Karelian Bear Dogs

edited April 2011 in Other Breeds
Being the proud owner of a KBD (before flaming I acknowledge the fact that he is an American Karelian, KBD with REL bred in at some point), and seeing that there are numerous people on here that are interested in the breed....Is anyone else on here an owner of this majestic creature? Please include pics if possible. We also own a Shiba Ken and a kitty cat.

Comments

  • I know Kevin on this forum has one.

    I don't, but find the breed interesting.
  • edited April 2011
    I know of someone on this forum expecting a KBD =p.

    I've never met one that I can recall of...
    ...but I'm a fancier of their appearance and from what I've read online about their temperments. They sound like a fascinating breed! I love hearing about them.
  • hehe, after waiting for 4 years, I should be getting my pup in 3 months, purebred KBD.
  • Our bear dog has an extraordinarily great pack personality. He’s happy as long as the members of his family are happy. And he’s perfectly content just being a part of it, not leading it. Unlike our shiba inu, who constantly questions and challenges everything, Swag’s happy just being included in whatever’s going on. His instinctive desire for companionship with people makes him both lovable and easy to train. Our breeder did an exceptional job matching us with a perfect dog!!

    Beowulf and Swag
    DSCN1072

    Swag and Francis
    DSCN1000
  • Beautiful! What breeder did you get your dog from?

    I love hunting spitz and they are a breed that I am totally interested in, but from what I've read they don't make good city dogs. I live in the city (although a SMALL city, and I have a half-acre fenced back yard adjacent to my house)--so I'm not sure if by "city" the websites mean "apartments"? I've also read they can be fairly dog aggressive- is that true?

    I LOVE the markings on your KBD, so beautiful!

    Jen
  • Well thank you Jen! We got Swagnificent from Julie Doolittle (Mountain View Karelians) We saw online that she was a breeder and gave her a call. After meeting the mom and her previous litter we fell in love with the dogs and asked to be put on the list. She was great and really raised our puppy incredibly well for the first two months of his life:) In terms of them making bad city dogs....at this point I can't say that that is true from my experience. They need tons of excercise, and definitely need to be socialized, but I don't think they need 200 acres to be contented dogs. Now I should probably mention that Swag was specifically chosen due to his slightly relaxed attitude and the fact that he wasn't the most dominant puppy in the litter. Julie understood that we had a Shiba at home and really wanted to match us with one of her more "friendly" pups.

    When our dogs first met (after a 8hr car ride for Swag) he was definitely a little aggressive for the first couple minutes or so...fortunately my wife and I made it clear that infighting would not be tolerated and soon the little buggers became best friends. Our Shiba is also very well socialized. There was also a quick incident when a friend of ours brought a boxer over (after he saw Beowulf acting nicely to the dog he calmed down). Swag does not like his "turf" encroached upon by strange dogs (or uninvited ppl for that matter) but he has never been uncontrollable. He loved the cat from day one.

    We do live in downtown Memphis (Mud Island), have a fenced-in backyard and so far no problems. We can take him off the leash and control him pretty well with just verbal commands....the Shiba will never in her whole life be trusted off a leash
  • Hey there. Yeah, I do have a KBD--same breeder actually. We live in town but we make a very conscious effort to get our dogs out either to walk, run or hunt. We just got back from a 6-miler, actually.
    As for dog-sharpness from KBDs, in my opinion that's been overplayed. Our experience is that Tuula has a large comfort bubble and that she isn't the dog-friendliest dog on the planet; she takes some time to warm up to a new dog, but then she's gangbusters with her new friend typically. Pushy dogs wear on her nerves, though.
    Watch out for the off-the-leash stuff. Tuula was amazing off leash and then she hit about 5 or 6 months old and SUCKED for a while after that. She is coming around and beginning to recall fairly reliably unless scent tracking. Unfortunately, she trails silently and that makes her very hard to find in a dark woods at night without tracking equipment.
  • @the_november_rain Congrats! :] going to be doing the puppy thing all over again soon! :D
  • thanks!, yeah now that we have Kagome squared away we will have to start allover again. boo!
  • @the_november_rain you been slacking on spam lately !!! demanding new pics of Inu and Kagome!
  • Those wouldn't be inuyasha references perchance?
  • Gorgeous dog! I LOVE that huge fluffy tail!
  • edited April 2011
    n/m

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  • edited November 2012
    Me and my brother did a "small" road trip today in Karelia and one pit stop was in Ilomantsi where we found this beautiful statue of karelian bear dog.

    Photobucket

    Photobucket
  • Cool! Love statues of dogs. :)
  • I didn't even know that there was this statue. I just spotted some dog statue from the car and shouted to my brother to pull over :D. I googled a little and found out that there exist statues from every Finnish dog breeds in five different cities.
  • Nice one. I remember when I first saw the Balto statue. Fun times.

    I was doing research on the kbd and love them.



    That's a kbd/laika running along side a truck. Very impressive.

    Speaking of which, why are there a lot of hunters mixing the kbd and laika?
  • Not in Finland ;).
  • AHHH! WHY would you even risk doing that! I'm not much of a bleeding heart, but wtf.
  • edited November 2012
    Who knows.. apparently he's done it several times already. I would attached a GPS instead... But the speed is what excites me.
  • Here is few pics from today dog show we participated.
    Best of breed KBD(male)
    photo IMG_8475_zps84dd7aeb.jpg
    photo IMG_8474_zps81d79a1a.jpg
    photo IMG_8472_zps3b52d479.jpg

    Best of opposite sex
    photo IMG_8479_zpsa7016339.jpg
    photo IMG_8478_zpsfcd61640.jpg
    photo IMG_8476_zps25e05a9c.jpg

  • I never owned one but I got the luck to meeting one she was so sweet. The only one in staten island, probably NY state. Her and nanook became the best of friends. I have old pics of em from what I remember the owner said she had to constantly work with her. I was so excited to actually meet one. The owner said it was hard to get her her.
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