Bear vs. dog

Taggish pawing sculpins

The other evening, the Crumpster and I were last ones on the dock finishing up cleaning our fish and boats. We watched a brown bear walk out onto the island behind us in King Salmon Creek and noticed how Taggish the dog was busy pawing in the creek for sculpins oblivious to our big friend. 'Some bear dog' we remarked. But suddenly he caught a wiff of stinky bear and ran down the beach barking wildly. As he stood stance at the point barking madly the bear swam across the creek towards him. Yelling from us proved futile as Taggish stood his ground and the bear climbed onto the bank. As the bear hit solid ground running Taggish yapped bravely while backing up slowly. One swift paw and Taggish was a goner, so we grabbed an air horn out of my boat and began blasting it. After a few good blasts, the bear turned slowly away, with another quick blast he began running. Taggish, however, was also scared and we watched as bear and dog ran away from us....together.

Taggish barking as the bear swims towards him