7 month old sprocker chased deer

[TheBigMacDougal]

Will he need to be on a lead forever?

We have done off lead walks from day 1 and his recall is good, I practice every walk with him. He comes away from other people and dogs, he will chase birds but does it close enough to be in sight and then circles straight back to us.

He has never seen deer before and there was no way he’d have been stopped. Took us nearly 2hrs of circling a small woods to find him. He would have been completely lost as we’ve only walked that path twice and no where near that far.

Long leads are very impractical for where we walk. I was worried he’d got his harness stuck on something, so that will have to go too.

I’m careful when walking him. I never let him go on ahead where I can’t see what is coming or in the next field and out him back on the lead regularly. We play hide and seek, I change direction, I reward him checking in with me and being in my circle. I know he’s a working breed and I’m trying to train him responsibly.

Has anyone had similar experience and it’s not meant a lifetime of lead walking for the dog?

I feel your pain, my dog has usually a good recall unless there are deers around, few months ago, he chased a young one and nearly bite him but the deer managed to get away, I was so upset and scare that I never took him back to the woods, now I drive to an open field where he can run off lead and exercise, he has a lot of energy and he won’t settle for the day unless he runs 5 or 6 miles a day, a few weeks ago, a neighbour cocker spaniel hurt a deer so much that the poor thing has to be put asleep by the local vet, I know I would be devastated if my dog chased and killed one so I won’t be taken any chances if I take him to the woods on a lead and he smells dear, he will pull me so hard to the point that I would have to let him go

@PollyRoulllson I agree, we need to direct his hunting. I’ve got mission control on the way (ordered pre deer chase 🤦🏼‍♀️) and am already working through the total recall book (have been since day 1). Any others you’d recommend?

Anything by Jo Laurens

Book and work book and online courses

I worked really hard at recall in all situations, like you obviously have , since she was young. All the games as well but by the age of about 1 she loved her ball more than anything in the world. I can recall her from deer/ badger/ fox by asking if she wants her ball and she comes whizzing back. I keep it to be the best reward. Is there anything your dog loves as much? Squeaky toy, tug of war?

@scochran nothing yet that he really loves. The toys he loves at home don’t get a look in out and about. Food also becomes something he can trot past, so he’ll come back to me when recalled but not bother taking the treat on offer sometimes, so haven’t found what is most high value to him yet.

Deer can take your dog a really long way off which is the main danger. Sounds like you are doing the right things with reinforcing training. Get gundog school help is my advice. You must not let the dog chase anything (except a ball maybe). It’s very hard to turn this behaviour around in some spaniels once they get a taste for it. One of my spaniels in 8, she can only be let off in “safe” areas. Despite huge amounts of training she is really hard hunting and the chances of losing her if she flushes something are just too high. She has lots of exercise but it does make me really sad that she can’t have more off lead exercise.

[quote TheBigMacDougal]@scochran nothing yet that he really loves. The toys he loves at home don’t get a look in out and about. Food also becomes something he can trot past, so he’ll come back to me when recalled but not bother taking the treat on offer sometimes, so haven’t found what is most high value to him yet.[/quote]
Think how you deliver the treat. A recall command followed by a still hand treat reward will not reinforce a lot of dogs.

For example
Recall command and run away from your dog with the treat in your hand behind you, then throw treat onto the floor for him to sniff out - Way more reinforcing.

Recall and then move your hand for him to chase again way more reinforcing.

Our cocker completely lost his recall during adolescence. He's 15 months now and I can reliably recall him from other dogs, squirrels and birds. Your pup is young - I'd really try to keep going with it now so you can reap the rewards in future.

Keep persevering - longline are tricky in heavily wooded areas but we managed, it did mean adjusting where we walked to an extent and only giving out a portion of the line in more overgrown parts of the walk.

They are great though as you can prevent chasing (it's a self rewarding activity, so the more they do it, the more likely they are to want to keep doing it) and you have a back up until your recall is solid.

Exactly the same thing happened with our terriers a week ago, early morning and a herd of deer came out of a hedge and our dogs gave chase. They ran completely out of sight. One of them came back straight away, the other took a good 20 minutes.

It's an area we walk them regularly and it's really rural. Their recall is usually good, but I think this was just a bit too much. It's happened before so we usually see the deer before the dogs do, but this time they were right in front of us. Proper 'Fenton' moment

Don't remove the harness, collars are just as bad.

Mine has a high prey drive ..she doesn't want to kill, just chase.
She has pretty decent recall 80% of the time, but deer are just too much and she's off.
As a result I am careful where I walk her off lead.. I used to go to woods but now she has a long line in woods where there is anything other than a squirrel (squirrels just laugh at her and don't cause her to disappear)

Mine first chased a deer (in a very unexpected place) at 4 months old. She came back after 10 mins but I was frantic. Since then she has always worn a tracker (Tractive..I highly reccommend it) She's only disappeared once since then ..in a wood when I'd forgotton her long line, but the tracker makes me feel happier that IF she got away again I'd know where to look.

We have simply not been able to train it out of her, she's absolutely hard wired to chase :/

My Golden retriever recalls to a whistle. It's much more effective than my voice. It's consistent and carries much better. He once chased a deer but came back when he reached the field boundary. I think he finally registered the whistle.
I'd definitely double down on recall and introduce the whistle and use it all the time.
Much more dignified than bellowing a name into the wind!

He’s a teenage dickhead.

Carry on training like mad. I think I’d stop him chasing anything at all for the foreseeable future.

Trouble is chasing small furries ( or in the case of my CKCS birds - who fly off😂) is massively rewarding. You will absolutely struggle to get near the rewards that gives them.

We are sort of winning by avoiding squirrelly areas mostly - he just looses his tiny mind .