That alone has me thinking it's more a matter of ignorance the guts.
She wasn't gonna stand by and watch her dog get eaten. She saw, what was to her, an intolerable situation and did what needed to be done to fix it.
It also sounds like the bears in that neighborhood were "partially tame", not that that means they aren't dangerous, but she may have "shoooed" them away before.
In any case, she had the guts and courage to take on that bear. Dumb folks can have guts and courage.