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janet kosnik

A new friend and fellow houndsman, Ronny Bohrmann from the Cranbrook, British Columbia area, Canada, invited me and my hounds up to his part of the country this past May to join him along with his hounds on a few bear hunts. I brought along four of my Black and Tans. My 2 yr. old, Jujube, got to ride on top of the dogbox with Ronny’s excellent strike dog, Deenah, while my other hounds, Sonny, Ladybug and Angel got to ride in the box. Check out the picture at the end of this article to see Jujube and the others.

It was up early every morning, driving the roads until Deenah struck off the box, then turn out the hounds. We would also look for sign, bear scat, then drive around in that area, hoping for a strike. My hounds are mostly hunted on coon so I was anxious to see how they’d do on this big game. I had introduced my hounds to bear scent by laying a few drags before we went to BC. They seemed to be real excited by the strong scent of bear, tracking well and treeing hard, so I thought they might do good on the real thing!

As usual, before going somewhere where there’s reported to be MUCHO game, I heard all Ronny’s stories of how many bear his hounds were treeing; that this was a good time to come up to find bear. Well, yes, I was excited. I couldn’t wait to get up there and turn my dogs loose on a hot bear track. We drove for most of the morning before Deenah struck on a hot track. We turned all dogs out and watched them take the track. Then it was to listening to what direction they were headed and then, after their voices could no longer be heard, using tracking equipment. Hours later we were able to find a hound here and there and then my spayed Black and Tan, Angel, came back. After loading up the hounds, we turned them out of the box for a drink and to pee. Angel peed rich red blood. We were close enough to town that if she did this the next time, I could get her into a vet’s office. I checked her over and found some small tears on her flanks and hindquarters. Ronny figured that she got swatted by the bear, a mean one. And later in the day after running into some other houndsmen who had turned their dogs out on the same bear, they thought it was a mean bear, too. Their dogs looked like they took a swipe or two from this big brown one. Angel was OK, though. I think when she got swatted by the bear, either from the swat itself or from the fall from the swat, a blood vessel must have broken in her urinary tract. The next time she peed, she was fine. She was sore the next day and since we only turned the hounds out on one track that day, I let her stay in the box and rest. So it was dogs-1 bear, me-0 bear.

Ronny also has a young Black and Tan male, Thunder, that he has high hopes for. He still is just a pup but is running bear with the big dogs. He was turned out on most of the bear chases and kept up with the adult hounds. And he was only 7-8 months old! Thunder is out of Two Time Albert and Ronny thinks the world of him. He’ll turn out to be one fine bear dog…and lion dog, too. He’s not short on looks, either!

The next two days were more of the same. The dogs got on a few tracks, some hot, some not so hot, but those bears would not tree. We heard the hounds baying up a bear or two but when we walked into the dogs, the bear had already taken off and was running. Mean ones and runners, that’s all we came across. Then, on my last day to hunt, we turned the hounds loose on a real hot track with fresh scat in it. The dogs took off, loud and hard and then we heard them treeing a short distance away. We had six hounds out there on that bear. Thought that’d be enough to keep that bear up a tree. Then, just as we were getting ready to hike into the tree, there was silence and an occasional bark. We were in a clearing that’s been cut for a gas line. I turned around and I saw a HUGE blonde bear running, yes, running, across the clearing to the woods on the other side. WOW! He was big and fast! Ronny’s fastest hound, Deenah, was about a half a minute behind that bear. And my fast little female, Jujube was another half minute behind her. The rest of the dogs scattered and eventually ran that bear but the bear had had too much of a head start on those hounds after coming down mad out of the tree. Ronny figured that the big bear had gone up a small tree to get away from the baying hounds but that it was either a small tree that wouldn’t hold him or that he couldn’t get comfortable in it and came down MAD. The hounds were probably nipping at his butt when he couldn’t get up high in the tree. Well, he came down a’swinging! More swats from that bear and tumbles by the dogs. That’s when things went to hell and the dogs were slow to get back after that bear. Needless to say, the dogs never saw that bear again. And neither did I! After gathering up the hounds hours later, another houndsman radioed us of a small bear he just saw. He turned his blue pup and a shepherdX out after it and when we got closer we turned our hounds out, too. This bear got bayed up by the hounds but as I walked in with my pup, Ladybug to show her the bear, that bear took off. What kind of luck was I having? Those dogs ran that bear for HOURS. We finally got the last two dogs back close to midnight. And it couldn’t have been too much after 6PM when the first dogs were turned out after that runner.

Ok, so the dogs saw 3 bear and I saw 1 on the run. So where are all the treeing bears? The dogs I was out with, had been treeing the bear before I got there. So what’s up? After I got home, news from Ronny was that in June, they were treeing plenty of bear, more than 1 a day. Imagine! Could I have gone at the wrong time? Just lucky, I guess. Well, I’m invited back next year for more bearhunting. But this time I’ll try the month of June. I’m expecting to get some pictures of my hounds at the bottom of a tree with a bear in it this time!

Oh, and before I forget, there was that time when we didn’t make it through the big mudhole. Yes, it’s part of the game. We were lucky that we were hunting with some friends and all have two-way radios. Ronny called for help and after a dent in his truck and me with muddy feet, we got out with the help of a tow chain and some strong backs. That’s the other photo shown here. Ronny’s very proud of his stuck truck, isn’t he?

I will go back to Canada to bearhunt next spring/summer. And, this time, I plan on seeing TREED bear!

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