All the Bells and Whistles

Over the years, I have had a few dogs killed while hunting mountain lion and have friends who have had more than one dog killed by wolves. Every time I read a post or an article about someone losing a dog it makes me ill. This is why I want to share a trick I learned that I believe is the reason I have not had any dogs killed since I implemented it.

Bells attached to my Tri Tronics!

Since1995, I started to see more wolves moving into the areas I hunt lion and bear. It got to the point where I had to start traveling a few hours to areas I wasn't finding wolf sign. A friend of mine told me about an article he read stating that placing bells on your dog will reduce the risk of depredation by wolves and lions. I thought I would give it a try. I soon found that there are many benefits to this technique.  I could keep track of my dogs when they were close and not have to rely on the tracking system. I also found this useful when waiting for a dog after a hunt. I would use my garmin or telemetry to get within ear shot of the bells and then quickly locate them by the sound.

I was never sure if the bells ever made a difference or I was just lucky so I did some research with DNR and BC Ministry of Environment. To date both agencies have a reporting program for wolf attacks on dogs. To date there has only been one report of hounds with bells being killed by wolves.

                                                  

                                              "To date there have only been one

                                                    report of hounds with bells being killed by wolves"

I have tried many different types of bells but the one I found works the best is the traditional sleigh bell. Here are a few other tips when using bells I have learned over the years:
1. Open bells get plugged with snow or mud and stop working.
2.  Pop rivet the bells directly to an e-collar or tracking collar. I don't attach it to the dogs regular collar so I don't have to listen to the jingling sound from the kennel or dog box!
3. I found two bells per dog is ideal.
4. Find bells that have a distinguishable sound so you can tell your dogs apart from each other and the those of your hunting partner.

I know hunting where there are wolves can be stressful. I also know that you are far more likely to have your dog killed by a lion if you use only one dog. I hope this little trick helps protect your hounds and gives you some peace of mind like it has for me over the last decade!