"People move into the woods, the bears move into the yards. They're pretty adaptive animals," says Duncan Johnson who has seen his Puyallup neighborhood infiltrated by one of the state's 30,000 black bears.

But often, it's the bear that winds up dead because it wouldn't leave. Recently, an Issaquah homeowner shot a black bear after it killed the family goat. He blames neighbors for letting the bear linger because it was being fed.

Now the state has a new non-lethal weapon to control nuisance bears. They are Karelian Bear Dogs. For centuries, they've been bred in Finland to chase bears and other large animals.

With the help of a grant, the state has bought Mishka for $2,000. Mishka is currently in training to be the state's first full time bear chaser.

"It's the first opportunity to use bear dogs in Washington to adversely condition bears and not have to be trap, relocate or shoot bears" says Linda Saunders-Ogg who is a bear biologist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Department.

Mishka recently received training from another bear biologist, Carrie Hunt who founded the Wind River Bear Institute in Heber City, Utah. Hunt is the country's premier breeder and trainer of Karelian dogs.

Her method: Get the captured bear so scared of the dogs, combine that with wildlife officers launching firecrackers and firing rubber bullets into the bears butt, and the bear won't come back.

The method has worked 200 times in Montana and Canada and is credited with saving 18 Grizzly bears from relocation.

"The dog's bark is very shrill and aggressive sounding and the bear is naturally afraid. Wen there are several dogs particularly barking, it scares them enough they leave the area," says Saunders-Ogg.

Recently, Mishka had a chance to chase her first bear near Palmer State Park southeast of Seattle

After carefully mapping the bear's release away from neighbors, Mishka and the other dogs in training began barking on command. The bear bolted from its temporary cage and so far, has reportedly not returned.