West Hartford Resident Reflects On His Dog Maya, The Bear Chaser

WEST HARTFORD, CT — The passing of Maya — a Great Dane who lived in West Hartford — is being mourned not only because she was a good companion, but also because she is credited with chasing off more than 20 bears from her neighborhood.

Maya died in mid-May. Her owner, Gary Jones, said her passing "left a void that will never be filled."

"Those who knew her story felt that she was worthy of having it passed on to others. Hers is a story of tremendous love, strength and valor," Jones said.

For the record, the bear chasing count was 24. Here is Maya's story in the words of Jones himself:

"The journey to finding my beloved Maya began with a harrowing incident in Bloomfield with a bear on my neighbor’s property. I went to pick up my kids from the neighbor's pool because my youngest son pointed out a bear moving in that direction. I called my wife and asked her to get everybody ready to come with me.

"My only means of defense was a hiking staff with a metal ice spike at one end.

"I had the kids speak loudly, adhering to the advice of wildlife experts, to let the bear know we were there. To my horror, at an intersection in the neighbor’s sprawling garden, the bear was walking straight toward us, looking directly at me with a surly expression. This was not a timid bear. I had my wife gather up the kids and try to get to the home of the neighbor for safety.

"Contrary to popular belief, the most dangerous black bears are not mothers with cubs, but young males. Bears with predation on their mind tend to walk, not run, toward their intended victim. Some experts believe this is a hunting strategy, intended to create a false sense of security. He was quickly closing the gap ... 50 feet ... 40 ... 30 ... 20 – time to break the glass.

"I waived my staff over my head as I had seen in a Youtube video, and roared like one would imagine — the roar of a Sasquatch. I see people in videos all the time, calmly saying, 'No bear. Go bear.' Bears don’t speak English. They have no idea what you're saying.

"The Sasquatch strategy worked. The bear stopped moving forward and stood there glaring at me, not sure what to do. I didn’t wait around for him to figure it out. I hightailed it to the neighbor’s house, where everyone was waiting for me, glad that I was still in one piece.

"I had spent years trying to convince my wife to let me get a dog. I grew up with dogs, including a Great Dane. She had not. This encounter changed her mind.

"We got Maya as a pup. I read a lot of experiences of farmers and ranchers online as to how they prepare their guardian dogs to protect their livestock. We had no livestock, but our children needed a dog who would watch over them as they played, given the ever increasing bear population. I incorporated a lot of those tips, like encouraging their territoriality with respect to animals. This would include things like petting her when she barked at a raccoon on the property as opposed to scolding, as many people do.

"I admit that I was discouraged and embarrassed when I saw how easily she was intimidated by even small dogs, although by then, at about 1 year of age, she had grown bigger than most. Then I read a comment in a dog forum, where a woman said that her Dane was like that until the age of 2, and at that point her dog became fearless.

"The same thing happened to Maya. All along, my biggest hope was that her first encounter with a bear would be with an easily intimidated bear, because I knew that this would establish in her mind that she should wield authority over them. That opportunity finally came, soon after she turned 2.

"A young bear made himself comfortable in the kids’ sandbox. When he heard Maya’s bark, he became apprehensive.

"Bingo

"She chased him off the property, after which, she returned with a triumphant smile. Yes ... Game on. After that incident she feared nothing - dogs, bears 5 times her size, it made no difference to her.

"We always knew in the morning if a bear had been on the property by Maya’s behavior. She was wonderful to watch. Poetry in motion doesn’t begin to describe it. When a bear had recently been on the property, she would run back and forth across the property at top speed, with her nose to the ground, the shimmering black hackles along her back raised, trying to determine where the bear had gone. At a certain point she would stop and look in a given direction, and take off like a bullet, in full pursuit, at which point I would always call her back.

"She knew that the kids would be going down to wait on the bus, and she took her duties very seriously. Maya would not let the kids go outside before her when it was bus time. She would go out and check every bush to make sure it was safe. Then she would walk them down the driveway to wait for the bus. When the kids were safely on the bus, she would run back to the house.

"One morning, after I put down Maya’s breakfast and started helping the kids get ready to catch the bus, I heard a sound outside. A large bear was helping himself to our garbage bin's contents. The kids had to leave shortly, so I knew he had to go. I went out onto the porch and shouted at him to go. Apparently annoyed, he got up and walked across the driveway toward the porch where I was standing.

"Oh ____!

"My first thought was to go inside and shut the door, but knowing that bears are capable of great speed, I was afraid that he would attack me in the doorway, thereby gaining access to the house and threatening the kids. I decided to stay there and stand my ground, whatever that meant. But I forgot about Maya. Doubtless, she heard my shouts. The partially opened door flew open, pushing me aside, and Maya was on the bear with mind bending speed and ferocity.

"My senses were overwhelmed with bearish roars, and Maya's loud, deep, furious growls. The two of them swirled around each other, with the bear trying to land blows, and both of them lunging at each other with jaws snapping savagely. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, and I admit, I was at a loss for what to do. After what seemed like an eternity, but in reality was probably about a minute, Maya had fought it off the driveway and pushed it from 10 feet from the porch to about 30 feet, ending in the bear reluctantly lumbering off and Maya without a scratch. She returned to the house with a satisfied smile, and graciously received a hero's welcome, which included all of her favorite delights.

"Dogs like Maya, who are capable of contending with bears are used by a number of park services to move the bears away from areas inhabited by people. The reason for this is that studies have shown that bears who are chased off by aggressive dogs permanently avoid that area. They’ve found that bears have long memories. For that reason, we never saw the same bear twice in our area. Mind you, almost all of Maya’s bear encounters would happen when we let her out to do her business, and she discovered a bear on the property, unbeknownst to us. In many of those situations, we would go outside to see what was taking her so long and see her looking up.

"Bears would generally get away from her by scampering up the nearest tree. We would then call her in to give them the opportunity to come down and take off – an opportunity they invariably took at a high rate of speed.

"The bear sightings became less and less frequent with Maya around, and ultimately became a rarity. Soon after she passed, bears started to proliferate again, and we're seeing the same bears coming back again and again, which didn’t happen when she was still with us.

"And they’re bolder. About 2 weeks ago, I was in the garage getting ready to leave when I heard what sounded like loud panting. I thought I was hearing things. I looked in the side view mirror and there was a large bear standing by the garbage bin — inside the garage. I started up the car and it walked out of the garage but it didn’t go far. I had to drive in his direction honking, to get him to move off the property.

"Unthinkable with Maya around.

"By our official count Maya evicted 24 bears from the area, that we know of. She got into two pitched battles, both of which resulted in the bear conceding defeat and moving off, and Maya uninjured.

"In the weeks since her passing we’ve had at least 1 bear sighting per week on our property. When Maya was alive, it was about one every six-to-eight weeks. I will forever miss my beloved Puppy-uppy as I called her.

"Ironically, she wasn’t taken in battle against a bear in her nearly 10 years of life, but by undetected Lyme disease which was discovered too late. She was my constant hiking buddy. Together, we explored as many trails in the highlands of central Connecticut as we could get under our feet.

"She was my best friend.

"She was our hero."