ive always considered myself a sportsman and would never hunt deer with dogs. as far as its a southern thing i hope it stays down there. my son lives in Va. and as far as i know it legal. when we would visit him when he lived in the southern part of Va. there are a lot of swamps down there. they used dogs to roust the deer out of those swamps. guess its better to use dogs then trying to wade into those swamps. as Oldtimer said ill pass on using dog for deer.