Hello, my dog chased, attacked and nearly killed a deer while hiking in the woods yesterday. She is a 1.5year old German Shepherd mix with a history of completely non-aggressive behavior toward dogs or people. She has chased many (hundreds) of deer before while hiking with me but has never come close to catching one. This particular deer seemed very small, slow and weak. My question pertains to this level of aggression. This was an isolated incident however, it was rather disturbing to see her face covered in blood and the deer wobble away losing blood from bites to the neck. If anybody with dog behavior experience would like to give me any advice here as to how to interpret this incident please comment. Otherwise, others should weigh in here and share their experiences. Looking for advice as well. Thank you.

On Tue, 12 Feb 2008 20:20:53 +0000, baxt1978
wrote:


Hello, my dog chased, attacked and nearly killed a deer while hiking in
the woods yesterday. She is a 1.5year old German Shepherd mix with a
history of completely non-aggressive behavior toward dogs or people.
She has chased many (hundreds) of deer before while hiking with me but
has never come close to catching one. This particular deer seemed very
small, slow and weak. My question pertains to this level of aggression.
This was an isolated incident however, it was rather disturbing to see
her face covered in blood and the deer wobble away losing blood from
bites to the neck. If anybody with dog behavior experience would like
to give me any advice here as to how to interpret this incident please
comment. Otherwise, others should weigh in here and share their
experiences. Looking for advice as well. Thank you.

This is not aggression; it is prey drive. If there are deer running
around in the woods where you hike with your dog, keep her on leash so
she can't chase them.

Mustang Sally

Put the dog on a leash. Most people who see dogs chasing deer think nothing
of shooting them for it.

Celeste

"baxt1978" wrote in message
...

Hello, my dog chased, attacked and nearly killed a deer while hiking in
the woods yesterday. She is a 1.5year old German Shepherd mix with a
history of completely non-aggressive behavior toward dogs or people.
She has chased many (hundreds) of deer before while hiking with me but
has never come close to catching one. This particular deer seemed very
small, slow and weak. My question pertains to this level of aggression.
This was an isolated incident however, it was rather disturbing to see
her face covered in blood and the deer wobble away losing blood from
bites to the neck. If anybody with dog behavior experience would like
to give me any advice here as to how to interpret this incident please
comment. Otherwise, others should weigh in here and share their
experiences. Looking for advice as well. Thank you.




--
baxt1978

In article ,
baxt1978 wrote:
This was an isolated incident however, it was rather disturbing to see
her face covered in blood and the deer wobble away losing blood from
bites to the neck.

Sounds like your dog killed the deer. Ugly way to do it.
You should probably report it to the game people in your
state if you're in the US, although frankly you could get
into a lot of trouble for this.

If anybody with dog behavior experience would like
to give me any advice here as to how to interpret this incident please
comment.

It's normal prey drive. If you can't control your dog when
it's off-leash you need to keep it leashed. I keep my dogs
leashed when I take them into the woods (anywhere, really)
and it's not a big deal. Violating game laws, however, is a
big deal.
--
Melinda Shore - Software longa, hardware brevis -

Prouder than ever to be a member of the reality-based community

baxt1978 said in
rec.pets.dogs.behavior:

This particular deer seemed very
small, slow and weak.

Your dog is darwining. You're trollering.

--
--Matt. Rocky's a Dog.