Karelian Bear Dogs: Managing and Saving Bears

Nils Pedersen looked up when he heard his friend’s dog bark and saw the grizzly bear only 400 yards away.  Bob, a border collie/husky mix, ran toward the bear and then raced back to Pedersen and his two hiking companions. The humans stood their ground, huddled together so as to appear larger to the bear, and yelled at it. Undeterred, the bear charged them. There wasn’t a choice: kill or be killed. Pedersen’s emotions ran from very scared and then to very sad after the bear was slain.

Pedersen, in his early twenties, knew the encounter had been avoidable. Bob should have been leashed on the hike about twenty miles north of Fairbanks, Alaska. And the humans should have carried a canister of bear spray. But they hadn’t.

Twelve years later, Pedersen still remembers the incident. Since 2011, he’s worked with Wind River Bear Institute (WRBI), located in Florence, MT and Fairbanks, and its Karelian Bear Dogs (KBD). He’s now the institute’s director and breeds, trains, and works with these black and white spitz-looking dogs that help re-educate and spare the lives of many bears.

After his dogs pick up a bear’s scent and indicate by barking, Pedersen and his canines track it, staying on its trail until it moves out of human developed areas back into the wild. The dogs, nearly always leashed, bark and their human handler shouts and sometimes shoots rubber bullets into a bear’s rear end to further convince it to move away from the team’s noise and presence. By doing so, the dog/handler teams teach the bears to distance themselves from humans and human-occupied areas.  Pedersen says that this “shepherding” technique also works with moose, big horn sheep, and even cougars.  And best of all, it’s non-lethal.

Founded in 1996 by bear biologist Carrie Hunt, WRBI’s mission is “to reduce human-caused bear mortality and human-wildlife conflict worldwide.” Pedersen says since its founding, WRBI dogs have conducted more than 800 actions every year with large and potentially dangerous wildlife without injury to humans, dogs, or large animals.

WRBI has a much different purpose than some state agencies. For instance, published reports show that in Colorado, 216 black bears were euthanized and another 106 were relocated in 2017 because they were deemed to be a threat to the public undoubtedly caused by poor human behavior, such as leaving food readily available in vehicles and trash bins. Pedersen would love to work with wildlife officials in Colorado to help bring those numbers down but so far hasn’t had the opportunity to do so.

The forty to sixty-pound KBD that stands between nineteen and twenty-three-plus inches at the withers originated in Finland where they were used to hunt large game. The American Kennel Club (AKC) hasn’t recognized them yet as a registered breed but maintains lineage records so that can happen in the future.  In 2018, KBDs were the eighth most popular breed in Finland, according to the Finnish Kennel Club.

Pedersen, who earned his masters of science degree in wildlife biology and conservation, says that these bear dogs teach large wildlife that they can and should leave human-occupied space. They’ve successfully “shepherded” many bears and moose in state and national parks including Glacier and Yellowstone National Parks as well as parks in Alberta, Canada, and in Japan.

It is important, Pedersen says, that bears are set up to be successful. “All bears are averse to conflict. Grizzly bears tend to be the most confrontational. Bears know when they are outnumbered and will not want to stay and fight if the odds are not in their favor.”

Pedersen believes that members of the public have an important role in educating the bears and must understand the importance of:

• Eliminating bear access to food and garbage;
• Using bear proof food containers and keeping campsites clean;
• Maintaining a distance of at least one hundred yards― the length of football field―from a bear or moose.
• Thinking about why you’ve encountered a bear― perhaps by walking on the path it was following;
• Thinking about the bear’s path by considering from where it came and where it probably is going, to avoid standing in its way;
• Huddling together when encountering a bear and slowly moving backwards out of the bear’s natural path;
• Keeping dogs on leash so they don’t harass bear or other wildlife;
• Making noise if the bear comes toward you; and
• Spraying the bear in the face with bear spray as a last resort.

In parks, bears and other wildlife become accustomed to seeing humans but shouldn’t be taught that they will be rewarded when they approach humans, Pedersen says.

That’s exactly what happened in Denali National Park in Alaska this year. In late August, five day-hikers, with packs loaded with food including tasty turkey sandwiches, encountered a mother grizzly and two, two-year-old cubs all within sight of the Eielson Visitor Center which is located about sixty-six miles from the park entrance.

According to Pedersen, a tourist, standing near the visitor center, yelled at the hikers to drop their packs. They did just that― actions that taught the cubs to approach more humans because they discovered food in the packs. The mother bear never approached the packs, Pedersen says.

The following day, the same bear trio encountered other hikers who were accompanied by a guide. The humans yelled and the guide used an air horn to scare the bears away.

The park then called Pedersen. Could he and his KBD recondition the bears?

