People might think bringing their dogs to grizzly country makes them safer because their loyal, dutiful companions will put themselves between danger and their owners.
The reality is, having your dog along for protection frequently makes things worse. Dogs can harass and enrage bears, then run away while their owners get mauled.
That’s according to a study led by bear biologist Tom Smith of Brigham Young University in Utah.
Smith and a team of researchers analyzed 326 bear-human conflicts involving dogs across North America. The incidents happened from 1901 to 2023, and involved black bears, brown bears (including grizzlies) and polar bears.
Smith studied bears for decades, spending time in the field with all three species, and told Cowboy State Daily that his best advice is to leave Fido home when venturing into bear country.
He emphasized that the study focused on pet dogs that were essentially house pets, not specialized canines such as Karelian Bear Dogs, which are bred and rigorously trained to ward off bears.
With pet dogs, encounters with bears are likely to end badly — regardless of whether the dog finds the bear first, or the other way around, Smith said.
“If the bear finds (the dog) and picks it up, it’s gone,” he said. "If it finds the bear, it’s going to antagonize the bear and then bring it back to you."
‘Are You Kidding Me?’
The study titled “The Canine Conundrum” offers some grim statistics about bad encounters involving bears, dogs and the dogs’ owners.
“We found that the dog triggered the conflict in 54% of incidents. Approximately 2% of dog owners died in these confrontations, whereas 10 times more dogs died than people,” according to the study’s abstract.
In roughly 80% of the instances, dogs didn’t respond to bears attacking their humans.
In many cases, dogs fled, or sometimes even “sat and watched,” Smith said.
“Dogs responded to bears attacking their owners 20.9% of the time (68 of 326 cases) and were successful 79.4% in stopping the bear’s attack (54 of 68 cases),” according to the study’s abstract. "However, in those instances the bear redirected its attack on the human, and 85% of those people sustained injuries to themselves ranging from slight to severe.”
And in only 4.6% of the instances, people were able to save their dogs from bears, the abstract states.
Dogs have gone from being regarded as property to being thought of as “family,” Smith said.
And sometimes, human behavior reflected that, with people taking extreme risks to try saving their dogs from being ripped apart by bears.
“They’d go in there with their bare fists. Are you kidding me?” he said.
‘Wolf On A Rope’
When considering whether to take their dogs into bear country, Smith said people need to realize the ancient rivalry between bears and wolves, from which dogs are descended.
“This is a grudge match from time immemorial,” Smith said.
Whenever they get the chance, wolves and bears will each kill each other’s young, and steal food from each other, he said.
From a bear’s perspective, a dog on a leash in the wild is basically “a wolf on a rope,” he said.
Even so, off-leash dogs are far more likely to cause problems with bears — and wildlife in general — than dogs kept on leashes, he said.
But there’s a double edge to that.
When bears went after dogs on leashes, and their owners were unprepared and have nothing to defend themselves with, things tended to end badly for both the dogs and the people.
“When dogs are on a leash, they’re tied to the bear attack victim,” Smith said.
However, if an owner is prepared with a defense mechanism such as bear spray or a firearm, it can actually be better if the dog is on a leash.
“A little bit of preparation goes a long way,” he said.
Even so, the best option might be to just leave pet dogs at home when venturing into bear country, Smith said.
He said he has dogs and loves taking them into wild places, but he keeps them under control with electronic collars. And he never takes them into bear territory.
“There are plenty of places to take your dogs outdoors that aren’t in bear country,” he said.
People might think their dogs would rush in to save them from a mauling if a grizzly attacks. But you shouldn’t bet your life on it. Research shows Fido is more likely to get the bear mad, then run, leaving their owners to become brunch. (Alkeksey Surovov via Alamy) 
People might think their dogs would rush in to save them from a mauling if a grizzly attacks. But you shouldn’t bet your life on it. Research shows Fido is more likely to get the bear mad, then run, leaving their owners to become brunch. (Alkeksey Surovov via Alamy)
‘Luck Of The Draw’
Outdoorsman Rob Ward of Cody said he doesn’t now own dogs, but he has previously taken many bird hunting trips with dogs in grizzly country.
He said he never had a problem between his dogs and bears, but he always made sure his dogs were well-trained and disciplined.
He also acknowledged that there was an element of “the luck of the draw” in going out on so many bird hunts with dogs but never getting crosswise with a grizzly.
He agreed that poorly trained dogs allowed to run off-leash in bear country are a recipe for disaster.
“One of two things is going to happen,” Ward said. A loose dog "is going to bring the bear back to you, or they’re going to become lunch for the bear."
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.
