Karelian bear dogs?

[Hydro1]

Hello all, im wondering if any of you have run karelian's on cougars?
If not have you guys had any success running other "off breeds"?
I have an acd 1/6 border collie mix i use on bobcats, lions, rabbit, grouse, and pheasant.
Thinking about my next pair of dogs being" off breeds" too.
Any dogs you think could make the cut(other than hounds or curs)?
Thanks.

[Hydro1]

You know, actually i would be interested in a breed of curs that does especially well in the cold.

[mfarrally]

Think Bart Lancaster here in BC runs one on Bears and lions. Seen a few pictures of it on his website .

[chilcotin hillbilly]

Hydro one.
I had this dog
1/2 border collie, 1/4 lab, 1/4 german shepard.

Buffy was a hard core killer.Only chased a hot track but made 100% of black bears tree. No guff.
I crossed her to a track pounding lion hound with no quit black and tan from Brent Sinclair.


What I got was these two,

Burger and Cookie The biggest mistake I made with cross was not keeping the whole litter.

These dogs would cold trail, lion and lynx jump and tree 85-90% of everything. they did this with style and speed.
They did have a little to much hair for hot weather.

Both are gone now Burger killed by a lion at 2 1/2 and Cookie this past year at 6 years from cancer.
The Dam is gone as well, I wish I would have made that cross a few more times.

So know you don't need hounds to catch game, just dogs that will trail.I would stay away from the karelians if you want something to trail game.

[Hydro1]

Thanks chilcotin, and mfarrally.
Looks like some real good dogs, dont really need to worry about hot weather too much around here.
Yeah my worries with the karelians is how well they will trail. How gritty they are paired with their coats seems to be what has drawn me to them.
My best luck with lions seems to be at - 10to - 20. This is why im looking for "off breeds".
As i havent found any straight hounds that can handle those temperatures for more than an hour or so..

[chilcotin hillbilly]

You would be surprised, I hunt a lot at cold temps. I loved the crossed up dogs when the temperatures where cold. The cold never seemed to bother them.
-10 C is not very cold even thin skinned hounds do fine at the that temp.

[chilcotin hillbilly]

You would be surprised, I hunt a lot at cold temps. I loved the crossed up dogs when the temperatures where cold. The cold never seemed to bother them.
-10 C is not very cold even thin skinned hounds do fine at the that temp.

[Hydro1]

My old pair of hounds couldnt handle below - 10 especially if the snow was deeper than a foot deep.
They would stop moving and sit with their paws in the air shivering.
Perhaps i need to find some "better" hounds?

[dhostetler]

Hydro1, I think you need better hounds. -10c = 14F if my hounds couldn't hunt below that I would catch very few cats in the winter. I have caught a lion at -30F but I would never do that again. My limit is -15F below that you start freezing off hound body parts.

[Hydro1]

Yeah I got rid of them after trying for a year.
My current mix is great down to -20 no problem. Seeing as this was a dog problem and not necessarily a breed problem, might need to give Em another try.(treeing walkers).
Thanks fella's.