Bear Dogs?

[Dino1]

An old timer in Texas was telling me tha the best bear dogs are 3/4 plott and 1/4 bulldog. For the life of me, I can't imagine a dog, no matter how ferocious, jumping a bear (like a hog) and surviving. What am I missing?

[halfbreed]

    bears climb trees . some bears need to be persuaded to climb .

[buddylee]

And then some bears would rather fight it out...

[hoghunter71409]

Well I don't know who said that, but I would not agree.  Most of the bear hunters I know are up in the MI, WI, VA, and NC states.  They all use plotts and other gritty hounds.  Some bears need little pressure to tree and some need a lot (thus the need for a gritty dog); some bears will just stand and fight (bay).  Gritty pack of hounds will catch a bear like a hog and the hunter better be on top of the bay to kill the bear or he will end up with a caught bear and most likely some cut/killed dogs.  Bear hunters like gritty dogs and most of them have certain line bred dogs that get the job done without adding any bulldog.  Bear hunters also like open mouth dogs.

[sethmcalex]

why would you want to add a 1/4 bulldog into a good plott?

[Peachcreek]

To add grit and the desire to catch would be my guess. An ole man i hog hunt with swears that combo is the best dog for catchin hogs but you have got to be handy with a staple gun. He said they used to use plott/pit or black and tan/pit.. Back in the 70's

[hoghunter71409]

Peachtree, you bring up an interesting point from someone else...

My position is (and most bear hunters I know would think):  If a plott or other hound is not gritty enough to catch bear, hog, or other game, than it is a cull and bulldog should not be added to increase gritt alone.  Maybe in some cases a hunter does not have other hound blood and the only option they have is crossing to a bulldog (I would not fault for that).  I can understand adding bulldog if a hunter wants to shorten the range, increase the chances of silence, and adding grit at once, and creating a RCD style of dog.  I don't know a single bear hunter that wants RCD style hound or dog.

[Cajun]

Well I don't know who said that, but I would not agree.  Most of the bear hunters I know are up in the MI, WI, VA, and NC states.  They all use plotts and other gritty hounds.  Some bears need little pressure to tree and some need a lot (thus the need for a gritty dog); some bears will just stand and fight (bay).  Gritty pack of hounds will catch a bear like a hog and the hunter better be on top of the bay to kill the bear or he will end up with a caught bear and most likely some cut/killed dogs.  Bear hunters like gritty dogs and most of them have certain line bred dogs that get the job done without adding any bulldog.  Bear hunters also like open mouth dogs.

I would have to agree. Most bearhunters who use plotts, do not need to add bulldog to get more grit. I can see it in the other breeds, Walker, bluetic, english or Redbone, B & T. Dont get me wrong, there are gritty hounds in all breeds, but overall, there are more gtitty plotts within their breed.
  Some bears will tree at the first bark when they hear a hound, some will run. some will fight. Some of the ones that fight, with a little persuasion will go up a tree. On the other hand, there are bears that no amount of dogs will make tree. They will fight or bay & no amount of pressure will put them up. I have seen as many as 15 dogs on a bear & he would not tree & believe me the pressure was on him. He was putting a lot of pressure on the dogs as well.
  Another thing about adding bulldog. While you need a gritty dog for bearhunting You better make darn sure you do not have a mean dog at the tree because it does not matter who starts it, whatever dog goes down, normally the whole pack will jump on him. The level of excitement that dogs go thru at the tree is very intense.On a hog, the hog is on the ground where the dogs can focus their attention on it, where a bear in a tree (which they might not even be able to see) a mean dog might start some crap.

This bear did not tree.


This bear treed with 6 dogs

[Cajun]

This is the bear that treed with 6 dogs

[hillbilly]

Well I don't know who said that, but I would not agree.  Most of the bear hunters I know are up in the MI, WI, VA, and NC states.  They all use plotts and other gritty hounds.  Some bears need little pressure to tree and some need a lot (thus the need for a gritty dog); some bears will just stand and fight (bay).  Gritty pack of hounds will catch a bear like a hog and the hunter better be on top of the bay to kill the bear or he will end up with a caught bear and most likely some cut/killed dogs.  Bear hunters like gritty dogs and most of them have certain line bred dogs that get the job done without adding any bulldog.  Bear hunters also like open mouth dogs.

