Hi can someone advice roughly what age my 8 month old deerhound would be robust enough to run loose with my 3 lurchers who are likely to take her off running like lunatics through forest? i let her off on her own at moment and she is dangerous enough on her own but is desparate to run after the others!!! and second question(hope i wont be shot for this one!!) do people ever muzzle deerhounds?

My girl ran after the huntng big ones at age 7 mths , of course not so long ; this is the age all 5 started running off for a bit longer with te adults , really long ( 10-15 minutes ) then with 10-12mths , they determined this themselves as they are off leash from the get go here and thus can build up good bones/ligaments and condition in teir own pace . Perhaps you can give her a run - she has to get the agility , too , and then take her back on leash initially .
And , why would you want to muzzle her ? I have never found it necessary with any of my dogs or hounds and find , that muzzled dogs look quite frightening ,the poor sods - this is at least , what I think , " the public " will perceive.

I would think she'd be OK running with the others by now, but like Verena, I wouldn't want to muzzle her. However, I gather that she's likely to do that infuriating Deerhound deafing you out thing, so you might want to be sure she'll come back with the others before letting her get too far ahead. If you can teach her to drop on command, it's usually more likely to be obeyed than recall.

This is counsel of perfection, you understand!

thanks both, iam not saying that iam going to muzzle her just wondered if anyone did,my 3 lurchers wear lightweight greyhound muzzles when out at forest because they do have a periods on walk when they will chase each other through forest wildley, when they are winding down in the excitment my 2 boys can end up in a fight and because they are so thin skinned have ripped each other which is why they wear them. I did try her off with finley my saluki greyhound,(unmuzzled so he could tell her off)but he was quite horrified!!! a bit scared of her because she was so full on going after him and biting him he didnt do a very good job of telling her off!!! and wouldnt leave my side!!! prehaps i will try her with murphy who is bigger and may be better equipt to stand up to her!!!! she is abit above her station at moment and needs telling!!!
my lurchers recalls are very good so she would probably be better off with one of them,right thats it then will bite bullet tommorrow and try her off with murphy and work on that dropping into a down!!!

I let Lockie out with our 2 adults when he was 8 months. Scared me silly but WOW! did he love. So did the girls. They loved chasing him

Yes our two youngsters who are eight months now, run with the rest of the older dogs and they love it.

Pam

hi all
braved letting skye off with murphy in woods yesterday, took her a few moments to realise murphy was off too!! then when she did she ran at him and murf took off at top speed with skye in hot persuit and me with my eyes closed!!! she loved it !! then i let her off with my female who was hopefully going to put her in her place(although small, she has bedlington terrier in her and is feisty!!! )she and finley took her on big run round woods then lilly put her in her place when she didnt want chasing anymore which the boys dont seem to be very good at!! they both look all pathetic and come to me for help!!! usually with skye still attached to one of them!! makes her recall abit easier!!
skye and murf had brilliant time chasing each other for ages this afternoon stopping for a nice smelly black bogg water bath to cool off,lying down in it !!! then up and off again!! they are now all scrubbed up and unconsious !!!

Sounds like a perfect day for the hounds !

it was, a great time had by all!!! not nervous now i can see she can very definatly cope with the big ones!!! more like they cant cope with her!!!