Hi. I've got a labradoodle who is beautifully behaved in all circumstances until a deer crosses her path.  She is  nearly 2 1/2 and she and her brother have fully accepted me as the pack leader in all other areas of our life.  I do have to let them off the lead separately because they will go off hunting for an hour or so, but never go on their own.  Any help???  My solution so far is to muzzle her, but would like her to accept that she's not allowed to do this. Thanks for any advice. PJ

I think you need to work on your recall for really tasty treats or for a game of tuggy - whatever she prefers. 

If you find they "pack" when they are together and go off hunting, then just don't let them off lead together.  This is one of the reasons why it is not a good idea to keep 2 puppies of the same age, let alone from the same litter - they will bond to each other far more easily than to you and will be much harder to train as a result.

I am a bit confused; how will muzzling your dog prevent it from hunting?

All it will prevent is her killing a deer, (but not necessarily worrying one to death).

The prey drive is very strong in some dogs and any more than one dog constitutes a pack; if they had really "fully accepted you as pack leader" :( I would say that they would not chase except under stimulus control.

You need to prevent the hunting behaviour in an inappropriate situation and redirect the prey drive onto other things like searching for articles and toys, ball chasing etc.

Keep your dogs on a lead if they chase Deer, its illegal to hunt Deer with dogs!
Dawn.

Ive had a deer chase me and my dogs!!! LOL

Was NOT funny at the time!!

LOL I've had cows chase me, good job my BC was stock trained & stopped them getting to me-same cows were also known to chase the farmer !

As for your dogs as Dawn says you are breaking the law if you allow your dogs to chase deer so you will have to keep them on lead if they cannot be trusted-you have of course got a X breed from two hunting breeds

itsok if its only the one Dawn! :)