Teaching the dog to camp

[rbi99]

"To be fair, we don't always know how stressful it is to cause an animal to flee. Sometimes they simply return a little while later, none the worse for the experience. But there are numerous situations in which where rapid escape is clearly harmful. Flights of pregnant animals have caused miscarriage. There have even been accounts of disoriented mammals, such as deer and elk, drowning in escape attempts."

These situations would be extremely rare to be caused by a single dog chasing a herd or single deer. Again, I have observed my dog here in Cleveland chasing deer, and I have observed the deer as well. Easily 95% of the time or more the deer barely jog and are out of "harms way" in a matter of seconds. The above situation would have to be caused when a predator is after it for food and continues to pursue for a longer period of time. I don't hunt, never have, but I think that might be a little more stressful for the deer than a dog running at them.

[rbi99]

I don't want to give the impression that I think it is fine for dogs (including mine) to chase whatever they want. No doubt there is some stress to any animal no matter how easily they avoid anything running toward them. I have two specific commands for my dog when in the woods, "leave it", and "trail". If there is an animal that my dog has spotted (raccoon, squirrel, etc.), I clap my hands and say leave it. It isn't fail proof, I need to say it before he has gotten too worked up, but it works most of the time. I use the command "trail" mostly when I am hiking with him in the Adirondacks. If he starts to wander off the trail this command stops him and he returns to it. I do not want my dog or anyones dog harming another animal, and I take my role very seriously. While I cannot say my dog is 100% obedient, I know none of us "do the right thing" 100% of the time. I have literally spent 100's of hours in the woods on and off trail, working with my dog(s), they know what they can and cannot do, and the vast majority of the time they do what I expect from them. That being said, chasing a deer does not concern me nearly as much as him chasing a squirrel or similar animal because they cannot escape as easily.

[Glen]

My dog doesn't bother with deer but he is holy hell on smaller prey. I leave him home now.