Norwegian Elkhound

There seems to be no end to the number of working dogs available to serious hunters. There's retrievers for birds; hounds for coons and terriers for all sorts of vermin.

I wanted a hunting dog with the ability and courage to find - and stand up to- something a bit bigger: bear. I'm not a hunter in the way that sounds! I only 'hunt' bears for the purpose of studying their behavior, particularly the American Grizzly. Ellie, my four-legged partner, is a Norwegian Elkhound and she is, by far, my dog of choice for my endeavors. She knows no fear and can endure the harshest weather imagineable.

Locating a Grizzly and then getting the bear into a position to anesthetize, tag and examine it are tough jobs. These are awesome creatures that demand respect in every way. American Grizzlies may be one of the world's most misunderstood bear types in part because of the difficulty in conducting this sort of research; that's another story entirely.

The animal I want to write about here is Ellie. I guess it's because I read so many stories about Labs and Shepherds and Golden Retrievers that I want everyone to know just how special my Norwegian Elkhound is. I honestly don't think I would be able to be doing what I'm doing if it weren't for her. I would love to tell you the story of the time a Grizzly had me trapped under an old dead tree stump and was clawing his way closer and closer to me when Ellie actually jumped on his back and tore into one of his ears to distract his attention away from me. Her effort worked, and I scrambled to safety and so did she. To this day, I can track that particular bear by the tear Ellie left in his ear.