Mountain Lion Deterrant

corwise said:
I recently moved out of Idaho (stupid military), and talking to several Rangers there, dogs are more dangerous to bring into the woods then most people expect. The problem is that your dog runs a hundred feet ahead of you on the trail and sees the bear. He then barks madly at the bear, and then comes running happily back to you, the bear in chase. Most people attempt to fight off the bear to save their beloved pet, with the usual result of a badly hurt/dead person. The term "bear bait" was used several times. :) So while that is a big dog, a grizzly would probably just consider it a snack. :)
Click to expand...

That is exactly what a friend experienced a few months ago. His lab stirred up a Black Bear off in the bushes and it ran back to him with the bear in hot pursuit. It came at him. He scared if off with a shot. It came again he fired in the air again and it finally ran off.
 
In the mid 90's, there was a report in La Canada, California (just at the edge of the Angeles National Forest) of a cougar leaping over a guys fence into his backyard while he looked out his back slider. The cougar jumped in, grabbed his 80 lb. Akita by the neck, and leapt back out. There was no fight - The dog was lunch.

I have a 90 lb. female Akita. They are large, strong dogs. In fact, they were bred to hunt bears. The problem is, we don't use our dogs today as they were originally intended. My pooch is a pampered member of the family. The most challenging thing she encounters is going to be wrestling with me. At worst, she might get into a scrap with another pampered pet. An encounter with a large, wild predator would be a completely different thing.

-- FLIX
 
FLIX said:
In the mid 90's, there was a report in La Canada, California (just at the edge of the Angeles National Forest) of a cougar leaping over a guys fence into his backyard while he looked out his back slider. The cougar jumped in, grabbed his 80 lb. Akita by the neck, and leapt back out. There was no fight - The dog was lunch.

I have a 90 lb. female Akita. They are large, strong dogs. In fact, they were bred to hunt bears. The problem is, we don't use our dogs today as they were originally intended. My pooch is a pampered member of the family. The most challenging thing she encounters is going to be wrestling with me. At worst, she might get into a scrap with another pampered pet. An encounter with a large, wild predator would be a completely different thing.

-- FLIX
Click to expand...

I saw a video of something like that, but they called it a german shepherd and the big cougar jumped the fence grabbed the dog and jumped back over the fence. That is one big cougar to be able to do that.
 
Speaking of pit bulls, Last year I had to put my old buddy down. He was 11 years old and he just loved to fight, he would get into it with my brothers american bulldogs all the damn time. We had a routine on letting each one out in the yard and keeping them seperated, so no more fights. My dog (pumba) cause thats what he looked like lol, would wag his tail when getting into a fight with my brothers bulldogs that out weighed him by 40+ pounds, it was crazy.
He was thee smartest dog ive ever owned, slept in my bed (girl friend hated it) but I would tell her, you go before the dog lol. He loved my nephews and neices, all under the age of 4....was a piss poor watch dog cause he loved people so much.
But I have no doubt, he could handle anything that would jump out in front of him, even if it cost him his life.

Someone mentioned badgers, pit bulls years ago would destroy badgers in fights, and they were often used for this purpose in the wilds when hunting.

I think what seperates the pitbull from all other breeds is there gameness, they dont know they are short, or small, they could care less. When talking wild animals, how many of them have been attacked? They are the ones who are doing the attacking, but once faced with a animal that wont back down and keeps pressing, they will give up the fight to run and live another day.

If we look at the attacks by cougars/mt lion on people we see that they attack from behind, this gives them a advantage for not being hurt during the attack and causing the most damage quick. BUT when a cougar meets his match against two people (one being attacked and the other beating the cougar with rocks, sticks etc) the cougar will try and hang on, but then gives up and hauls ass out of there.

Never underestimate the power, heart, gameness, and loyalty of a good ol pitbull....RIP Pumba
 
featherstone45 said:
Speaking of pit bulls, Last year I had to put my old buddy down. He was 11 years old and he just loved to fight, he would get into it with my brothers american bulldogs all the damn time. We had a routine on letting each one out in the yard and keeping them seperated, so no more fights. My dog (pumba) cause thats what he looked like lol, would wag his tail when getting into a fight with my brothers bulldogs that out weighed him by 40+ pounds, it was crazy.
He was thee smartest dog ive ever owned, slept in my bed (girl friend hated it) but I would tell her, you go before the dog lol. He loved my nephews and neices, all under the age of 4....was a piss poor watch dog cause he loved people so much.
But I have no doubt, he could handle anything that would jump out in front of him, even if it cost him his life.

Someone mentioned badgers, pit bulls years ago would destroy badgers in fights, and they were often used for this purpose in the wilds when hunting.

I think what seperates the pitbull from all other breeds is there gameness, they dont know they are short, or small, they could care less. When talking wild animals, how many of them have been attacked? They are the ones who are doing the attacking, but once faced with a animal that wont back down and keeps pressing, they will give up the fight to run and live another day.

If we look at the attacks by cougars/mt lion on people we see that they attack from behind, this gives them a advantage for not being hurt during the attack and causing the most damage quick. BUT when a cougar meets his match against two people (one being attacked and the other beating the cougar with rocks, sticks etc) the cougar will try and hang on, but then gives up and hauls ass out of there.

Never underestimate the power, heart, gameness, and loyalty of a good ol pitbull....RIP Pumba
Click to expand...


yup, think of a JAck Russel multiplied by 20 and that is a pit bull terrier. They are nice dogs, to bad they have such a bad rap because of the inner city scum.
 
yup, think of a JAck Russel multiplied by 20 and that is a pit bull terrier. They are nice dogs, to bad they have such a bad rap because of the inner city scum.
Click to expand...

Amen to that, nothing like seeing some jerk off walking his pit with a 400 pound chain used to tow trains with around its neck....

Another thing ive been thinking about, when attacked by a cougar from behind, ive come to think how quickly can one remove his knife (if thats all one has) from its person to start poking or slashing the cougar. I always carry a large blade, like my Lamey Bowie or a Fehrman FJ etc. I cant imaginge trying to pull out one of my large knives, while being mauled. Ive also thought about the pouch sheath, this would be a pain I would think to try and grab the end of the handle to remove the blade while being eaten.
just some food for thought.
 
featherstone45 said:
Amen to that, nothing like seeing some jerk off walking his pit with a 400 pound chain used to tow trains with around its neck....

Another thing ive been thinking about, when attacked by a cougar from behind, ive come to think how quickly can one remove his knife (if thats all one has) from its person to start poking or slashing the cougar. I always carry a large blade, like my Lamey Bowie or a Fehrman FJ etc. I cant imaginge trying to pull out one of my large knives, while being mauled. Ive also thought about the pouch sheath, this would be a pain I would think to try and grab the end of the handle to remove the blade while being eaten.
just some food for thought.
Click to expand...


I think this is where a small 4 inch bladed belt knife has an advantage. The big chopper has a huge disadvantage once the cat is on you, but a small fixed blade or decent folder with 4 inch blade would work perfect. I remember reading a story of a man who was jumped by a male lion and dragged off. The guy pulled out his 4 inch folding knife and stabbed the lion in the side and it hit the heart and killed the lion. A fluke, maybe, but it worked. A cougar is much smaller. I also recently heard this story about an old man against a black bear. However, if you already know the animal is there the bigger blade would be better for heavy trauma on impact.
 
roughedges said:
...They tend to attack from above and behind so, according to a couple mountain biking/mountaineering friends of mine in colorado and utah, a lot of people have started wearing halloween masks on the back of their heads. Apparently, this seems to help keep panthers from attacking.....
Click to expand...

This is common in Tiger (India) country.


I have a Rott. As far as the change in roles of "working" dogs, she'd be more busy trying to get whatever to play with her, than trying to fight it.

Personally, I think the Rotts are misunderstood- unlike the other breeds I've worked with and owned, they seem to have only one bark, and it sounds "mean." Not the someone's here that I recognize, or the someone's here I don't recognize, or "let's play..."
 
I'm here in Idaho and have a St. Bernard that goes camping with us. She is a gentle dog, but treats the boys as her pups. For black bear and cougar, they will high tail out of the area at the smell of a dog usually. We have the benefit in Idaho of allowing the use of dogs to hunt those two animals, so the animals have a healthy fear of dogs. The one I am currently worried about is wolf, they have been attacking and eating hunting dogs lately. The problem is that the US Fish and Game does not consider that as reason to put a pack down. So we have wolf packs that are starting to see dogs and the people with them as food.

Funny story, while bowhunting a couple years ago, we are coming back to camp and stopped to talk with a man in a camp about a 1/2 mile down the road. He had come looking for us earlier because he saw we were hunting. They had a black bear come into camp to do a little raiding, he heard a noise and opened the camper door to check it out. Well his little weiner dog shot out of the camper and treed that bear. When he couldn't find us, he called is dog back into the camper and the bear high-tailed it out of there.

--Carl
 
The dog in the picture is a Boerboel. They are still actively used in South Africa to protect herds against lions, hyenas, and such. They are also used as property guard dogs. I would assume that they operate in groups of more than one dog. The picture is from a breeder's site I came across while researching the breed, so I doubt it is doctored though I guess it could be. I did come across many pics of big boerboels, but none with a person sitting next to them for size comparison.

I would guess that if I really wanted defense against cougars or black bears, I would get another Pyr or two to go with my boy. They are bred for exactly that. If you search the web, you can find a vid or two of them in action. One that I found impressive was of three Pyrs in Norway chasing a Grizz sow and her cubs away from a village. Amazing they were able to do that without getting munched.
 
bigbcustom said:
I think it would be a good mountain lion, black bear, any other nasty wildlife deterrant.

bigdog.jpg
Click to expand...

What a cutie. And she's got a huge dog. :rolleyes:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top