We have 4 acres and sadly i can’t even have my little kids outside to play because it is completely covered with deer poop. When my house dog comes in I have to wash her paws every time bc she’s covered in poo. We can’t enjoy our property.
Which dog breeds are happy to be outside (with access to a heated barn) and will reliable chase away the deer? We do have an electric dog fence.
thank you friends 
Do you mean an electric buried dog fence? Phfftt. They may keep your dog in but provides no protection from other dogs coming in at your dog.
Try putting up a deer fence for the portion where your dog and kids can play.
The fence will protect your kids and dog from less friendly visitors, which depending on where you live, includes coyotes, bear or people who hunt them (!).
Dogs with 4 acres to chase deer also have access to rabid skunks, raccoons etc.
Dogs that chase deer tend to get shot since it’s illegal. I second hard fencing. Although having any breed of dog will usually keep them away from the house fairly well. Dog + fence is a pretty good combination.
I have 20 acres but fence around the backyard. Still have deer poop in the fields and front yard…but thats what you get in the country.
thank you , but that would not be a problem in my area. I’m in the suburbs of Philadelphia. In fact, I’m one of the few around me without a dog and that’s what you’re i think they are here
Make sure the fence if high enough.
In the Fall the deer are rutting and the males get quite aggressive.
They are all over the place where my daughter lives and she’s always chasing them away from her front, but in her part of suburbia she does have the fence at the back, and gates.
The babies are adorable, tho … easy for me to say, I don’t live there.
If you’ve got that much deer pressure and that large of an area, a dog is unlikely to help much. The deer will just keep an eye on where the dog is and come on over and eat and poop when the dog is at the far side of the property or asleep, or chasing another group of deer, then leave when they see him coming. Deer also can (and will, more often than people think) fight back. “Gored by buck” is not an uncommon history in vet hospitals in deer country, and even does will trample dogs if they think their fawn is threatened. An underground dog fence also isn’t appropriate for that setting. It’s ok (arguably) for letting a house dog out to piddle when somebody is home (and ideally out in the yard with the dog), but is very unlikely to reliably keep a dog contained 24/7 (particularly if they are the kind of dog that likes to chase things, as you theoretically want to go after the deer) and, as others have pointed out, won’t keep other critters out that can cause harm to the dog.
If I were in your place, I would pick an area to be a deer-free zone and fence it. Most reliable would be to use proper deer fencing (8 feet), but we don’t get any deer activity in our back yard with normal six-foot privacy fencing on two sides and five foot iron on one side. The deer have so many front yard, park, and green belt options that they don’t bother jumping the fences even though they easily could. I would not trust them not to come in if we were in drought and were still watering in the back, if I had a good crop of sweet corn going, etc. I will also say that we, and all of our abutting neighbors, have large to largish dogs that are episodically but not constantly out, which probably helps, as does the fact that our neighbor’s fences effectively act as a double fencing situation.
If you think there aren’t people in the suburbs of Philly that will shoot or poison dogs and other animals that get on their property, you are fooling yourself. I lived and practiced in the area for four years and saw that sort of thing regularly. I’m sure some of the poisonings were unintentional (somebody puts out rat bait without taking adequate precautions because they don’t have a dog and a wandering dog eats it) and most of the shooting was non-fatal (BB’s, air rifles, and bird shot), but still not something I would want to risk.
When I was a kid my parents had a few acres of raspberries. The deer never ate them until the border collie died. She stayed up every night of the year and barked at deer ALL NIGHT. It was far enough away from the house we couldn’t hear her. The farm was a 200 acre tree farm so she never got shot at by neighbors. She was very hairy (almost puffy) and never came inside. It was her passion to chase away deer. Some say she was a half breed collie. Who knows. When we shaved her in the summer we once found barbed wire deep in her fur. The border collie that replaced her had a passion for all water. She barked at Puget Sound ALL DAY and if she saw a running hose she would bark at that. Any water was fascinating to her. So all dogs are different. Finding a dog passionate about not going indoors might be the first step.
