LEWISTON, Idaho (AP) - A northern Idaho hound hunting guide says one of his dogs may have saved his life by jumping back into a fight with a wolf and giving him time to escape.

Scott Richards of Grangeville said he was trying to rescue his dog when a male wolf lunged at him, causing his dog Blacky to return to the fight.

"The dog I think actually saved my life," Richards told the Lewiston Tribune.

Blacky and another dog died, and a third was injured last week during a training hunt for bears.

Wolf experts say wolves consider dogs as strange wolves and will not tolerate them in their territory.

"For years it's been if you have dogs with you it's the best protection against predators," Richards said. "But with these wolves all it is is bait. It will lure them right in."

Steve Nadeau, statewide large carnivore coordinator with the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, said people should not feel threatened by wolves but that dogs with hound hunters sometimes draw wolves.

"Their dogs are more at risk than other dogs simply because they are running away from humans," he said.

Richards was training his dogs with Bryon Dunlap of Lewiston a few miles south of Grangeville.

After finding fresh bear tracks, they released the hounds. The dogs split into two groups chasing two bears that were both treed.

Richards and Dunlap went to the nearest group first, took pictures, then retrieved the dogs and headed for the second group of dogs that were still baying about 400 yards away.

But the dogs became quiet and Richards said he heard two barks that didn't sound like his dogs. Dunlap found three wolves attacking two hounds, but he was able to get the dogs back to the truck.

Richards found another wolf fighting Blacky.

"I was screaming and hollering like I never have in my life," he said. "This thing was belly button high and about three times the size of my dog."

He said he picked up a branch and swung it, hitting a tree. Part of the branch broke and went toward the wolf. Richard's said the wolf then lunged at him.

"I ran 300 yards straight up hill to my truck," he said.

Richards said that Blacky began fighting the wolf again, allowing him to get away.

Richards and Dunlap met at the truck and returned with guns. Using electronic receivers they found Blacky and another dog dead, and a third injured. They took the injured dog to a veterinarian and it survived.

"I'm done guiding," Richards said. "I will not feed one of my dogs I've raised from babies to these animals and I've been doing it for 34 years. It's what I love to do and I'm done."

Idaho issues about 2,000 hound hunting permits each year. Since 1987, wolves have killed 85 dogs in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming.