[WhoisAlanGreenspan?]

Speaking of plott hounds, I had a friend named Andy not sure but his last name might have been Tingstad. He raised plott hounds for many years. Big time bear hunting in Bessmer Michigan. It's a few miles East of Ironwood / Hurley. He was the judge for Bessmer for a long time. He's passed now.

I don't remember his lead dog's name but when he lost that dog the pack and bear hunting completely ended.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

If you want to be successful at it, Bear hunting requires a LOT of dogs (which we have) as you need two ‘teams’ that are equally balanced and one can run bear while the others rest for the day - or week.

You need the dogs that can get a cold (old) track going, you need dogs that can run for miles and miles while chasing, you need dogs that can get a bear UP THE TREE where you want them (as in, they don’t run away when they see a bear, LOL!) and you need back up with all of those same traits.

We are in a re-building phase right now. We have some really terrific up and coming young dogs (1-4 years old) but our ‘stars’ are ‘aging out’ at about 9 years. You just don’t have the stamina that it takes as you age. Like anything, really!

Beau is now in partnership with a good friend and they are co-owning dogs, so they will each have less to care for. They hunt together most of the time anyway. It was getting ridiculous for them BOTH to have 12-14 dogs each.

This works for me, as I still get to raise all the puppies. Yay! :)

Beau got his first Black Bear at age 19 and has been hooked since. He’s 65 now and a lot of people he hunts with are even older than him and they are ALL slowing down. It is a younger man’s sport, for sure.