I've got a great 5yr old bluetick female that is a great coondog and has backed another dog on a bear. And 4more young blues that will be ready to start hunting this year. I love coon hunting but have the fever bad to turn my pack into strait bear dogs. Is this possible? These young dogs i'm not worried about. They haven't been on coon long enough to matter. I'm worried about my old female. Is it possible to get her hooked on bear? I got a buddy that has a great pack of bear dogs and was gona take a few of mine at a time and let them run with his. Is this the best idea of switchin them over?

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If she was a bang up coon dog that you can get a pretty penny for I would sell her and put my money into a well started or trained bear dog. If you don't want to sell her then yes you can TRY to turn her onto bear. Some dogs are just scared to death of a bear and won't run them. I would do just as you said and run her with my buddies dogs. If you go late in the evening or early in the morning you may have her tree a few coons but, it's not a 10 mile race and you can get her back on track pretty quick. I lead my dogs early in the morning if I haven't had them on a bear or two in the past week or so. Once they figure out what pleases you they generally stick to that game.