My vote is for a deer fence! Not really a fan of unattended dogs. At our old house, my neighbor’s dog dug under the fence and attacked our dog. He had also attacked the man next door to us. Unfortunately, long story short, animal control took the dog away. We now have 5 1/2 acres and had a dog wandering up our driveway (we live pretty far off the street). Our driveway is actually a V with one part going to the house and the other going to the pasture. My husband said the dog was over on the second part later. The barking had gone on for about 10 minutes (guess he was barking at the horses). I thought it was a neighbor’s dog, but couldn’t imagine which neighbor it could be. I certainly don’t want anything happening to one of our dogs or to our horses.
I’ve never seen so many deer that the yard is saturated with deer poop!
Enlighten me.
If I have a suburban fenced yard high enough to keep my large dogs in, and a deer jumps into the yard, you’re saying that if my dogs bark and chase the deer I am committing a crime or the dogs are breaking the law? It would make more sense if that pertained to deer in a park or public open space. Does that really apply to all situations? What if the dogs run the fence and bark at the deer which are outside the fence, but harrass them enough so that they move some distance away. Is that illegal? For heaven’s sake, how is is reasonable to expect any dog not to react to a flock of turkeys landing in the back yard?
I have never seen a deer in my neighborhood, but I can guarantee that my late weimaraner would not have sat idly by if a deer had jumped into the yard.
Perhaps they are referring to the practice of hunting deer with dogs? That could be illegal but your pet dog chasing a deer isn’t going to result in a prison sentence. It would probably result in never seeing your dog again.
I still want to know how many deer there are on 4 acres to have the ground saturated in poop. I have 10 acres, lots of deer, and have no poop saturation.
I have lots of deer that hang out in the field behind my fenced yard; I mow portions of it and since we still have no snow here, they gather to eat the grass in the mowed areas. The ground is not saturated with deer poop but there are some large piles from time to time.
But never have one of them jumped into my fenced yard. I think they are smarter than that. I suppose if you had several acres fenced in they might try it; but overall I think they would avoid the areas that they know dogs tend to be in.
In general, I think the “dogs chasing deer” rules are not highly enforceable. I think it would probably need to be a pattern before animal control got involved. But still, no reason not to discourage it.
8’ tall deer fence is what everybody here uses to keep the deer out, and if you have a backyard you want done, that’s what I would use. I live in a place that has one of the highest deer populations per square mile, and deer fencing is the only way your plants don’t get destroyed. I like my sleep, so I wouldn’t want a dog outside that chases or barks at deer all night.
Having just installed and trained my lab and golden retriever to an electric fence, ummmmm, no. They are trained to the beep, not the shock. Sorry, but it’s a lot less cruel than being hit by a car, which my golden retriever did recently, hence the fence. We aren’t in a position for a physical fence just yet until we clear our property and in the interim, the e fence is fine. Rather a shock than a dead pup.
I was wondering about this too. I have 6 acres that backs up to several hundred acres of PA state forest and I have no visible neighbors aka prime deer territory. There are deer in my yard every day, to the point they are bold enough to be in the front windows lol. I have never noticed any deer pellets though.
Many use electric fences and are happy with them.
- They don't keep anything out.
- If you dog does blow the fence and gets out, they often won't get back in because they will get shocked when trying.
