I am so glad Drake is back! And it was very clever of him to go back to the car.

My parents' late doxie also tried to hunt deer and you could never take her to the woods without a leash (If she was in a hunting mood she didn't listen to anything)

The legal situation (for woods) is the following: If you walk on the paths the dog does not have to be on a leash, but if you walk croos-country, he has to. So Drake -in a wood, in a park there may be other (generally rather more) restrictions- was not allowed to chase the deers. And in the woods this could have been very dangerous. Because the huntsmen who have the right to hunt there (in Germany this is a defined person - hunting is never free) can shot a "poaching" dog or cat!

When I was living in Northern Germany in the middle of nowhere in the fields I could not have cats because we had a guy nearby who owned the hunt and had shot lots of cats This was even legal as soon as he met them 200 yds from the next house!