Oh Deer! Off-leash hiking and the joy of the chase...help!

[PaddyD]

Well I found out that Abby doesn't have 100% recall. She has chased 3 deer in 2 days and totally ignored my calling her. I have been walking through these woods for 15 years and never encountered a deer until yesterday (and today) so the problem of deer-chasing never came up. Fortunately the deer were large and had a good headstart on her and had plenty of woods to escape into. First time in 2+ years that she got out of sight and sound fromf us. A little unnerving.

[Lauri & The Gang]

Here's a couple things you can do.

First, USE the deer! Take your dogs out ON leash and look for deer. When you see the deer get the dogs to look at them THEN call their attention back to you and reward with a VERY high value thing (toy, treat, etc.). Keep this up for several days/weeks.

At the same time look into getting an e-collar and using it properly. They are THE best way to be 110% sure your dog will not go crittering.

With the training you may never need the e-collar but it's better to have it and not need it than to watch your dog get hit by a car because they decided to go crittering.

[Caledon]

Every time I read about dogs chasing deer two thought come to mind. The first one is a police officer or a game warden witnessing the chase and shooting the dog, and the second one is the deer turning around and trampling the dog. I still can't get that video out of my mind where the deer trampled the dog in a subdivision. The dog didn't even chase the deer, but was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

i'm also hearing more and more about e-collars and my opinion of them are changing, just like my opinion of a prong collar changed once I researched it.

[wyominggrandma]

Best way to prevent your dog from chasing deer, is keep them on a leash. I am sure there are plenty of people who feel their dogs are 100% in control at all times, but it just seems that when a deer/elk/moose pop up when walking in the hills, its very very hard for a dog to not forget his obedience and take off.,
Deer and elk are now trying to eat for winter around here and dogs are being shot daily for running them.

[London's Mom]

London used to chase Deer like mad when we lived in VA. In order to reinforce his "recall skills", I bought these REALLLLY yummie treats. On occassion while we were hiking off leash on the trails, I would call him when there were NO distractions. Randomly. He would come immediately and sit. I would then highly praise him and give him one of these yummie treats. He loved them.

So now when he is hot on the trail of a deer, squirrel, whatever, I call him and he stops dead in his tracks and comes back. I am very pleased by this. Unfortunately, I have not mastered this skill with Emma as of yet. So I am much more restrictive with her on the walks. The one thing about her, though, is that she is very much afraid of the "unknown", being a rescue. So she really does cling to me on our walks.

[JakodaCD OA]

Masi does ALOT of offleash hiking, we run into deer, the ocasional coyote ...She's such a good dawg , that girl can stop on a dime If I really think she's going to kick in and go for it, I just yell FRISBEE, and bam she's back

Her frisbee over rules anything else in life, in fact couple weeks ago I had a big fat racoon in my backyard (fenced) and didn't see it, let the dogs out, the aussies were off in 'lala land',,so getting them back to the house was easy they didn't see the racoon or he woulda been a dead one MASI on the other hand, was racing around with her jollyball and both of us almost tripped over the darn coon! She saw it, even jumped over it, but it was allllll about her jollyball .

[scuba_bob]

Be careful with deers.

Cranbrook Deer Attacks Dog - YouTube

Cranbrook Deer Attacks Dog - YouTube

[debbiebrown]

both my dogs have extremely high prey drive. however my Male is more reliable than my female on recall off critters. once she starts chase its all over............So, i had to get an e-collar that was the only way to get her corrected. Now she gets the idea. i think any time you have more than one dog off leash walking the woods its ten times as hard to try and control things. some dogs might be close to 100% with the lunge line training, but others have that tunnel vision and want the chase and the instinct is to high to remember the training, so this is where the e-collar comes in..........depends on the dog.........

[spidermilk]

Just wanted to echo the sentiment that deer are not all Bambi. If you or your dog corner or frighten them they will hurt you. There was a deer in our subdivision last year and instead of going inside and waiting for the deer to wander away my neighbor decided to go over *with her dog* and try to chase the deer out. She is *very* lucky that the deer didn't decide to charge her with those sharp hooves.

I can't really contribute to this subject- we only hike off-leash in a deer-free area. A few weeks ago when we went looking for deer my dog was on-leash because I know that he may or may not listen to me if there is a deer running. Rabbits and squirrels can be ignored after a lot of recall work.

[scuba_bob]

Originally Posted by debbiebrown

both my dogs have extremely high prey drive. however my Male is more reliable than my female on recall off critters. once she starts chase its all over............So, i had to get an e-collar that was the only way to get her corrected. Now she gets the idea. i think any time you have more than one dog off leash walking the woods its ten times as hard to try and control things. some dogs might be close to 100% with the lunge line training, but others have that tunnel vision and want the chase and the instinct is to high to remember the training, so this is where the e-collar comes in..........depends on the dog.........

My pup has a lot of drive and we have a lot of deers where I live so I'm going the e collar route too, better to be over prepared than under.