I would have to agree. Most bearhunters who use plotts, do not need to add bulldog to get more grit. I can see it in the other breeds, Walker, bluetic, english or Redbone, B & T. Dont get me wrong, there are gritty hounds in all breeds, but overall, there are more gtitty plotts within their breed.
  Some bears will tree at the first bark when they hear a hound, some will run. some will fight. Some of the ones that fight, with a little persuasion will go up a tree. On the other hand, there are bears that no amount of dogs will make tree. They will fight or bay & no amount of pressure will put them up. I have seen as many as 15 dogs on a bear & he would not tree & believe me the pressure was on him. He was putting a lot of pressure on the dogs as well.
  Another thing about adding bulldog. While you need a gritty dog for bearhunting You better make darn sure you do not have a mean dog at the tree because it does not matter who starts it, whatever dog goes down, normally the whole pack will jump on him. The level of excitement that dogs go thru at the tree is very intense.On a hog, the hog is on the ground where the dogs can focus their attention on it, where a bear in a tree (which they might not even be able to see) a mean dog might start some crap.

This bear did not tree.


This bear treed with 6 dogs

Good pic is that some of your plotts?

[Jmesonp1]

Those pics make me miss bear hunting.

[Cajun]

Hillbilly, In the second pic. the 4 plotts on the bottom & the real light red brindle  plott are mine.

[justincorbell]

man I bet they were singing him quite the tune! I can only imagine the adrenaline rush when you walked up and saw that!

[dodgegirl]

Man that would be awesome to hear them hound singin. But I just couldn't shoot a bear.

[Jmesonp1]

You don't have to shoot. Just grab your dogs and go home. Run the same bear all week.

[NChoghunter]

we use plotts an treein walkers both have just enuff gritt to get the job done as most will catch 100lb an below bear but real gritty dogs dont live long vs these big NC coastal bear

[firemedic]

It seems that folks will add bulldog to anything....with the 'idea' that it'll make them better. That might work for hog hunting but not bear hunting. Bear hunting in the SE where I live is a bit different that other places,....a bear that climbs a tree down here is more than likely a dead bear, so they learn to run and run they do. It's the same thing as has been done with the hogs,....the catch and release folks have trained the hogs to run in my opinion. It takes some really hard core bear dogs to make a bear tree around here,....they have to pull some hair and basically make life on the ground too miserable for them not to tree. However,.....never seen a bear 'caught' on the ground as we see hogs get caught. Folks that have never fooled with a bear don't understand how fast a bear is when it's serious about fighting a bunch of dogs. They make a hog look like it's moving in slow motion seems to me.....it's plum unreal how fast and quick a mad or scared bear really is.....and any dogs that would catch a bear like a hog would be dead in short order. I saw a video that Tom (tnhillbilly) made a year or so ago that was the dangdest thing I've ever seen.....he was videoing his and another guys dogs treeing a bear,.....well the bear decides to come down and leave the scene, it backs down the tree and jumps right off into the middle of the dogs, they had several there at the tree, and the dogs actually caught the bear, not for long but they did catch it. It got ahold of one of Tom's dog's collar and made the dog squall thinking the bear had it by the neck......video went off right there.....lol But those dogs were as lucky as they get not to get killed on that deal.

[BIG BEN]

If u need to add bulldog to a bear hound they might as well cull the "bear hounds" they are working with. The roughest hounds Ive hunted were straight walker dogs that were linebred by my dad and grandad in California. Then we had suicidal airedales to send for the bears that like to bay instead of tree, we went though alot of airedales

[Cajun]

What fire medic says is the truth. Those 120# -180# bears can flat run a dog down & catch him. The bigger bear normally do not do as much damage altho when they do catch a dog, that dog knows about it.
  A lot of the real hard fighting dogs on bear are catchdogs on hogs. They just do not respect a hog like they do a bear. I have seen some dogs so bearwhipped that the minute they smell a bear, they tuck their tail between their legs & look for a place to hide.
  The toughest bearhunting I have done is in fla. where it is wet & thick.Back when fla. had a seaason. The coast of N.C. is almost identical. The easiest bearhunting I have done is NW Wisc. & Onterio. No matter where tho, like a hog, a bear will take you to the thickest place they can find.

[jassenswisher1974]

Cajun,
Just got back from WV yesterday. Got on a lease and went to clear some trails. Saw some good bear tracks. Mysteriously some hogs got loose out there. I can start running my Plotts out there sept 7. Let the games begin!