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How often do you all think dogs actually get killed by a bear? Do you think more dogs get killed by other dogs when mixxing packs?

I've lost two in one year. But it seems to be pretty uncommon. I just didn't have the best of luck that year. I know a few people that have never lost a dog to a bear. Seems the road takes more than anything. I seen one persons dog last year damn near dead from other dogs, it got mixed in with the wrong pack. I tell ya what, those dogs better not show up at one of my trees!

You need to thin that heard lol..... take up golfing sucka.

Yeah, I doubled my pack this year, LOL. I went from 3 to 6. I bet by next bear season I'll be back down to 3 or 4. I liked only having 2-3 dogs the last 2 years. I think it's the magic number.

lmao at u cali's...

HUH???????

we've only had one dog get killed by a bear, and it was a sow that killed him, turned loose on a monster, and got to the tree to a sow and a cub, well the dog wasn't there, so we tracked the dog, and you could see where the bear had pounced on it and ate it, i think that they jumped the sow, and she just killed the slowest one, other than that i know that if a dog gets killed around here it more than likly a dog fight that killed him.

All it takes is one bad bear to take out half your pack. a common cause of this is too many dogs on a bear and not as much room for the dogs to retreat. also, dog fights seem to be more common on a bear tree due to mixing of packs and more agressive bred dogs. knock on wood I've only had them come close to killing my dogs, but I have seen it happen to alot of my buddies. there is a bear up where we hunt that has figured out how to kill dogs and he will kill any one he can get ahold of. he won't tree no matter how many dogs you put on him. I hope an archery hunter sitting a bait dumps him soon.

thats what i think to most dogs are killed by othere dogs and not buy the bear. I have actually heard of dogs getting killed by other dogs and the other dogs starting to eat the dog they killed!

Fuk me, you guys all running alligator bred blueticks and rabid plotts ?

BlacktailStalker wrote:Fuk me, you guys all running alligator bred blueticks and rabid plotts ?

Bplott wrote:lmao at u cali's...

laugh all you want later til then pass the Wild Turkey!

I have hunted for twenty years. I ve lost one female to a bear(bluetick/plott) and Had a friend loose a female I sold him to a bear(bluetick). My brother lost a young (walker)male in a dog fight at tree when someone elses dogs got in on the same bear. I've lost dogs to cancer,liver failure,roads,one at 6 yrs and 8 yrs for some reason unknown.
I like my chances with the bears over mother nature. I've had some vet bills too but for me its easier to pay a vet to stitch one back together than doctor one for cancer or heart worm, liver failure, ect...

GOOD LUCK

I have lost one myself and I know it was a bear because I had to watch it happen. I once watched a dog (not mine) treeing a bear over a 100 ft cliff. I was about 1/4 mile below them and had to use binos to see it. The tree was leaning over the cliff and the dog was out on the tree face barking this bear. The bear and dog lunged at each other at the same time and they both fell from the tree. The dog was dead when it hit the ground and the bear layed there for quiet a while before it got up and wobbled off. Those are the only two that I KNOW were killed by a bear. Most are dog fights. I once knew a guy whose dogs were always eat up by mean bears. I was coming down a trail one day and heard the most God aweful fight. When I got there his ENTIRE pack (6-8 dogs) were fighting. I didn't even try to stop them for fear they would get onto my pack. When I got out of the woods this guy was telling everyone that would listen how his dogs got on a mean walking bear.

This question depends on your dogs. Gritty young dogs on some of their first bears can come and go pretty fast. In the last three years I have lost three dogs to bears. One each year. One of these situations was totally my fault. The other two were dogs who were just a little to agressive. Up until three years ago I had only lost one to a bear.

Last year I had a buddy along who was wanting to get some of his stuff going a little better on bears. I had turned loose off a blind rig from the Side X Side. During the course of the race my buddies dogs fell out and we picked them up as we followed along. We ran that little sucker for about 4 or 5 hours (not a super bad race) and got him stopped well within hearing range of our road. It sounded to me like they had him in a tree (I can --usually-- tell the difference between a bayup and tree) so I told the guy I was with, to go ahead and turn his dogs in and we began walking in. By the time we got there I had a mess on my hands. The bear was in a hole and one of my dogs was running around with her face completely gone and a great big hole in her side. We leashed dogs up and got the heck out of there.....needless to say I was pretty upset with myself. This was my fault. You get to many dogs on a bear in a hole and anyone who has been bear hunting a while with pressure dogs knows the danger of what can happen next.

I like my dogs gritty but not stupid. Until those young dogs get a little education on which end bites back; you can loose some.

On the other hand I don't think a guy can measure how gritty his dogs are based on how many he has lost to bears or how many vet bills he has piled up. I had a big boar this spring that my buddy and I ran down for a guy. When I had that bear skinned down to his ars, he had blood brusis all over the backs of his legs and a few up higher on his butt and sides. The dogs had walked that one for about 6 hours and really poured it to him and not one dog was injured badly. We had a few with minor cuts but nothing to warrant a visit to the vet.


I don't really know if mixing packs would tend to lead to more dogs killed by other dogs. I would think so if one of the packs were a bunch of tree fighers to start out with. I steer clear of hunting with guys that I know have tree fighers. I like my dogs too much and it's always the other guys dogs who started the fight.....even if your the other guy......tends to lead to unkind feelings.......