Is that due to legal issues? Are handguns verboten there? There are several wheelguns with power that rival rifles and shotguns. A .500 S&W or .454 Casull will flatten even pretty big bears.

Since you asked, the laws north of the Medicine Line are indeed quite different from what our American cousins are used to. (Please, let's stay away from politics.)

A license is required to own firearms and purchase ammunition.

Firearms with barrels shorter than approx. 18.5" and overall length less than 26" are restricted. This includes handguns and shorter carbines/shotguns, and the process for applying for the restricted class license is quite involved. Transporting them anywhere is heavily limited (typically home to gun club range only). It is possible for someone to apply for a license to carry a restricted firearm, but only for their work (e.g., armoured car guard, bear biologist).

Semi-autos are permitted, but are limited to 5-round magazines (except rimfires).

Realistically, someone supplementing their income by picking mushrooms won't be spending money on fancy guns. They would take, if anything, the common centre-fire hunting rifle or shotgun.

I'll just bring a guard bear. That worked for the mushroom picking woman. Moreover, if we have the right to bear arms, perhaps we also have the right to arm bears...

Back to the OP -- I can't help but think of "moving between mama bear and cub with a dog at your side" as a pretty desperate gambit. It could have gone the other way -- injured by angry bear, dog dead, finished by starving wolf. But I wasn't there.

Anyway, glad she made it out okay.

Maybe those who know more about wildlife behavior can answer the question: do wolves not know about bears??? Or maybe the wolf was just so hungry that it was willing to risk the wrath of a much bigger animal?

Wolf and bear? Um, exactly what kind of mushrooms were they?

Inside voice, Jeff! Inside voice! (Kidding!) The internet commentariat are way ahead of you.

Harvesting morels and chanterelles is a big seasonal industry. If the animals were wearing Hawaiian shirts and communicating telepathically, then there might be more "magic" involved.

Thanks, Doug. Stateside the laws are a crazy-quilt patchwork of wildly varying regulations. In my home state of SD you can have virtually anything and carry it almost everywhere. But outside of the Black Hills there are very few dangerous wild animals, and almost no big ones. Plenty of rattlesnakes but they're best dealt with by leaving them alone. Having been around black bears quite a bit (mostly during my fishing trips to Canada and seeing them in SD) I would feel relatively confident with just a 9mm. But obviously if Grizzly Bears are involved that isn't very much gun. I would have little fear of facing a wolf with a 9mm.

It does seem to me that bear spray is quite effective against bears but not very effective against canines. IIRC they have different receptors and many dogs and wild canines aren't deterred by OC (which seems to have been the case in some stories referenced).

So, is there some chemical means which is effective against canines?

I'm not sure. It does seem like some OC spray works on some dogs, if it's really strong. But aggressive dogs will sometimes become even more aggressive when sprayed. An experiment with police dogs showed that some of them will bite and fight even harder after half a can of spray hits them!