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Hey guys, just wanted some thoughts on training dogs during the off season. I have hunted with friends for awhile now and love dog hunting bear. But now I own 2 Plotts and want to know what other people do in the off season. I have a 1 1/2 yr old, and a 3 yr old. The 3 yr old hunted with us last season and runs good but seems to not tree good. The younger dog I bought at APA breed days. It was raised as a coon dog although not alot, but I walked it in on the bear bay and she was aggresive and barking towards it. Any thoughts?

maybe the dog got beat up at the tree too many times? you can work with the dog if thats the case.
get a coon in a cage and work with the dog, praise em and try to build up the confidence, let em kno thats what you want em to do.
my first two dogs got beat up at the tree by this old dog all the time, they were scared to tree, and would hang back and bark when the bear was in the tree, but they wouldnt dare get close to the tree. i finally gave the old dog back, and the dogs did fine after they realized they aint gonna get beat up. that was 10 years ago.
id pop my dog if it aint a natural tree dog.
you dont want the dog to use all that energy trailing, fighting, and treeing a bear then leave the tree to go off hunting again, and risk the dog taking other dogs with it.

Bearbred, Thanks for replying and I don't want to sound nuts but what is this roading? Here in Va. there is not alot of places where we live that is great for rigging either, we usually drive to the end of national forest road and get the dogs out of the box and walk in with 2 of the best (rig) dogs loose when they strike a trail we turn in the other dogs usually a total of 6-8 dogs. We treed 12 this year and left more than half in the woods. I really like the way the young dog seems here at the house. Really excited about going out with nose to the ground, and a great mouth.

when i road my dogs, i get them out to the woods where there is a crap load of logging roads. i turn them loose in front of my truck, and i run them up the road as i drive behind them. they run up the road sniffing everything, crap, pee allover when coyotes have been the area, and get exercise all at the same time.
when they get bored of roading, a few miles at the most, they want up on the box. i put em on the box and rig em til they get bored, then road them some more.
i do that all winter here in washinton state. it works great for me.
it sounds like youre on the right track if you got that many bears.

vahunter wrote: The 3 yr old hunted with us last season and runs good but seems to not tree good.

It's Not that big of deal if your dog isn't hammering at the tree. As long as he never leaves and pays enough attention to keep the bear from trying to climb down that's good enough. Ya a harder treeing dog is better, but if the dog is good in all other respects don't sweat it.