Dan O.

Up until this year I' ve always seen deer on my property in good numbers. I' ve even had does walk up to 100' from my trailer if I made a strange noise. Late last year I got a large (100+ lb) Rhodesian Ridgeback/Lab cross dog. I' m still finding plenty of deer sign from when I' m not there but my sightings during daylight hours are zippo. The only thing that I can figure is that the deer sense the dog as a possible predater and are keeping their distance. Has anyone else had this happen?

How does this affect hunting season when I have the dog in my trailer with me? The scent has to carry on my clothes.

Dan O.

coyote170

I keep my Small dog in my ground blind with me
still getting deer and turkeys spray scent killer
on him he sleeps on a small rug under my chair
doesnt move until its time to eat or leave!

Dan O.

coyote; I always kept my Jack Russells with me in the past with no problem. My new dog stands about the size of a wolf and I think this could be where the problem is arising.

Dan O.

Grasshopper13

I have a story that kinda touches on this........

When my wife and I first married, our first house was a caretaker' s house on a farm owned by a local businessman. We lived on the farm, took care of cattle, and basically watched over the place, in exchange for the rent. The farm had a small creek that ran through the middle of it. We saw deer so much, that after a while you just didn' t pay much attention to them unless they were sporting some nice headgear. Almost any time of day or evening there would be one or two in the pasture behind the house, or in the late summer, standing around the apple trees in the front yard. After a short amount of time, I finally got around to building a dog kennel off the side of the house for my coonhound and a pair of beagles that i had been keeping at my Dad' s place. The first week I brought the dogs in, they barked and carried on everytime a deer showed up near the house, or if they noticed some picking in the pasture out back. The funny thing was, after about a week, the deer learned that the dogs couldn' t get out, and they would TOTALLY ignore them. I laughed till tears came to my eyes the first time I saw a mature doe, calmly picking clover not 35 yards from the kennel full of yipping dogs!

Even on the few times the beagles would manage to get out, that one old doe would just run them in small circles out of the pasture and through the creek, until I' d finally head off the dogs and put them up.......she' d be back picking clover within an hour!

I' d say your dog will not bother the deer in the least if there is something that they want near your house. I' d be more apt to think they are taking advantage of food sources other than whatever it is you have near the house......Also temperature can cause them to shift to a more nocturnal pattern until cooler weather comes along...though that may already be there in your neck of the woods.



If you do notice that they start showing up again, and don' t seem perturbed by your pup, I wouldn' t worry about whether or not his scent will disturb them.


GH

dragonhunter

are there any wild dogs where you are seems to me the deer are overy scared of your dog

maybe some wild dogs been running them [>:]

kevin1

The feral dogs in my area have been known to both chase and even kill deer , especially the larger ones . While we have a state law that makes killing dogs an offense , it' s largely overlooked when the dog is feral and causing damage to livestock or wildlife . The general view of them is " Shoot on sight" . Stray pet dogs sometimes get a bullet because of this mentality , pity their owners don' t obey the leash laws .

Stump_MN_Hunter

Amen to that one Kevin....A dog or cat in the wild isn' t doing anyone any good. It' s not like they are just going for a stroll looking at nature. They' re killin something. Cats....baby pheasants, squirrels etc.... Dogs...deer, phesants etc... Keep your dog on a leash(sp?) or it may not come back home.

RedAllison

ANYTHING that barks/howls is going DOWN on my land. We specifically forbid them on our place and even the farmhands that live there know if they want to keep their kids pets thru the season that they better keep the critters on a leash or behind a fence. Loose dogs are a deer managers bane. They run deer for the hell of it and can ruin a hunt in fairly quick order.

I even carry a blunt tip arrow during archery season to " shoo em away" forcfully with. They may not can read NO TRESPASSING signs, but their owners can and thats enough.

Ol yellar be warned,
RA

Dan O.

My neighbour has a 3/4 wolf but it' s always leashed. Another neighbour has three loose dogs but I' ve never seen them on my property. Their owner was telling me that they' ve been bringing deer legs back home for over a month from the poachers bush north of them. I do have coyotes and wolves in the area but they' re not too visible.

Generally what I' m getting is that the deer should sense that a pet dog isn' t a threat after awhile. That' s the way that I was thinking too until the lack of deer sightings this year.

Dan O.

Hunt2Kill

Unfortunatley i have bulleted a few k-9' s in the last 5 years. The farm dogs stray wild for miles around my area.... When you see a dog in a chase, its not gunna be chasing anymore. But, i have a dog near my house outside, and has never had any problem w/ the deer. While deer are feeding he gets out of his house and walks around, even the noise of the chain doesnt bother them, dont know what your problem could be.