Wind River Bear Institute

08/27/2026

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🐾 Dogs have a special place in everyday life at DFFP. They join us at the office, attend community events and training days, and are often waiting for us after a long shift.

Some also serve alongside firefighters in the wildland fire community. NATIONAL Crisis Response Canines provide comfort and support to crews, while trained Karelian bear dogs from the Wind River Bear Institute help reduce conflicts between firefighters and wildlife around remote fire camps and work areas.

Today, we’re happy to highlight a few of our four-legged friends, companions and coworkers who keep us safe, lift our spirits and make every day a little brighter.

Happy National Dog Day! 🐶🌲🔥

08/24/2026

16 Years of Soledad ✨

In 2020, Soledad helped with the first Bear Protection Services for the U.S. Wildland Fire Service based out of 5-mile Yukon camp - helping improve Wildland Firefighter safety while reducing the need for lethal bear management.

To this day, 0 bears have been killed on our Wildland Fire assignments, working in remote parts of Alaska, but firefighters have enjoyed the company of Wildlife K-9s like Soledad while getting a good nights sleep knowing the dogs are on the job!

If you support the use of bear working dogs for conservation, please consider donating to our 16 Years of Soledad Fundraising Campaign 💜 (link in bio 🔗)

08/22/2026

the 2nd International Wildlife K-9 Handler Training Summit💥

🗓️ November 2 - 6, 2026

📍Wind River KBD Partners in Florence, Montana

🐕 in-Person & Virtual Participation

✉️ Participation by invitation only (+ live streaming for select events)

Training Summit: a 5-day gathering of wildlife professionals and their dogs dedicated to advancing the use of Wildlife K-9s to reduce human-wildlife conflict.

Training Summit will focus on field training for dogs & handlers but also include presentations, panels, & roundtable discussions to facilitate collaboration & the exchange of ideas with the goal of strengthening professional relationships, addressing shared challenges, & building a stronger international network of Wildlife K-9 Handlers.

📻 Stay tuned for more updates coming soon 🐻🐕💜

08/21/2026

16 Years of Soledad ✨

2 months after Soledad visited Rooster in Nevada, a very special litter of 7 Karelian Bear Dog puppies were born at the kennel in Florence, MT (Wind River Grace’s “Soledad” x Sierra Front “Rooster” 2014).

This was Soledad’s first litter but she took right to the job, caring for her pups and playing with them actively out in the driveway yard.

Fun fact: 2 of these puppies, “Tama” and “Nanuq” would go on to work in Japan with Picchio Karuizawa | ピッキオ軽井沢 Bear Team .. and 5 years later, Tama would produce the first litter of KBDs ever born in Japan!

If you support the use of bear working dogs for conservation, please consider donating to our 16 Years of Soledad Fundraising Campaign 💜 (link in bio 🔗)

08/21/2026

16 Years of Soledad ✨

Soledad and Rooster “hard” releasing black bears with Nevada Dept Of Wildlife back in 2014 💜

If you support the work of dogs like Soledad, please consider donating to our 16 Years of Soledad Fundraising Campaign (link in bio 🔗)


📸 John T. Humphrey

08/20/2026

16 Years of Soledad ✨

when Soledad was 4 years old, she traveled to Nevada to breed to Sierra Front “Rooster” - Carl Lackey’s KBD working with Nevada Dept Of Wildlife

During the ~ 3 weeks that it took for successful breeding, Soledad helped with several black bear “hard release” events. In these scenarios, bears that are coming into conflicts with people are captured, processed (tagged, DNA, etc.), and then released together with aversive stimuli to associate with the presence of people and human-use areas.

In this case, the aversive included barking dogs, human voices, rubber bullet, and pursuit by dogs. When the bear climbs a tree (strategically positioned ~ 100m from site of release) to escape pursuit, the “hard release” scenario is complete and aversive stimuli is discontinued.

If you support the work of dogs like Soledad and Rooster, please consider donating to our 16 Years of Soledad Fundraising Campaign 💜 (link in bio 🔗)

08/20/2026

16 Years of Soledad ✨

Did you know that Soledad was the Lead Wildlife K-9 tasked with training our first National Park Service Karelian Bear Dog Wildlife K-9? In 2019, Soledad and Rio assisted with a moose deterrence operation near Denali National Park headquarters. Soon thereafter, Greg Colligan with Denali Bear Team took on “Hayduke” from our Rio II x Salla 2019 puppy litter.

Soledad spent time in Denali over the next 2 years helping train Hayduke and Colligan with tasks like:

🫎 responding to a grizzly bear feeding on a moose kill near a public use area that was creating a safety hazard

🏕️ responding to a grizzly bear getting into human-associated foods out in Kantishna

🎒 responding to a grizzly bear family group that was approaching people for food from their backpacks

🍲 pushing a grizzly bear away from the Teklanika campground that was becoming food-conditioned (as seen in video).

Soledad’s work with Hayduke and Colligan was very successful, adding capabilities to the Team that they didn’t have previously and allowing personnel to do their jobs more safely and effectively, even in some pretty unfavorable circumstances for both bears and people!

If you support the work of dogs like Soledad and Hayduke, please consider donating to our 16 Years of Soledad Fundraising Campaign 💜 (link in bio 🔗)

08/19/2026

16 Years of Soledad Fundraising Campaign!

*rare footage & graphic content warning*

That time that Soledad and her Handler, Nils, flew out to the Alaska Peninsula to help find a wounded or dead grizzly bear!

In Alaska, one leashed dog can be used to find a dead or wounded big game animal to prevent wanton waste. Our Karelian Bear Dog Wildlife K-9s are trained to find bears and dead things.. and sometimes dead bears.

In this scenario, a grizzly bear had been shot and was suspected to be dead. The problem was that it had run into tight brush and could not be found. Soledad was able to use her incredible nose to track the bear on a straight course for 100m, then made a 120 degree turn for another 100m (almost straight back the same way that they had come) before finding the deceased bear.

This track took place in an area with a relatively high-density of bears, lots of salmon spawning activity, and poor sight-lines with tight brush. Despite these challenges, Soledad was able to get the job done in under 45 minutes, leaving time to bark a couple of more bears out of the trail on the way back to the boat to prevent any unwanted encounters!

Our 16 Years of Soledad Fundraising Campaign is about to come to a close (link in bio 🔗). Our goal now is raise $1,600 to help support Soledad in her old age and help train the next generation of KBD Wildlife K-9s to continue Soledad’s legacy.

If you support the use of bear hunting dogs for wildlife conservation and management, please consider donating to our cause 🐻🐕💜

08/12/2026

Great video of “Duke” (originally “Globe” from Sky x Pahakas 2024) out doing his job on the Kenai!

Duke is a “Bear Protection” dog tasked with alerting his owners to presence of bears and helping to prevent unsafe encounters. Duke can be seen in this video engaging with a mama bear in the trail that had her cubs in a nearby tree 🌲

Duke remains engaged, keeping a safe distance from the bear while ensuring that his people are protected, and does not back down when mama bear gives him a little warning ⚠️

“We left after Duke pushed her off trail. we were hoping she would take her cubs into the woods & she did 😎
Super proud & very much appreciated having Duke with us🥰” - Duke’s Family 💜

08/09/2026

Karelian Bear Dog Wildlife K-9s In-Training at the Stevensville Creamery Picnic this weekend!

This was Boja and Kai’s first education and outreach event and a great preparation for their future work in Hokkaido, Japan. They did awesome and Papa Mowgli was so proud ☺️

Thanks to everyone that came by to say “hi” to Kai and Boja! They had a blast 🐻🦨💜