A new study just put hard numbers on something Parks Canada has been saying for years: an off-leash dog is one of the fastest ways to turn a quiet hike into a bear encounter.
Brigham Young University biologist Tom Smith led the research, published in the Journal of Wildlife Management in June 2026. His team pulled together 326 dog-involved bear conflicts from across North America - black bears, grizzlies, and polar bears.
Dogs started the trouble more than half the time. In 54% of cases, the dog triggered the conflict, not the bear.
Off-leash dogs flushed bears out of cover in about one in twelve cases. When that happened, the dog's owner got hurt seven times out of ten.
Once a bear actually attacked, most dogs didn't step in. Owners got help from their dog in barely one in five attacks - and when a dog did intervene, it worked, stopping the attack four times out of five.
The cost fell heaviest on the dogs themselves. Across the whole study, 170 people were injured, and five died. More than ten times as many dogs were killed.
Nearly half these conflicts happened in the backcountry, on a hike. But over a third happened in front-country areas - town limits, campgrounds, the edges of trailheads - which is worth remembering next time you're walking the dog somewhere that doesn't feel like "bear country."
Smith traces the project back to the grizzly attack that killed Doug Inglis and Jenny Gusse in Banff's Red Deer Valley in September 2023. Their dog, a border collie, died with them.
They were 62, experienced backcountry campers, on a permitted trip, with no active bear warning where they were camped. Parks Canada called it the first grizzly-caused fatality in the park in decades.
Smith now advises against bringing a dog into bear country at all. His reasoning: this couple did everything right, and it didn't save them.
That's the context worth sitting with next time you're clipping a leash on before a Banff trailhead. The three-metre leash law isn't a formality. It's the difference between a dog that stays close if something goes sideways, and one that runs straight into trouble and drags it back to you.
Nothing else changes. Leash on. Hike in a group where you can. Make noise on blind corners. Carry bear spray, and know how to use it before you need to.
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