Bear protection breed

[Clint_S]

Story on the pic is

This photo is from a past cover of Full Cry. Trent Meyer was watching over a herd of some 2000 sheep in the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness area of Montana. He had been having a problem with predators killing some of this charges so he had his Rottweiler with him.
He stayed with his sheep day and night. One night he awoke to discover a bear sniffing his sleeping bag. In late summer he saw movement about 20 yards away. There stood a huge grizzly bear, looking him over. Trent's Rottweiler spotted the bear about the same time and gave chase. He snapped this photo as the dog approached the bear at full speed., chasing the bear clear out of the canyon. The bear never returned.

[Devilbear]

I would take a good Karelian from a real pro like Dawn Deeley first and a well bred Rottweiler, from Debbie Cornell-Charneski of Trojan Rotts. second, for a bear dog. If, I were to go back to working the most remote fire L/Os in BC/AB alone and could choose my dog and train it my way, those would be my choices.

A Karelian is THE bear dog, but, I do not have one as they do not like other dogs and I have 2-3 pb. Rottgods living with me always. The "dynamics" of an urban yard and this combo of dogs just don't cut'er for me!

I am not surprised at the Rott. above, that is what they are like and a good one, trained by someone who knows what they are doing, is a simply amazing companion and they also like to sleep on your best, most costly sleeping bag and keep "dad" warm!

[KodiakHntr]

The guy that runs the park at Liard River Hot Springs went to Alaska to get two Husky/Wolf cross puppies to train as bear dogs for the park. Turned out he got Husky/Greyhound puppies. The one I saw was a beautiful dog. He's already trained one bear dog (Retreiver I think it was) and figured the husky/GH cross would work pretty well

7m7

Chatted at that guy for a bit on New Years Eve this last year....Those two husky/GH's were working that poor Lab over something fierce running him ragged. Was pretty impressive how fast those little mongrels were. Especially considering it was -35 and they were just running as hard as they could go chasing each other around.

[7mag700]

Ya he said they can easily keep up with his quad in 4th gear!

I sure wish I'd gotten a picture - man what a beautiful dog.

7m7

[Islandeer]

Wow! Man's best friend gettin her done!!

[Downtown]

expensive but there is a breed called the Karelien bear dog, it has been bread in scandanavia for hundreds of years for the sole purpose of bear hunting / the alberta Co's use them for bear controll.if I had a spare grand lying around I would get one

Perhaps the Alberta COs dont have enough knowledge and/or budget to buy real Bear (and anything else for that matter) Dogs like Purebreed German Hunting Terriers. You send a Hunting Terrier after a healty Bear Black or Grizzly no matter eventually you start feeling sorry for the Baer.

German Hunting Terriers will harras the Bear no end, I think any other Terrier with Hunting instinct would do the same.

And finally I do not belive there is a Dog which would survive for very long if it actually fights the Bear, just think about it .............

[Jagermeister]

I had an Akita/Collie cross, looked more like a Norbottenspet. At 6 months, the moment the dog winded bear, her fur was standing tall from the crown of her head to the tip of her tail. Once released, she would have the bruin on the run. She had many bear encounters, all black, from sows with cubs to one orney high legged brown. All the bears vacated the area. Her social skills with other large dogs were not great, she did get along with smaller breeds.
I have seen the Karelian in action too, it mirrored the same attitude for bruin as the aforementioned A/C cross.
So, my vote would be for a Karelian or an Akita cross.
Akitas will only answer to one master and one master only, they have been known to bite other family members or visitors with little provocation. Akitas also have a great wander lust if not confined to close quarters. Collies on the other hand are home bodies which make them ideal candidates for cross breeding with Akitas.
And that is my 2¢ worth.

[BCBRAD]

For both alerting and engaging a bear you want at least two dogs . Even a good bear dog can get injured or killed in a flash. A pair of Airedale terriers will be hell on everything - once keyed up they will not quit. Loyal and tough they are. Raise them with other animals otherwise they can be dangerous to other dogs and domestic critters.

Agree, we have two Airedales, the female seems a bit more agressive than the male.

[una]

I've got a female cane corso/american staffordshire cross, and she's had her fair shair of wildlife encounters with me. Before I got into hunting, I was huge into dirtbiking and she would follow along behind me. The handful of times that I ran into blackbears in the bush, she would come screaching to a halt behind me - take one look at me and guage my reaction then follow suit.

When we ran into a couger on a hike - she had some serious game face going but stayed riiiight next to me.

Coyotes? She goes crazy for, 135lbs of bloodlust.

Kids? herds away from the TV is the go-to clean up crew for under the high chair.

...Sure do hope my (wretched, stupid, 10 month old) pup learns from her


Although, at 10 months and 80 pounds, he sure has a mean bark and isn't a fan of coyotes (rampant in my area) so mayhaps there's hope for him yet...

[phoenix]

una,
What beautiful dogs, but you'll find most male pups don't get blood flow to the brain for at least 2 years.
These 2 see bears all the time. The hairy one, rotty/bouvierX gets right in their face if allowed while the pitty and my male rottyX shout encouragement from the sidelines, lol.
Kim