When barks can beat a bear

Yes, that's right. Two dogs, a Labrador and an Akita, defended their owner's boat from being raided by a hungry bear that was many times their combined sizes. Their furious barking was enough to make the bear back off.

More information here:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-...ussia.html

I know for sure that Candy, my Bangkeaw, wouldn't think twice about attacking a bear if the bear threatens me. How about your dog?

We have black bears where we live. Black bears are hunted and are extremely fearful of dogs. They won't even go on a campsite if they can smell the scent of a dog. That is awesome that these two dogs were able to scare a bear by barking at it. I have no doubt that the bear would have one if he would have went after them.

(08-02-2012, 01:50 PM)dashboardc33 Wrote: We have black bears where we live. Black bears are hunted and are extremely fearful of dogs. They won't even go on a campsite if they can smell the scent of a dog. That is awesome that these two dogs were able to scare a bear by barking at it. I have no doubt that the bear would have one if he would have went after them.

No idea about that actually.

However from what I have observed about dogs, they normally would stay out of the striking range of whatever they are barking at. Plus with two dogs going at it together, the bear would be torn between deciding which one to attack.

The other thing which I have noticed about dogs is that they seem to know how to use a circling kind of manoever to handle situations like this.

I recall reading about a breed that is meant to scare bears away so that they don't visit camp sites in the mountain side. They looked like German Shepherds but are different.

I'm not sure how my dogs would've reacted but I believe the tiny Shih Tzu (Buchi) would've growled his way to intimidate the bear. The little breeds have no perception of their sizes.

This certainly reminds me of the cat who scared the crocodile. For those who have not seen it, you can check it out in Youtube.

Every bear has different personality. That particular bear in the photo could be a "coward" among the bears. It was just too scared to realize it had enough strength to torn both dogs apart easily.

On the other hand, sometimes the dogs need to realize the potential danger they are in. I wouldn't recommend to let dogs of any size or breed to get this close to a bear. One bear slap could destroy a dog completely, whatever its breed or size.

I have seen dogs when they face an intruder. The most common strategy is to bark and keep a safe distance away. If there are a few dogs, then they would form a circle around the intruder, barking non-stop, of course. Incidentally, from what I have read, even tigers have been known to be deterred by barking dogs. Apparently wild animals do not like a lot of noise, which is what dogs are very good at making.

I think my dog would go on the attack. I don't think that would be a good thing, though. She's only 10 lbs. Luckily, we should have this problem since there are no bears in this part of California.

People and bear encounters are far too common in the state forests especially up around the Sierra Nevadas. I've seen them come right down into campsites at Yosemite. People just don't realize that wild bears are just that...wild. They encourage the behavior by disregarding signs about hiding your food or feeding wildlife. It's not good for the people or the bears.

While googling for bear hunting dog, I came across this picture:


I can't be sure if that is a dog or a bear in the picture. I can't find more information about that picture either. However I did find a dog breed that's good for bear hunting. It's called the Karelian Bear Dog.


More information here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karelian_Bear_Dog

Victor, that is a strange looking dog. It may be the picture, but the body seems compact while the legs are long. Even the head seems slightly out of proportion. Maybe it was bred for these special physical features for bear hunting?

Yes, you are right. At first I thought it's just the angle from which the photograph was taken. So I looked up a few more pictures of the Karelian Bear Dog. The legs are somewhat longer than usual as you can see from this picture of another Karelian Bear Dog.

Here's a picture of some Karelians after a bear hunt.