A bear marks a whammy tree

Yesterday evening, we headed out into endless gray skies. We desperately need water but all that we’ve gotten has been clouds. The wildlife seems to be everywhere, foraging and trying to make it until spring truly starts. You’ll see at the end of this post that some huge and strong animals are roaming our forests.

Because we’ve been seeing so many animals on our hikes, I’m emphasizing training even more. Last evening, we started with a stay which was supposed to lead to a recall. Look at R’s ears in this photo. The boy was NOT focused on me!

Then, even K turned away from me to scan behind her.

In the next instant, they both broke their stays. I don’t know what triggered their whirling and intense sprint away from me. Fortunately, a very sharp “leave it” and “come” stopped them and made them return to me. I put them back on leash until we walked further away from whatever had spooked them.

A quarter mile later, we tried again. The stay did not look promising because all four eyes were focused away from me.

But, the recall was beautiful so they earned their off-leash time.

A little later, they had calmed down enough to do a "stand-stay" for me. For some reason, staying while standing is much harder than lying down or sitting for them.

That was followed by a recall that required scrambling through a jumble of boulders.

The sunset painted a mystical picture to the east of us, and our hike ended peacefully and calmly.

This morning, I checked two wildlife cameras. After months of paltry results from my cams, I had another jackpot. My wildlife cameras have truly taught me how important it is to my dogs' health and the well-being of the wild animals that I continue to train my dogs to behave well in the forest. There are tiny cubs who the dogs could hurt. Conversely, our forest contains huge male bears and mountain lions who could hurt the dogs.

In my wildlife camera footage, first, a bobcat walked past the same camera as the bear family passed recently.

Then, on the next day, a male bear walked past the same camera and scent-marked a bear “whammy” tree. These trees are pine saplings that the bears rub their backs on. After I learned about these trees, I couldn't believe that I'd never noticed them before. They’re so obvious with their broken tips and branches and the bear fur stuck to their sap. I have several of these trees staked out with wildlife cameras.

The arrival of the bear...

He immediately commenced “cowboy walking” as he approached the whammy tree. Notice his left hind leg swung way out to the side. Bears do this crazy walk before and after marking a tree.

Then, he started to lean back with his black fur against the tree.

Finally, he rubbed his back against the tree. This marking was much less intense than I saw during last year’s mating season. During mating season, the bears kept wriggling against the tree much longer and much harder. They also grabbed the tiptop of the tree to rub it against their shoulders.

When he finished marking, he started to walk up the path but suddenly stopped and looked back at my camera. I wonder if he heard its shutter. I can’t hear it but I’ve been told that some animals can. In this photo, you can see the bad news. This bear has two ear tags, indicating that he has “two strikes” for bad behavior. My understanding is that he has only one more strike before being killed. I hope that this huge specimen can find enough natural food that he’ll stay away from houses.

About 45 minutes later, the bear passed another of my cameras that is a little less than a mile away. Either he walked very slowly or he didn’t follow a straight path between the two cameras. The second camera is also pointed at a whammy tree. At that tree, the bear “cowboy walked” but didn’t scent mark it.

I’ve compiled the footage from both cameras into a short video which you can watch here or at Youtube.

The sheer size of this bear demonstrates why I am so cautious with our dogs when we hike near our house. He's huge and fat despite an entire winter of fasting. Wow.

For those of you who asked if I was scared to travel where the bears are, I am always alert but not scared. I’ve never met a bear who didn’t run from me or hide. Indeed, I’ve stumbled upon and peered into a bear den. On that occasion, I met the eyes of a sow who had two cubs in the cave with her. She stayed in the den and wasn’t at all aggressive. Just in case a situation ever gets bad, I always have my bear pepper spray with me. However, I doubt that I’ll ever have to use it - bears are far more timid than the popular media portrays them as being.