Where we lived in Suffolk the Muntjac deer were fondly known as the vampire deer because if you weren't paying attention they would give you a nip.

Heidi

We have deer in our local country park, and tbh it is very rarely that we catch sight of them. One morning we had one emerge out of the mist and trot straight towards us. I just told the dogs to "leave it" and stood very still while it went on it's way. It passed within feet of us and the dogs just stood there until it had gone. I felt very honoured, as we know they are there, we occasionally see them in the distance but usually they stay well out of sight during the day.

I haven't had time to read all the posts so apologies if I'm repeating anything, but this is probably the best guide I've ever seen on the internet to training a dog away from predatory chasing

http://www.dog-secrets.co.uk/behavio...g-chasing.html

however, remember what he says here:


"You can’t deal with a long standing chase problem in isolation. Because we are working within the parameters of internal reinforcement and a need to perform the behaviour, we are interfering with the balance of the dog’s emotions. Dogs have a limited number of ways of improving their emotions and if we temporarily deny them an opportunity their emotional balance may plummet, leaving them stressed and anxious."


There are 2 short videos in the article

My dog (Belgian shepherd) recalls from running deer, she was trained very similar to this, with a predictive recall

Wys
x

I am more surprised now abount Montjack, they must be tamer than I have ever seen to come up to people at all let alone bite, somone told me they are only about as big hares but the few short times I have caught a glimpse of them they have to be quite a bit bigger than that. Maybe if you have a dog that chases then simply more training time in for safety of the dog as well,

that sounds like it might work for ours as she loves balls.

agility dogs are her biggest chase distraction, the sound of their claws on the dog walk/a-frame is too much for her (she has run into the ring at shows to chase other dogs in the middle of a run ) but so long as i can catch her attention with a ball she is fine. but until now i didn' tlike to use the ball too much as she becomes obsessed with it.

think i'll give it a try.

I think it is not safe for dogs to chase deer due to the risk of RTA/getting lost etc. Unless they come back within a minute it is a safety issue I think. Mine came back after two hours which was very scary, and not safe for him to be missing for that length of time, so he doesn't get the chance now.

Maybe country parks do pick up the vets bills...But when we found a poor deer hanging upside down by it's leg and carried it a few miles to even get it to our truck, no body wanted to know, we ended up taking it to the vets, and they barely wanted to know, it was really horrible...that deer hung on in there fighting to live and put up with being carried by us, all that way and then the journey to the vets for nothing, all they did, was tell us it wouldn't make it - ballsed up the injection to put it to sleep, flick it right in the eye to see if was fading but it wouldn't, as it was a fighter, and re attempted putting it to sleep - 3 times! All while my o.h stood there holding it, not believing what was going on - It was horrible - it would have been kinder to slit it's throat when we found the poor little thing. That's what we told them and they seemed shocked and disturbed by that - apparently this was far more humane [my ass] I cried at least 3 days about it as I had looked right into her eyes and willed her to live just for this.

You might have the facilities to get vet treatment for injured animals but don't act like there are vets having struggling to foot the bill everywhere. A lady we know took an injured deer to the vets also - they told her it could survive but they wouldn't be able to carry out treatment - unless she wanted to pay! Thankfully this lady isn't short of a bob or two and she paid all of it's treatment - just a regular member of public [who has dogs that also sometimes chase deer!] Another time - we were stupid enough to take a crow that we found injured to the vets - they said to us - you don't expect us to treat that do you? They reluctantly took it off us - I think it was obvious they were going to do nothing and let it die. I sometimes don't think they honestly give a sh!t about animals unless there is an owner with good insurance. The voluntary organizations yes but not regular vets or even the rspca etc.

Yes my dogs do chase deer - So I guess I'm mean but with a big heart? However when it is baby season they get called back straight away...My dogs have never killed deer. But deer get hit by cars and they get caught up in the fencing no matter what, or maybe they get shot by farmers because they are seen as a pest when they run across the crops - then we have the population control because we are a weird country that protects ground nesting birds as though they were gold yet we are afraid of anything with a remote prey instinct - so we need guns instead ...

Nothing is done to make the fencing a better design - the fencing we have here is the kind which has large squares and I know for a fact the deer get caught in that purely by just jumping over it minus any chase, yet there is no effort to change it for something different. And do we have a suitable speed limit on the road here where it passes through heavily deer populated areas? Like hell, it's not slow enough and people ignore it anyway - people do 90mph on their motorcycles as it's a nice straight bit of road. What about when farmers let their fencing get in a state? Guess what - when I'm out on a walk I re straighten any bits of fencing I see badly buckled over as I know that is a deer trap waiting to happen.

I don't think enough people care and to be honest once you've taken away the threat of people, most dogs are the least of deer's worries. I just try to keep things in perspective. I love deer but dogs in general certainly are not the biggest threat to them.

To the original poster, I find so long as you get the recall in right at the very start, they listen, after the chase has began it's to late.

I use every time a chase happens as my que to get in more training. The best thing that we do is play hide and seek with the dogs in the forest so it keeps them aware as to our location and makes it fun for them to track us down rather than other animals - if they do start a chase I make sure I'm close by but out of sight on their return so that they don't come to expect I will just be there no matter what - they need to know, if they are gone to long they might loose me!
This way even if they began a chase they come back quite quickly.

...And I wouldn't let my dogs off lead where a chase is likely to occur if there is any chance of them going near a road.

Whatever your view on this subject please bear in mind that a deer at this time of year can abort, if it has young they are at high risk of dog attack, if the mother is killed the young starve, if the mother is defending its young your dog is at risk, when a deer runs, it runs and runs sometimes into a tree. You could cause an accident and the deer could be killed, your dog could be killed or even worse you could be responsible for someone else being killed.

Just because an animal is a wild animal it doesn't mean it can be chased or mauled to death and that is ok, it isn't.

Also bear in mind if you can't see your dog it could be accused of anything and you would be unable to defend it. If your dog is missing for half an hour it is certainly not under your control, that in itself is illegal as is chasing wildlife in the first place.

We have incidents reported by members of the public who are often (usually) outraged at this behaviour, we have had dogs killed by running on the road and we have had accidents caused. We have had letters published in our local paper, it certainly adds fuel to the anti dog brigade.

If you think the councils do not have dogs on their agenda anyone who reads the dog papers can tell you of the growing numbers of restrictions that are being brought in.

Good luck to everyone who is training their dogs to come back when called. Mine would never be reliable so they will stay on their leads.