By Travis Reggear

Over the years I have been asked the "What" question at least a thousand times. What breed of dog is the best? What style hound is best? What gender do you prefer? I always answer the question the same way, I like a good dog no matter what fla­vor or gender or size it may be. I am partial to a cer­tain strain of dog, but overall, I tell everyone that I like and appreciate a good dog. Then I get asked the question; just, what exactly makes a good dog? After many hours of contemplating this question, I believe I finally came up with an answer.

Drum roll please, "The Gun Shot" is what makes a good dog. Whatever it takes to make the gun go off, that is what a good dog does. A good dog does whatever it takes to make the gun go off or have the chance to go off. If a dog has to trail a scent across hot, burning sand or cold, frozen ice to catch its quarry, that makes it a good dog. If it has to stay treed for a day or two for the hunter to arrive, it makes them a good dog. If the dog has to stay bayed for hours until the hunter can get to it, that makes it a good dog. So, a good dog does whatever it has to do to give the hunter the opportunity to shoot whatever the dog has caught.

This fall, we had a very interesting and exciting day of bear hunting that I believe really illustrates what I am referring to when I am talking about dogs doing whatever they have to. My daughter and I had scouted an old camping area down by the lake that we live by. The area that we scouted has many dif­ferent fruit trees that provide a smorgasbord of food for a bear. After hiking throughout the area, we had found that there was certainly enough bear sign for us to start the next day's hunt in that location. After meeting up with a good friend, Chris, and his son, Tyler, the next morning, we collared all the dogs and got the hunt underway.

Tyler and I each took a few dogs and hiked off into the camping area. The remainder stayed in the truck for backup. After a 15-minute walk into our spot, our dogs struck on a scent and went to work trailing up a bear. Not long after the dogs got the track lined out, the bear was jumped and running. The bear made a few loops on the hillside and then started to line out in a direction that I had never had a bear run before. The bear was going to have to cross the main road or end up in the lake. He was running out of real estate.

Tyler and I decided that since we could no longer hear the dogs, that we would start our hike back out to our vehicles. We still had our dogs on GPS and could track them, even though we could not hear them. About halfway out the GPS showed the dogs were in the water. I told Tyler that this time of year the water was way down in the lake and sometimes when the dogs get near the water, even though it shows them in the water, they are not ac­tually in it. About the time I got those words of wis­dom out of my big mouth my son called on the radio and said, "Dad you better get up here, things are getting wild!" I instantly knew that the GPS that we had been looking at was not lying. I asked him if the dogs were in the water and he said, "Yes, they're all in the water, dogs and bear." We doubled-timed it out to my vehicle and in no time got to where we could see the dogs.

At this place, the lake is over 800 yards wide.  Chris and my son Walker were standing there with the hunter, watching the dogs and bear swim and fight out in the lake. At times the aquatic dog and bear show was quite spooky. The dogs would manage to get up alongside the bear and try to pull it down. When they did, the bear would demand respect and try to do the same back to the dogs. At times the bear and the dogs would all disappear under the water. Our hearts would about stop knowing that there was nothing we could do. All morning long there had been boats going up and down the lake, but where was one when we needed it?

The aquatic dog and bear fight reached about the center point of the lake and the bear turned and start­ed down the middle of the lake. It looked as if he were going to swim down the middle of the lake into anoth­er zip code when he finally turned and started to the far shore. Knowing that there was a trail in above where the bear was headed, we decided to have Tyler take a few fresh dogs and try to intercept the swim­mers when they reached shore. It worked as planned and within a short time Tyler had the dogs packed in and the dog and bear fight went from water to land. The bay show was less than a hundred yards under the road, and I still had a box full of dogs. I tripped the tailgate and in a few seconds every dog we had, young and old, was at the bear bay. I told my hunter to get his gear and rifle ready, then we left the road and headed to the dogs.

Chris had pulled his truck in behind mine and headed over the hill with me and the hunter. Within a few minutes, Chris and I had the hunter in amongst the dogs and the bear. One time I saw the bear jump up on the side of the tree, so I thought the bear had treed, but then the dogs would pull him off and the fight was on again. The bear fought his way around until he could get some relief in a patch of blown over trees. I got a big cedar tree between the bear and us, making it possible for me to get the hunter within 10 feet of the bear. When we stepped out from around the tree the hunter was ready and when the dogs were clear enough to shoot, he killed the bear. This would have not been possible without good dogs and the definition of good dogs, are dogs that do whatev­er it takes to get the gun to go bang.

Everyone has a preference of what they like in a dog, but good dogs are good dogs no matter what breed, color, shape, sex or size they are. Lately my preference has been the style of dog that Mike Kemp of Three Bear Kennels is producing. They have the de­sire to run and catch that I like and most of all they are a very intelligent. All in all, beauty is in the eye of the beholder when it comes to hounds. Just remember, if the dog does whatever it takes to make the gun have a chance to go off, it is a good dog.