For the past four years I have hunted an area of a 327acre lot that is in a creekbed with six trials crossing my stands within a couple hundred yard stretch. I' ve had marvelous success within this creek bed, and I' ve taken a couple of awesome bucks from the same area. Normally this area is like grand central for deer....but for the past year NOTHING!! All the sign is there, rubs and trials, they' ve even tore up some buck fever synthetic " traps" this year. I' ve been trying to figure out why these deer have been nocturnal all of a sudden since im using the same tactics and scent techniques as always....... Now that i think about it nearly EVERYTIME I' ve hunted that stand, I' ve heard several dogs running the area right about daylight. So today I go in there around daylight, and here comes a whole pack of dogs (about 7 or 8) on a dead beeline along a main deer trail, yap and makin all kind of kane along the way!! Needless to say, I spent the rest of day moving my stand to a better location. But I must say I hate to see my best spot go just because of some mangie muts........On the flip side of that, I stumbled onto a really good eight point on a property that runs parrallel to the other property, which so happens to be directly behind my parents house. They actually have some video footage of the big eight coming to some pear tree' s. I had hunting this property growing up, and seen some good bucks, but I havent been in there in a few years. To the best of my knowledge, knowone has hunted that property since I was last in there. This should be interesting!!


One other thing, this property has a " shelf" that holds the only acorns on the property....Which could be very beneficial, since there are no acorns on the other property I was hunting.

Domestic dogs are very possibly a whitetails worst enemy besides humans. I have really researched this topic out because of some similar discussions on this msg board last year. Domestic dogs can be very detrmental to the deer herd health and population. If the problem persits many of the deer will simply move out of the area. There are only two solutions: 1) some how convince these dog' s owners to actually show some responsibility and keep their dogs on their own property. This is a very unlikly possibility. 2) Rid your property of the dogs by any means and methods, including getting the law enforcement out there if necessary.

I have been fighting the same problem on our place too and it is a very frustrating situation. I feel your pain.

you should contact the game warden. In Michigan it is illegal to allow dogs to run free like that. The should be rounded up. It is also illegal to shoot hunting dogs, but it dosen' t say anything about shooting mangy mongrel good for nothing deer running mutts.

Most likely those aren' t any kind of hunting dogs, they' re just a pack of wild dogs that enjoys chasing and killing deer any chance they get. You know what your best solution is going to be, shoot ' em!!! Or at least as many as possible. Their' s nothing worse than wild dogs running around the woods. And they pose a possible threat to you as well. Who knows if they' ll catch you someday out in the open and attack you. If you know where they' re going to be, set up on them and kill as many as possible.

FWIW
CJW

Yeah, I hunt east texas as well and faced the problem...seems like one corner of our property holds lots of dogs. I was hunting one day in a new spot on that cornere (when i didnt know there were dogs there). Then all of a sudden 6 came out. They were all wild, no pets at all...just mutts. So i shot two of them...i know that it is not what most people want to hear, but i see them chasing deer constantly and they are not anyones pets...no different than a coyote to me...but for some reason everyone has sympathy if they are just wild dogs and not yotes. i say shoot them...i dont see those dogs as much any more, but whenever i do, i get rid of as many as possible

All I can say is THWACK

A pack of wild dogs are the same as yotes. They might not be called yotes or look like yotes, but do the exact same damge. It looks like you need to setup in some good dog/yote territory and start wacking a few. Out of sight...out of mind. Doesn' t matter if they have a collar on either. Once those " pets" have that pack mentality...they won' t ever get rid of it. Expecially if they have already killed something!!

Any dog running deer or seen on our property gets shot. We have had too many problems with people putting dogs out on one side of our property and picking them up on the road as they run deer. If it ain' t my dog I consider it wild and therfore no good. Like said previously, shoot ' em.

are they someone' s pets? The property owner 50 acres away let' s his dog run wild and more than once I though about THWACK but it was one dog and someone' s pet. I contacted the property owner and he said he would keep better track of him. Well last monday night on another adjoining property another hunter wasn' t so patient. The dog did live but took a lot to put him back together. I am glad I wasn' t out that day nor was the other guy that hunts the same property that I do but it still is a shame both ways - to let a dog run around and ruin someone' s leisure time and for the person that shot the dog.

Nasty situation even if you call game warden chances are you don' t want anyone else poking around the woods. Maybe wait till the off-season or small game or late muzzleloading to try and fix this problem.

In some places I believe it is legal to shoot a dog thats running deer. I also don' t believe they are a protected species unless they are on their own property. I know in Jersey there is a law againt dogs running deer. I haven' t seen it published in a while but it used to be in the hunting digest when I was much younger. Guess peta had something to do about that.