Lynxhunter wrote:Let me tell you guys a bit about the Karelian dogs,because these are dogs, and I know some things about them.
Its right as some of you have said, they are dogs. - To be coreckt: Spitz dogs. In their familie is the Karelian BEAR dog(it's their real name), Great Swedish Elkhound, Vestern and Eastern Laika, Norwegian Grey and Black Elkhound and a coupple more, who is more or less aknowledged breeds. These dogs are bred for hunting, but in a totally different style than the treeing hounds.
They original breeders of the Karelian bear dogs kept "tame" caribou, thats why the dog got some "garding" in its nature.
Originally they came from the Karelian mountains in the eastern part of Finnland/vestern part of Russia. Bred for hunting Brown bear, Moose and probably Lynx.
They hunt with their noses high, in loops against the wind, to catch the direct scent from the desired animals. They were bred to hunt this way, to find the animals that were closest to the hunter. When these spitzdogs work the best(in my opinion), they wont take on an older track than lets say, 2-3 hours. That way they wont trail one animal past another, that is close to the hunter, f.eks. down wind.
Over the years these dogs became more and more moose dogs, because of lack in the bear population. When a dog bayes up a moose, it needs to keep its distance. If the dog puts to mutch preasure on the moose, it'll start running and then there are no dogs or hounds or whatever in the whole wide world, that will put a stop to it!!! This ment that the breeders bred a slightly different dog than the origin and this has given the result that very few of these Spitz dogs, dear to handle a bear in the right way today.
- There is hope though. In the later years bear population has increased in Scandinavia, so now a lot of breeders are trying to get back the genes that once run in their weins, when these dogs were predator hunters.
If you want to see some pics of brown bears hunted with hounds go to this page:
http://www.plotthund.se
Its in Swedish, but the pick(bilder) are the same anyway.
Hans
