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FLORENCE- They have bark and they have bite and now a litter of bear dog puppies have new homes, but as reporter Breanna Roy found out, there's more in store for these canines than just 'fetch.'

Don't mistake the puppies at the Wind River Bear Institute for just being cute and cuddly. While they are pretty cute, they're learning to work with some our biggest predators- like grizzly bears and cougars."

End each pup in the litter of eight Karelian Bear Dogs already has its destiny and two of them, Indy and Spencer, are about to move to the Seattle area to train as partners of two Washington State game wardens to help push bears out of neighborhoods and back into the woods.

"Where the bears come down is right where the people live, so I'm gonna use this guy to give me a hand on a couple parts of that," Washington State Game Warden David Jones explained.

The staff at the Wind River Bear Institute in Florence already know Indy will succeed at his job. He's not just bred for it, trainers spend weeks testing each pups instincts.
Carrie Hunt, Wind River Bear Institute Founder

"How do they handle scary stuff, do they turn and run, do they stand do they lead into it? Are they food-motivated, are they high energy? Low energy? Are they people-oriented, are they nose-oriented?," institute founder Carrie Hunt said. "It takes us three weeks to decide which each pup is and then we match that pup to the owners we have waiting. It isn't first-come first-serve."

Each owner is also tested just as thoroughly for his compatibility and as fate would have it, Indy ended up with the last name Jones. "I'm told this is the one that best fits me, so we'll see," Warden Jones told us.

And they won't just work together, they'll live together as partners for life. "We're just gonna take a little piece of Montana with us, and a little bit of Wind River back with us, to Washington and just keep moving on and showing what these dogs can do for bears," Washington Game Warden Dustin Prater added.

The Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife uses fundraising events for the Karelian bear dog program and each pup initially costs more than $2,00.

But the Wind River Bear Institute won't sell to just anybody and takes its placements very seriously, raising just one litter a year.

Click here to learn more about the Wind River Bear Institute.