Curious about the Karelian Bear Dog - Page 2

Karelian bear dogs are outstanding dogs! That is, if you are willing to invest the time in them. I own a 2 year old KBD and he is just wonderful. If you are interested in buying a bear dog the essentials you need to understand about them is that they are a) very smart dogs b) easy to train as long as you are consistent and remain the pack leader. They are a dominant dog and you need to show that you are in charge. 3) they have an insane prey drive. These dogs are more of a primitive type and are very attuned to their instincts. I suggest that they should never be one hundred percent trusted off leash, and don't entertain their obsession with small vermin such as squirrels. It will become an obsessive habit. They become very attached to their family, and are always excited to see friends, but will give strangers the cold shoulder. Socialize them well when they are young with both dogs and children. These dogs are not for someone just looking for a cute puppy, they need your time and care to assure a great family dog. If you do invest both your time and money in this breed, I garuntee you will not be let down. Also... They are generally a very healthy breed of dog which is very nice on the wallet!

I saw a special about this breed recently. A lady in Alaska breeds them because of their fearless and protective behavior. Looked like nice dogs...definitely not for inexperienced handlers. They would chase bears and Moose without hesitation. Very dominant!

Hmmmmm....schutzhund dogs?:)

Hi...

These particular ones of our finnish dog breeds are used in bearhunting and they really are not used for other things than hunting here as far as I know. They usually are not considered as breed as something that could be had as "only" pets. People who obtain them, do so for the purpose of using them in hunting, perhaps take them to hunting competitions, even shows and maybe use in breeding.
They have a very strong character, are not among most social. 
I am not really so very acquainted with them but was once curious, as my eldest male's breeder had these dogs before he had lapponian herders. Here's a link to breedclub's site where one can at least find pictures.
I tried if the english version could be used but could not succeed at least yet. There are two - or 2,5 ;) of our finnish hunting breeds, karelian bear dog aka karjalankarhukoira, Finnish Spitz = Suomen pystykorva which is red and then Pohjanpystykorva (white and red) which I am a little unclear of, how it should be categorized. It cannot wholly be considered swedish but they share the breed with us, al least that's how I've understood. These breeds are hunting dogs. We have also one other, but I really don't remember right now what it's called in english. It's not of the spitztype, though.

http://www.spj.fi/rodut/karjalankarhukoira/rotukuvaus/ulkonako/

Of course then there are our finnish lapponian dogs, Lapponian herders and Finnish Lapphunds, as well as Swedish Lapphunds. For the curious, there's also a link to our breedclub:
http://www.lappalaiskoirat.fi/english/?id=home

Hope you can at least find nice pictures. Finnish is  not so very easy to learn

If I can answer or find some from whom one can ask, I'll help.

Our northern spiztype breeds tend all to be quite intelligent and independent - and fiercely loyal to their owners in the same time very, very often. It's quite normal for them to one kind of his/her own family's dog and often particularly is immediately taken with some one particular person in the family. Some are very social, some not so. Lapponian breeds come from herding dog heritage, but lapponian herders especially strongly  a breed used as herding even today. Many of these northern breeds have open registry even today. New dogs from natural population can and are accepted into the registered breed(s) to widen the genetic material. My own male's background is full of such family.

As I've understood, new blood from Russia has been accepted also to Karealian beardogs and Finnish Spitzes.