BigGameHoundsmen.com

the racoon is in the same family as bear do they smell similar do the dogs know the difference
the bear is bigger and will carry more sent but will a straight coon dog want to run bear or a bear dog want to run coon
seems like a lot of big game pups are brought up runnin coon then they run bear but do they realy have to be broke off or the pups just dont want coon once they run bear
thanks li freediver

]

bear and coon smell different. i like the smell of a bear but i cant stand the smell of a coon . i personally start pups on coons so they learn something before they go stale because bear training or bear season the pups may be a year old by then depending on their birth date .in maine their are lots of coons tending bearbaits . if things were different for me i would just run bear . a houndsman has to do what it takes to keep the hounds in the woods as much as possible.

good question because i had asked myself this before and had it answered by what i've scene. from what i've seen, a friend of mine trains his dogs on bear scent. trapped a live coon and before his dawgs could see it, his dawgs went crazy trying to look for the coon like how his dawgs went crazy on the bear scent. so my opinion/thought is that bear and coon do have the same scent!

Of course not-----no way.

briarpatch

brierpatch is right! You can break dogs off either one & still run the other. Also seen several coon dogs that wouldn't run a bear.

the way one freind says it is start them on coon and they wont want a coon once you start them on bear
all the baits in maine have coon hit them so maybe the bear sent is stronger and a lot more sent is left by the bear
they probably smell different but the the bear has to leave more scent
my other freind says oh ya they know the difference
after catch in dogs of bobcats a few times in a week i dont want to run them on bobs it gets you pissed but they run them in the winter on bobs
guess either is better than runnnin a deer or mooose