All too familiar to me....We have a lot of black bears in our area too. In fact about 6 years ago we had so many it was ridiculous. One morning my husband had the dogs out and there was a momma bear across the stream that runs down alongside our house. She had 3 cubs. Montana spotted her and took off across the yard towards her. she put her babies up a tree and stood on her back legs- to get a better look at who was charging her I guess. My husband yelled for Montana to come but he would not. He used to listen so well to my husband but this time he did not. He stopped short of the stream thank God. My husband had to bring his gun out and the sound it makes when he loads it is what brought Montana back to his side. We guessed he thought they were going to hunt & retrieve so Montana got in his spot to wait for his "GO". The bear stayed put until my husband got both dogs safely inside. Only then did she let her cubs down and they left. Dakota went inside the house the very second my husband shouted for her to. After that I never took the dogs out again without either a leash or e-collar.