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How many dogs do you guys think is a good number to run? for bear? cat?
we have two dogs, is that enough?

If two can't get it done then on either cat or bear you need new hounds.

In my early years, I have my oldest dog go catch a number of really nice tom lions before i got pups going enough to stay with her. So one will do it for sure on lions but two or three is a better number. I have also treed several bears with one dog, but likewise two or three is a better number. These days I have six hounds that I'm working or hunting and they all load up when I go, so six is the number I use these days although one or two will certainly get it done!

ike

do you have 2 good reliable bear dogs -- thats enuff, ,but if one gets hurt other dog has no help-

most dogs would be ruined if hunted on bear alone all the time- i wouldnt purposely run one dog on a bear altho have treed a bear with one ,many times -

best pack i ever had was two dogs-- one of those dogs was very good alone -always used him to start and many times he would get treed alone -the other was maybe the best pack dog i ever had-- never treed many bear alone until she was old -- lived to be 12 , i never left her home -when she was healthy -


second best pack i ever had was 3--- i used to mix them up and hunt two together with about same results-- none of those 3 were superstars - -they were mostly just pack dogs -rarely treed a bear alone --one of them never did

-- but i treed a lot of bear with any two of them




what im getting at is 2 dogs doesnt tell me anything-
if two dogs is enuff- they will have to be better than average -


and if 20 is enuff ,at least one of those has to be better than average









-

thanks guys!
we train our dogs pretty much individually hoping we can make them both as good as possible instead of having just one dog good and the others a follower then we run them together. Hopefully our stradegy is going to pay off... so far so good! both dogs are going way beyond our expectations. I want to have three dogs just for the possiblility of one getting hurt then they'll have a back up. my mom and her boyfriend have had bears turn on their dogs and got them pretty good and I think they ran four. all dogs were okay after a very large vet bill but I was impressed with them. but thanks again.. I think we're heading on the right track!

I like 3 to 4 on bear.

Best pack I ever had was in 1999, 3 dogs. That was all I owned and I hunted and guided by myself then.Looking back now I can see that I was pretty lucky that year.One of the 3 ,Spot, treed several bears alone. I figured the other 2 were just along for the ride.That was until Spot ran a moose off a bear bait (???) and the other 2 went out and treed a bear that the hunter killed.With 2 weeks to go in that kill season Spot got his leg broken by a bear.All I had was the second and third dogs.Killed 3 bears for 3 hunters with just them 2. Guess sometimes you dont know how good the second team might be until they get a chance.

Kind of like Tom Brady of the NE Patriots stepping in when Drew Bledsole got hurt.Here was Brady,arguably one of the best quarterbacks of all time,sitting on the bench until Bledsole got hurt.If not for Bledsoe going down,Brady might never have started a game.Nothing to do with this post I guess but it sounded good !!!!

I would like to hunt 24 dogs no less on lion, but then again I would hate to have to leash them all and drag them from the tree. LOL! Just kidding I think what ever works for you but one dog is a bad idea on dangerous game. I talked to a gov. hunter friend of mine today that had a wonderful female killed by a spoiled lion in a sib division setting. The lion was killing dogs on their chains in yard, but when it killed a goat he was called. Nobody told him about the dog killing. Well he cut this one female loose not to cause a fuss at the schene of the crime with the goat. She trailed off semi silent up a dry wash normally she was pretty open with other dogs. He waited nothing went up the wash and found her laying there dead the cougar ambushed her.
So two better three better yet on most. I hunt 6 most of the time but I can handle more hounds on horseback. Pete nailed it though and Ike was right there with him three is a good number and not too much for any real dog handler to deal with.

Samll game like coon or western bobcat one dog usually does all the work anyway so that is all you really need but what fun is one dog? LOL!

Listen and your heart almost stops you strain your ears and then you hear old Red's long locate OOOOOOWWWWWoooo! and then five otherS hit the wood and the canyon roars with sound. Hey man that's what this old crazy guy is talking about. Vitamens for sure. Hound MUSIC!!!!

B&C you have to hunt what works for you. some guys can hunt 4 or 6 dogs, some can't. we all know you can put game in the tree with one dog but why when two or three roaring down in the canyon sound so much better. and so much safer for your dogs. how ever many you go with know what you are feeding, at all time's

How many will SHE let you keep? That's the main question. LOL!!

Hunter wrote:How many will SHE let you keep? That's the main question. LOL!!

Haha she's the one that wants more!!