ORIGINAL: SWOSUMike
ORIGINAL: KimberRuger
Can ONE dog really chase down a healthy deer on its own ?
PMantle said it...it's not really relevant, however, they most likely could never catch a deer. Not a pet, most pets lay around all day and could never just see a deer or smell one and catch it...a strong, woodswise hunting dog up with one, but never would catch one on the run. Plus, hunting dogs aren't usually chasing deer unless they're young.
As far as it not being someone's responsibility like someone said to catch and return a dog...well it's not your responsibility to shoot the dog either, most would get bored and go home soon anyway. Whoever it was that shot a collered beagle...you've got to be kiddin. He'd never have caught that doe. Plus you said the doe had be run a long ways...sounds to me as if the dog ran a deer onto your property from somewhere else, doesn't sound like a problem to me. Focus your efforts on coyotes, which really know how to catch and kill deer. A domestic dog is little threat to the deer hurd.
With all due respect, you are wrong on that one. Deer are fast but they are not long distance runners. A dog can literally run a deer to death! They don't have to be faster (and they aren't). They just have to have more stamina (and they do). Hell, I have caught up to deer before that I was trailing by just going along at a steady jog. Sooner or later, the deer will get caught looking back at you and will present you with a shot oportunity (with a rifle anyway). Dogs will chase the deer until the deer just can't run fast enough to keep away anymore. Then they will hamstring it and it is all over. In deep snow, the deer have even less of a chance. Floundering through snow up to their shoulders really takes it out of them quickly and many dogs (especially smaller breeds) can run on top of the snow and catch them pretty fast.