs.

Now a bear thats been run alot and seen alot of diferent dogs in his day, that at times can stop and just walk the dogs and bluff a whole pack into quitting or staying a half mile back, those same bear, with dogs that put the heat on them, will go right up. They just test and see which dogs they can bully, not even being real mean, they are just smart. I feel that a bear like this with 1-3 dogs on it, that get in there and stand thier ground, and annoy the hell out of him, will go up without much trouble.

Chances are if you have 3 of the most gritty dogs on a rank bear, if you turned 10 more loose, you'd just end up with 10 more vet bills and no treed bear I don't know maybe I'm wrong. Maybe if you get so many dogs in there, he might think he's out numbered and climb.

But then again, I'm just new at this, and my dogs are cheerleaders Just going by some of what I've seen and by a lot of wise mens word.

Posted by Kyle W. Graf on 07-01-2007 12:26 AM:

Redwood Hounds
I am not saying you can't do well with one hound. I have had a few one dog bear packs.

I am saying that you will put up more with a full pack. If you are hunting an athletic line of hounds with good grit and tons of persistence you can tree some pretty rough bears by wearing them down. The dogs have to keep them moving though. Coming from all directions helps.

Getting a pile of dogs chewed up happens when the dogs are either too aggressive or they are on a medium sized bear that is aggressive and can move fast. Not too many bears will single out a dog and run it down when they are being harrassed by a whole pack. When you find one that will, you are in trouble. When you get one like this a dog or two is in trouble also and they don't have much chance of treeing one like this. Six good dogs might put them up.

I am perfectly comfortable hunting with one great dog if that is all I have available. I like three better, and I like six better yet, and I like more than six because everyone got their dog in the hunt and that makes for a fun day.

I hunt with one too three houndsmen. We try to obey the six dog limit. The other group that hunts the same area never runs less than twenty dogs if they get the oppotunity to pack in.

Everyone should hear that at least once!

Kyle

Posted by moutainmanmike on 07-01-2007 03:47 AM:

Up here you can run as many as yuo can afford to feed . Last year I seen twenty dogs go off a bait . like posted above :: yuo have to hear that aleast once in your life LOL . All together there was about 40 dogs at camp. Four different hunters brought ten of their best
I believe it would take a very nervy bear to turn back on twenty dogs .
As far as the bad ass ones :: I would take two dogs and that would be enough . Just keep barking at the bear till I can kill it . Too many dogs on a mean bear is bad news for sure

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Posted by mudman on 07-01-2007 07:19 PM:

quote:
Originally posted by moutainmanmike
Too many dogs on a mean bear is bad news for sure

got that right if a bear balls up on one dog they all want balled up on so what happens you see 20 dogs go in at once and start pullin fur

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Posted by Travis Stirek on 07-01-2007 07:55 PM:

guess I better start selling some dogs.LOL maybe Bobbie and I could catch some more bear then. lol 29 yrs of bear hunting and only two vet bills and 5 dead dogs guess we need to learn more lol

Posted by pogo56 on 07-02-2007 09:30 PM:

well here, in mi, i hunt with a total of three trucks, some times more but 90% of the time just three, the guy i hunt with has 4 dogs that will run and tree a bear.....i have one good one and one that im working with.....that guy puts one or two cold trailers down and allows someone elese to put a young dog down with them dogs....if they get the bear jumped we only usualy end up with 3-4 dogs down at a time....and at times we may end up with 3 broke bear dogs and 2 younger dogs or something like that....

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