Dogs

[ducks4days]

My wife and I were planning our anniversary trip, and she chose backpacking through a high elevation area that I know is filled with berries and have seen bears in around the same time of year. We usually bring our dogs on these trips, so I reached out to the department to get clarification on where the line was in the hound hunting ban. They responded, and I figured folks on here could make use of the info. It sounds like per the dept, If I see a bear from a ways off, I am allowed to go after it and harvest as long as the dogs are not involved. If I run into a warden or a ranger with a bear in the pack and dogs at a heel, there should be no issue as long as I was not handling them while I was actively hunting. If I am walking on the trail and have my dogs with me and a bear pops out 50 yards away, I would need to let it pass and hope to make contact again when the dogs were not with me.

Thank you for contacting the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. Your correspondence was forwarded to the Wildlife Program for response.

If the dogs remain in camp while you are actively hunting, and in no way assists with the hunt you would be legal.

Sincerely,

Wildlife Program Customer Service

(360) 902-2515

[HntnFsh]

Good luck!
You may need it!

[Ntbutcher]

Can you post the detailed response. You've got some details that aren't laid out in the quoted email. Your predicament is the reason I've held off on getting a dog. Kennel costs can be expensive.

[ducks4days]

That was the full response, minus my personal info. This was the email I sent

Hello! I am planning on backpacking through a wilderness area with my wife in August. She wants to bring our dogs (not hounds). If they are not used to locate or chase a bear, and are left in camp or with my wife while actually hunting, am I allowed to harvest a bear?

[Ntbutcher]

That was the full response, minus my personal info. This was the email I sent

Hello! I am planning on backpacking through a wilderness area with my wife in August. She wants to bring our dogs (not hounds). If they are not used to locate or chase a bear, and are left in camp or with my wife while actually hunting, am I allowed to harvest a bear?

Oh ok. Thanks!

[addicted1]

what kind of dogs do you have? If you don't have hounds, I think that is going to be compelling. I mean for the most part, I think hunting a bear with a dog or two that is not a hound, would actually be an impediment.

while you are hunting, you and your wife should take photos that will be timestamped so you can prove that you are in different locations at different times. I'd also recommend not hiking out together...

This was posted in another chat and think it was meant for here.

[ducks4days]

what kind of dogs do you have? If you don't have hounds, I think that is going to be compelling. I mean for the most part, I think hunting a bear with a dog or two that is not a hound, would actually be an impediment.

while you are hunting, you and your wife should take photos that will be timestamped so you can prove that you are in different locations at different times. I'd also recommend not hiking out together...

This was posted in another chat and think it was meant for here.

GWP and Rottweiler

Both are trained for bird hunting and guarding respectively, but definitely not trained to scent track over long distances. Agreed, they would get in the way more than they would help if I had to be aware of what they were doing, bear is doing, I am doing at the same time. Its a pretty low chance that everything would line up to get a shot anyway, but I would be dumb not to have a plan and know the rules just in case.

[CarbonHunter]

Several years back they adjusted the wording from hunting with hounds to dogs cannot accompany you while hunting.

It just depends on the warden that sees you hunting in the woods. I personally don’t hunt except for the few minutes before I pull the trigger. I just regularly walk through the woods with a rifle and my tags because it’s constitutionally allowed and choose to wear orange for safety purposes. This is legal because I rarely see the warden where I hunt….