My barn has English shepherds that are on an electric fence. They naturally want to protect their “land” and were bred to be a good small farm dog. They don’t chase chickens etc but bark like crazy when anyone comes onto the property. At the same time they’re very friendly. Every time I pull up to the barn they bark like crazy, come over, see it’s me, say hi and play with my pups and then go back to watching out for anything/person is new. I’ve never seen a deer anywhere near where the dogs patrol but see them on a regular basis everywhere else because it’s in the middle of the country. They have nice thick coats and love to stay outside pretty much all year.
First, electric fences are cruel. They are painful during the “training” process and as someone else said, they trap your dogs in and allow predators to injure them or worse.
Second, there isn’t any such thing as a dog that will keep a yard clear of deer. The deer will be there when the dog sleeps, the dog will tire of chasing or even get used to them.
The only thing that will actually work is building a fence to keep deer out, as others have suggested.
Chiming in to reinforce what has already been stated, suburban dwelling deer are incredibly good at patterning the habits of humans and dogs, and will time their behavior to get what they want with minimal disturbance. They are pros at this.
The only sure fire way to keep deer out is fencing. As ugly and expensive and unlovable as it is, its the only way.
Even if you enlist the support of your local bowhunter to come knock the herd density down, the deer will just go nocturnal and eat and poop from 10pm to 4am, every. single. night.
Since you live on acreage with a barn, I’m guessing you have horses? Could you get a donkey or mule to help?
My dog will bark at deer and chase them out if he’s outside at night. But I don’t leave him out all night.
My horse on the other hand, absolutely will not let deer into his pasture for long. I’ve seen him chase deer out eating grass in the summer. God help any deer that may try to eat his hay - especially in the winter. The way our property is set up, deer have to cross horse pasture to get to lawn or garden. The odd one makes it through undetected but most don’t.
I frequently have to do a double take because there appear to be way more horses in my guy’s field than normal. Usually it’s an entire herd of deer grading beside or even mixed in with the herd of horses.
You may want to check with your home owners policy provide to get of list of prohibited or extra rider dogs. We had a certificated trained protection dog for the kids when they were young, our insurance copy added a rider for the dog (it was Not cheap)
But Nothing ever came on His Land and he never lost sight of His Kids
If you are in the suburbs of Philly, as I am, one of the issues would be your dog running deer out onto a road, and causing dead deer/accidents. And, as stated, having a dog that runs animals around is frowned upon. So is having a dog who is only a “tool”. We are fairly anthropomorphic around here about our four footed family.
I have non-climb fencing, and it isn’t an issue. Put some around your yard, where the kids play.
You don’t need a dog, you need a good fence around your yard.
Any dog that is scaring off deer is going to bark. That could be an issue with your neighbors.
Seriously? So you have loose dogs running through your suburb? No dangers there, LOL, not least of all the animal control officer who will pick them up.
Bottom line: there aren’t really any “will chase deer away but not run away and won’t get hit by cars or bark all night and annoy my neighbors” breeds of dogs.
You could tether a dog in your back yard but I don’t think that’s a good option either, since its not a great life for a dog and likely that it will engage in a variety of undesirable behaviors in your yard - digging, running in circles and creating a track, pooping bigger piles than deer, etc.
A fence would work far better than a dog. And if the only reason you want a dog is to get rid of deer, it’s not going to be a good choice. Dogs are work too.
While it might seem like a simple solution, getting a dog to keep deer away is a very difficult thing to achieve without serious unwanted side effects.
While your house dog may respect the underground fence, you now want a dog with enough drive to chase deer. IME those fences may keep a dog from “wandering” but will not stop a determined dog. Even if the dog usually respects it, in the heat of the chase he may go through it before he really realizes it. Then, of course, he cant get back in!
And how do you train such a dog? You have to train it to chase only deer - not horses, kids, etc. If you get a puppy, it will take a while to grow up. And you are not likely to find a trained “deer removal” dog! So it will require an investment of time and some expertise.
So, I am with the physical fence crowd. I would fence in a smaller backyard section as a deer-poop-free zone. You may, however, find you have to pick up more dog poop from your house dog as it cant deposit further away unless you let it out of that area. :ambivalence:
yes bark or charge the deer as deer can’t see well (poor depth perception)
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