would fox hounds kill a springer spaniel?

 
My Girlfriend lives on a converted farm house/barn.
 
The next door neighbour has decided to organise fox hunts.
I think they're fox hunts anyway, lots of hounds, horses and toffs with 4 x 4 and wellys
 
 
was walking the dog round the lanes about a month ago and had to leg it back to the house with the dog because the hunt was about 10m behind us and worried dog would have got attacked.
 
took the dog out today too.  was in the girlfriend's field behind her house about 5 mins after going for the walk, throwing frisbee for the dog.  Next thing, loads of horses come up the lane, 4 or 5 of them take a short cut across the field next to us, which was literally a few yards away from us; dog starts going absolutely mental and trying to run out towards the horses, all a bit stressful; the horses galloped passed (there was a fence in between us by the way) and jumped over the hedge into next door's land.
rest of the toffs took the normal route from the road through the gate next door.
 
wasn't too impressed; again, worried if we had delayed our walk by 10 mins the dog would have been in trouble.
 
was a bit intimidating and scary too to be honest, all the noise, dogs, horses galloping passed.
isn't fox hunting illegal anyway?

They are trained on the fox scent, that being said I wouldn't trust the safety of my dog.
 

All depends, if your dog was off the leash and went for them or provoked them, sheer numbers would mean trouble.
 
Would you fear for your dog if it was on the leash and you had to pass a bunch of hunting hounds?
 
They are just as well trained as a typical well trained dog IME

As far as I know they have to have the owners permission to cross private land, other than that you can only lodge a complaint with the council about the noise and the safety aspect.  Catch them on film and send the footage in next time if you are in any way worried about their actions.
 
I know I'd be livid if I had horses careering past my dogs and mine have grown up around them.  Its one thing being next to them calm, quite another when they gallop past at full pelt.  Even a well behaved dog you would not know its reaction.
 
Good luck, sorry I can't be more helpful.

Wouldn't take the chance with mine anyway. Pack mentality, one has a go and it could easily set the rest off.

"Would you fear for your dog if it was on the leash and you had to pass a bunch of hunting hounds? "

yep


My dog is pretty friendly with other dogs and always goes up to them, but I think he would just brick it and stand by me if there was a pack of hounds going passed.

They should at least let my girlfriend know if there's going to be a hunt, just with the safety of it.
I'm veggie so you can probably predict my view on the whole thing.  would like to dress up as a fox and batter them all. 

 

I'm anti foxhunting personally, but am confused as to if you're saying that you wouldn't be able to control your dog even if it was on a leash.
 
If you can, are you saying that you are concerned that the hounds would go for your dog. If so why? Any valid reason or experience to make you think this?

 
sorry, perhaps worded last reply badly.
dog's always off his lead around the lanes; but considering how narrow the lanes are and 'that they' seem to hunt with at least 10 dogs, I'm guessing some kind of confrontation is possible even if he was on his lead.
 
can't imagine a ruck of horses in such close proximity is particularly safe for a dog either

i dont think id be too worried about it, as long as your dog is under control at the time, although id probably try stay out of the way of the pack just in case.   however, that could be tricky with the speed at which they move, the horses could be on you pretty quick.  Normally though you can hear them coming a good distance off, because they arent exactly quiet....!
 
legally they 'should' be drag hunting.  if they are chasing a fox they shouldnt be, but in reality whos going to police it after the event?  they will just say the dogs picked up the scent and chased it  and it wasnt intentional. 
  
 
If your on your GF's land then their shouldnt be a problem, because they shouldnt be on it unless they have permision.  If your in a public lane and you feel they are too close then id tell them.

The laws against foxhunting mean they are on shaky ground if they try the "oh they just caught the scent" defence right?
 
I think so long as your dog is under your control, whether on the leash or off, then you shouldn't have any more worry about the hunting dogs than about some random nutter attacking you on the street.
 
My experience of hunting dogs is very good, they are generally controlled, even in packs

http://www.realca.co.uk/violence/pet_killers
 
Mostly cats and small dogs though but a worry...

Nice neutral site with unbiased views lol

The first site that I found the info....
 
I'm assuming those stats are genuine...

Would not want to take the risk, sorry to hear about the situation

I'd be more worried about my dog getting trampled by the horses as she would try to join in. I live in a rural area and take my dog out walking in the wilds off-lead, I think we'd both get a scare if that lot came roaring past! 

i'd be worried, yeah. i dont have a dog but i would be Freaking Out bigtime if packs of trained-to-kill dogs were anywhere near my cat 

Manimal
  
dog's always off his lead around the lanes; but considering how narrow the lanes are and 'that they' seem to hunt with at least 10 dogs, I'm guessing some kind of confrontation is possible even if he was on his lead. 

 
This is a bit of a gripe of mine to be honest after I was savaged by a 'friendly' dog when I was a kid.
I go running down country lanes alot and Ive lost count of the amount of times ive been jumped up or chased by dogs that the owners dont have on a lead.
 
ALL dogs should be kept on a lead and under control in public at all times. Just because YOU trust your dog, doesn't mean that everyone else does!

boneyboy05

ALL dogs should be kept on a lead and under control in public at all times. Just because YOU trust your dog, doesn't mean that everyone else does!

ive nearly been run into quite a few times by guys on mountain bikes coming flying round corners, so your view is a bit like me saying all mountain bikes on tracks should be banned.
 
just because your scared of dogs, doesnt mean they are all out to get you

dazc

boneyboy05

ALL dogs should be kept on a lead and under control in public at all times. Just because YOU trust your dog, doesn't mean that everyone else does!

ive nearly been run into quite a few times by guys on mountain bikes coming flying round corners, so your view is a bit like me saying all mountain bikes on tracks should be banned.

just because your scared of dogs, doesnt mean they are all out to get you

 
i agree daz - i keep my dogs on the lead until we're in the woods then they're off - horses mountain bikes dogs & deer all roaming around.
 
as far as the pack of hounds is concerned i'd be wary of them as you don't know where they are in the hunt they could on the verge of the kill & have blood lust

Fox hunting IS supposed to be illegal, but owing to the social class of many of its fans the police and courts are extremely slow to enfoorce the law - which in any case was drawn up with plenty of grey areas - so by and large, people can find plenty of loopholes and ways round it.
 
I doubt that foxhounds would deliberately target your dog(unlike a cat, plenty of examples of people in rural areas having fox-hounds come barrelling into their gardens to rip the family cat to shreds), but with the chaos of a hunt, large numbers of fogs, humans and horses all in a rather exciteable state the potential certainly exists for your dog to come to harm if he gets in the way.
 
You could try complaining to the police and the council, but my experience is that the complaints of serfs dont get taken very seriously when up against the kind of people usually involved in hunts