Over the next few days, Pedersen and his dogs worked with park biologists to help teach the bears that humans should not to be approached. His canines barked from his truck when they located the area where the bears were foraging. He leashed his two bear dogs and set out toward the bears. Using his voice and the dogs’ barks as deterrents, the team “pushed” the bears away from human-occupied areas and up onto a shelf on the tundra. For the next couple of days, they monitored the bears from trucks, with windows open and  dogs in a rear seat, along the park road so the canines could bark when they detected bear scent.

Why are Karelian bear dogs so effective? Pedersen says that bears are averse to conflict and don’t like being found, pursued, or touched. The dogs are nearly always leashed when they track and bark as they pick up the scent of the unwanted animal.

The dogs can track off leash and “are very special as they aren’t harmed if they approach a bear “because they are way too fast and smart,” Pedersen says. The dogs will position themselves on opposite sides of a bear and nip at its heels, turning the bear round and round in a circle. The KBD work alone or in pairs to “hold” a bear for their hunter.  However, WRBI works its dogs primarily on-lead because its handers don’t want to hold the bear. “We use the dogs’ innate aggression toward the bear to teach it that it can leave and it has to leave,” Pedersen says.

On occasion, he will shoot rubber bullets, bean bags, or paintballs into an animal’s rear to reinforce its decision to leave a human-occupied area but emphasizes that such non-lethal ammunitions should only be used appropriately by highly trained individuals to prevent harm to the animal. Such was his tactic earlier this year when Denali National Park called him about an aggressive moose.

Moose, he says, are Alaska’s most dangerous animal. He believes that people don’t understand that these 1,000-plus pound creatures can inflict severe harm to humans and dogs with their hooves.

Pedersen explains that humans don’t fear moose as much as they do bears, and don’t pick up on a moose’s warning signs of aggression― when it lays its ears flat and raises hackles, similar to an aggressive dog’s behavior.

Denali National Park asked for help because a moose had run through the park’s sled dog kennel area and was foraging around park headquarters near the park’s entrance. The park wanted the moose moved from that area to avoid possible harm to visitors, staff, and the dogs.

Pedersen drove to the park with two of his dogs that started barking from within his truck once they smelled the nearby moose. When they spotted the moose, park biologists shot paintballs into its rear and yelled at it. Then the dogs took over. Pedersen followed behind his dogs, both on six-foot leashes, for about fifty yards, and stopped to allow the moose to retreat further. Then the team resumed tracking again for another fifty yards until the moose retreated into underbrush that was far enough away from the kennel and human-used areas.  Shepherding mission accomplished― the team had guided the moose away from areas used by humans and also conditioned it to stay away from these areas.

A week later, the same moose was spotted about a mile from park headquarters in brush along the side of the park road but in an acceptable place and distance from human-occupied areas.

According to Pedersen, not all KBD have suitable characteristics to track and shepherd bears and large wildlife. He calls those that are― bear conflict dogs― but only about 20% of a litter from good working lines bred to hunt bear have that potential.  WRBI looks for bold and unflappable pups when it tests eight to ten-week-old litters.

A greater percentage of WRBI’s KBD are suitable for bear protection work, such as alerting a rancher or fishing guides to the presence of bears. But he says these “bear protection dogs” don’t possess the requisite characteristics to pursue and bay at grizzly bears.  He estimates that another 20 to 40% of a litter are pet or companion dogs, not suitable for bear conflict or protection work.

“All WRBI KBD pups are trained at an early age and evaluated based on their abilities to track the scent of mammals with hooves, bear, and cougar; navigate water and culverts; look up trees; and confront all that is new and scary to them,” Pedersen explains.

He notes that WRBI trains all of its working dogs (bear conflict and bear protection) to obey basic field and obedience commands, sufficient to earn an AKC Canine Good Citizen degree. This dual training is necessary, he says, so that these working dogs can be ambassadors for WRBI in schools and community programs to educate members of the public about bear awareness and safety. WRBI certifies its successfully trained bear conflict canines as “Wildlife K-9” usually when the dogs reach two to four years of age.

Pedersen not only trains KBD as Wildlife K-9s but also teaches handlers to correctly work with these specially trained canines. WRBI also offers numerous consulting services relating to reduction of bear-human conflicts to government agencies and private businesses.

He hopes to continue educating the public about ways to reduce human-caused bear mortality and human-wildlife conflict.

To learn more about WRBI and its Karelian bear dogs, see: http://beardogs.org/ 

COVER PHOTO: Grace, owned and handled by Claire Edwards, scrambles onto boulders as she works in the Peter Lougheed Provincial Park, Alberta. She’s the great-grandmother matriarch of the WRBI program and has worked with grizzly, black, and polar bears. (Claire Edwards photo)