About the Bear Dog
by Olaf the Yorkie (and the boss)
Olaf here, I’m April’s #1 Protector. I’m a Yorkie (Yorkshire Terrier). I call April “mummy” cuz I have British origins. I think it makes her feel like she’s in charge, but I am. Anyway, I was intrigued when I heard about getting the new pup. A fascinating friend of mummy’s works to reduce human/wildlife conflict. Basically, she escorts bears, in particular Grizzly Bears away from humans. It’s a bit tricky, because well, they are bears. They are big. And, the bears think that humans are on their turf. And, the bears also think the humans are leaving all sorts of snacks out for them.
My mummy’s friends is called Carrie. She lives in Montana where there are a lot of bears. As a side note: Carrie invented Bear Spray. Yep, we know someone famous.
Carrie has lots of other humans helping her with many dogs. The dogs are specially trained. They are called Karelian Bear Dogs (KBD). Only 20% of KBD’s pass the tough training to work with Grizzly Bears. They have to be fearless and smart. Usually they tract the bear, and herd/shepherd the bear to a helicopter or a trailer. After the bear is safely contained for transport—everyone flies (or drives) away and relocates the bear where there are less humans. The goal is to Reduce wildlife/human conflict. It’s all terribly exciting. So, I got pretty stoked when I heard that one puppy, didn’t pass bear school.
I had high hopes the pup, whom we named him Henry, would fit nicely into our pack and help with the squirrels in our back yard.
This is what I expected:
And, this is the reality of our gentle, Henry:
I have some work to do. I’ve adjusted my expectations and I’m up for the challenge.
If you missed the introductory post explaining “Puppy Love,” click here. This is intended as a lighthearted break. If you aren’t interested, you can still stay on April’s main substack, but unsubcribe to the separate “Puppy Love” list. Instructions are here.