Coyote dogs on bear

[Clayman]

I'm just interested is there anyone who uses his coyote dogs for bearhunting and if there is, how do they work on a bear? It may be that I'm buying one hound from coyote hunter for fox and lynx hunting and I'm considering to try it for brown bear also.

[tmalone]

clayman,i have a couple treeing walkers that i run on both and get it done, i have to go 1hour for bear but can run coyotes out my back door, they have no problem switching over as we run coyotes all winter and bear training season is july to end of september!

[Nolte]

Guys in WI run bear and yotes all the time. A good yote run is similar to a little running bear. The only downside is that at some point you will probably get on a few yote runs in bear season. It depends on how many yotes you have. We don't run fox because there are a pile of them here. You'd have a tough time cold trailing bear as the dogs would encounter all sorts of fox. One thing not mentioned is that just cause a dog will bay/catch a yote, doesn't mean it will stay caught on a bear. It might, but it's not a given. If you're running Griz, you better have some dogs that stay caught/bayed. I've heard they have a whole different attitude.

[Clayman]

So Nolte, you do think that most of the coyote hounds does not have enough grit to stay on a caught bear? I'm hunting European brown bear and we don't have yotes that could disturb our bear hunting.

I'm considering to take a coyote dog because the main game that I hunt will be fox and plotthounds that I have seen have been really miserable on fox. Our bear season in here is pretty short, so I have to hunt other game (fox, lynx, raccoon dog) also with my dogs.

[Nolte]

Clayman,
It all depends on where you get the yote hounds from. If they have to stay on mean tough bear than you would be fine. If it's from someone who chases 10 bear a year, well then I don't know how they'd know.

It's not that I think that yote hounds don't have enough grit. I think that the right amount of grit is tough to find in any kind of dog. It all sounds good but the dogs usually have a different idea when they are facing down a bad bear in the thick brush. Usually somebody who tells you something different isn't being honest or is trying to sell you something. I've seen many more quitters than stickers in my time. I'm a firm believer that ALL dogs quit, it just depends on what it takes for them to say they've had enough. That could be 10 years of staying tough or 10 minutes the first time out.

What sort of fox do you run? Or better yet what do your fox run like and do they tree? Our grey fox and red fox are totally different. Grey's circle, tree and run a little like a bobcat. Red's don't run when really pressured and will hole up if pushed too hard. The old fox hunters liked a slower dog on Reds because they would just circle and they could get a shot at them. In other parts of the country people think that greys are a fine critter and darn tough to catch. Here we put our pups on them once in awhile and seem to catch them. In the same token, those grey fox guys can stack up cats while we struggle to catch them. Just goes to show how things are different in different areas.

[Clayman]

We run red fox and mainly in snowy conditions, because dry part of the season goes in bear hunting and dog training. Here foxes can go in a den after 5 minutes run or run easily the whole day and up to 10-20 miles, it depends on how much pressure hound/hounds can give to fox and how hard/easy running conditions there is for fox. We usually try to shoot foxes while they are still running and bears also, lynx and small bears are only one that might tree.

[KamphouseHoundsman]

Bear and coyotes are what we mostly run with our dogs. We start them out on fox and coyotes in a pen when they're at a certain age, and begin running them in whatever season comes first.

[cox]

I run coyote with the same dogs I use on bear, I have had a couple of bear runs end up in coyote runs but not very often. If I didn't use them on both they would be idle for a long time and I don't think that is very good for them. I use plotts and havent had any issues with them not catching game. Mainly they stay on whatever track I put them down on and if they do screw it up occasionally so what I do this for fun any how and its what I enjoy plus I can run the same dogs damn near year round. As long as your dogs do what you want them to do who cares what anybody else does. Take care and have fun I've read about running the brown bears in europe and it sounds awesome not sure where you are but where they were hunting in the article they could only use 2 dogs at a time, is it that way where you are as well?

[Clayman]

Cox, it is in Sweden where they can use only 2 dogs at the same time. I'm hunting in Finland and here we can still use as many dogs as we want to, but mostly we use only 1-2 dogs at the same time.