Do new fawns have a "scent"?

Today a saw the tiniest fawn, crossing our front lawn, it was no bigger than a cat! Teeny tiny thing, from the window I could see its mouth open and close, clearly calling for mom. It went all the way across our lawn into the woods (dogs’ walking path would have included this area, fortunately we were not out). I did not see mom, saw a doe nursing another fawn across the pasture. Hope and trust they were reunited, they fawn looked thin as well as tiny, must have been so young.

Some does seem to make odd choices as to where they park their fawn, a suburban back yard, right outside their back door in one case I know, and I’ve often heard of them parked right next to a frequented trail. Around here, twins are most common, triplets not that uncommon. I wonder how they decide where to park them? It sounds like it can be difficult to predict.

For sure will be keeping the hounds up for awhile, downer is that it may be until October. OP, having 200 acres and usually walking your dogs and friends’ dogs there makes for some difficult choices!

[QUOTE=maybedog;7613706]
Just another reason why I always hestitate to post on this forum. I may just join threedogpack and say “adios” :mad:[/QUOTE]

Um, it’s not exactly a horrible mistake to confuse a LabxBoxer for a pitbull.

And I agree with the poster that hugging the fawn would make it feel worse, not better. The options for me in your situation would be: bring to the vet, euthanize, or leave it alone, depending on the extent of the injuries. Cuddles don’t really enter the picture - they just make the human feel better. And definitely let the mama deer find the fawn (dead or alive) so she doesn’t have to keep searching.

nope, they don’t smell at all

Short version of the story is I ended up with two day old or so fawns, one in each hand that had “frozen in place” in the middle of one side of a two lane road. Got all the traffic stopped, but had to move THREE baby deer to the side of the road that Momma deer leaped over to. Scooped up two, deposited them in the ditch then “shoo’d” the other over to the correct side of the road. Discouraged all the ooh ahh types from stopping and taking pictures and got everyone out of there so mamma could get back to the babies.

Felt about the size of a long legged, skinny housecat, didn’t even fuss at all, you could feel their little hearts beating a mile a minute. Color of dark caramel with the whitest spots ever. Felt like a mink coat.

Very cool.

[QUOTE=maybedog;7613221]
I have no idea how you came to the conclusion I even owned a pit bull!! To set the record straight the young dog that happened upon the fawn is half rat terrier half heinz 57. The older dog that killed the fawn is lab/boxer and yes, I know her parents. I have no issue with pit bulls. Most of the ones I know are very sweet and well behaved because they have been treated right.[/QUOTE]

If you have no problems with pit bulls, why did it bother you to have me mistakenly assume that your lab/boxer was one? I wasn’t attacking you, just correcting the person who assumed the terrier was the aggressor just because some terriers sometimes behave in a predatory manner if they’re raised wrong or trained to be predatory.

[QUOTE=vacation1;7622532]
If you have no problems with pit bulls, why did it bother you to have me mistakenly assume that your lab/boxer was one? I wasn’t attacking you, just correcting the person who assumed the terrier was the aggressor just because some terriers sometimes behave in a predatory manner if they’re raised wrong or trained to be predatory.[/QUOTE]

Actually, all terriers have been selectively bred to be predatory, i,e., go to ground (“terra”) in pursuit of prey, various varmints such as foxes, rats, etc,. Terriers acting upon these behaviors are not “raised wrong or trained to be predators”, they are doing exactly what they have been selected by us humans to do. Good dogs!

Granted predatory impulses can be directed towards the wrong prey, sometimes with tragic results.

vacation1:
A non-predatory terrier is not a terrier.
Just like a scent hound that can’t sniff out it’s own chew toy is not a scent hound :wink:
Domestic dog breeds were selectively bred and culled to have instinctive attributes. If an owner does not want a certain type of behavior, then obtain a dog that doesn’t have that behavior bred into it. You can train to have some control over certain behaviors, but a good well bred representative of the breed will never be rid of that behavior and you’ll not be attributing to the best mental health for that dog to try to train out an ingrained, instinctive behavior. So if you don’t want a bossy, howling shedding machine that pulls hard on a leash, don’t get a husky or malamute no matter how cute and fluffy they look. If you want a dog to be happy inside most of the time and only have walks or a dog park for exercise or mental stimulus then an Irish Setter is a bad choice but a pug is a good one. If you raise free range guinea pigs, a JRT is not the dog for you…and so on and so forth.
Just like with horses, you get the animal that fits your lifestyle and not your aesthetic ideal. (whatever you find cute)

OP, these things happen. Know what the top killer of tiny fawns would be? It’s other does. Seriously. Does very often will stalk and kill other does’ fawns by a hard strike to their heads. The most common death for them until they’re capable of outrunning other adults. Deer have an extremely strict hierarchy when together and even when not keeping themselves separate but crossing paths. At least twice a year I can hear them crashing through the woods and going after one another, the fawns shriek. It’s pretty awful, I find them crushed on my little 4.5 acres on a somewhat regular basis and have witnessed it a handful of times.

Many times when dogs come across a down fawn, they react surprised and confused because instinct tells that fawn to NOT move. So a living thing with very very little scent is confusing to them. Nudging, circling, licking, etc are all normal reactions. And a down fawn will eventually move when being touched and that can surprise and shock the heck out of even the most laid back dog, bolting away or a grab and shake are both normal surprise reactions. Your dog didn’t do anything abnormal and neither did the fawn. The mom will call and then forget. Nature’s way. They lose so many in infancy that Nature makes sure they don’t have a hard grieving process. :slight_smile:

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! DOG RACISM!!! YOU MONSTERS!!! Terriers are sweet, gentle, loving dogs!!! I know lots of them and they’re soooo wonderful! It’s just that so many are raised by horrible people who make them wear little sweaters and walk on leashes and live with house rabbits! It makes them all twisted and emotionally devastated and sometimes, just sometimes, they snap! But that’s all wrong! ALL WRONG!!! You can’t judge them by these crazy made-up stories of dogs that act really aggressive toward little animals! Lots of dogs are really predatory and aggressive and the media just calls them terriers and all the ignorant people assume they’re terriers but they’re really NOT. There’s no such thing as a terrier! It’s a crazy LIE.

[QUOTE=vacation1;7625228]
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! DOG RACISM!!! YOU MONSTERS!!! Terriers are sweet, gentle, loving dogs!!! I know lots of them and they’re soooo wonderful! It’s just that so many are raised by horrible people who make them wear little sweaters and walk on leashes and live with house rabbits! It makes them all twisted and emotionally devastated and sometimes, just sometimes, they snap! But that’s all wrong! ALL WRONG!!! You can’t judge them by these crazy made-up stories of dogs that act really aggressive toward little animals! Lots of dogs are really predatory and aggressive and the media just calls them terriers and all the ignorant people assume they’re terriers but they’re really NOT. There’s no such thing as a terrier! It’s a crazy LIE.[/QUOTE]

You need to take a chill pill. Seriously. You have a deep-seated hatred toward certain dogs, for whatever reason, and you feel the need to constantly interject it when it isn’t the lest bit relevant.
You’re being a real pit bull. Open your jaws and let it go :lol:

[QUOTE=CrowneDragon;7625342]
You need to take a chill pill. Seriously. You have a deep-seated hatred toward certain dogs, for whatever reason, and you feel the need to constantly interject it when it isn’t the lest bit relevant.
You’re being a real pit bull. Open your jaws and let it go :lol:[/QUOTE]

Passive-aggressive bitchery isn’t much of a conversational style. You need to develop a sense of humor. Try letting go of the blinding obsessiveness about everyone being out to get your pibbles; that might give it a chance to grow.