He managed to flush a deer out of some bushes this afternoon. He then lost it as it ran off the other side of the bushes, but I was in a quandry as I'd been trying to negotiate my way across a marshy bit and had come to the conclusion that the only way out was back towards the deer So, after a bit of squishing, Jasper and I were reunited but before I could get him on lead he spotted the deer up a slope and took off.I almost didn't bother calling him back as I didn't want to set him up for failure and a lurcher in full flight after a deer doesn't have good hearing. The deer was a fair way off, but it seemed wrong to do nothing so I gave him the normal three blasts on the whistle.
He stopped
I called his name, and 'SAUSAGE!!!', blew the whistle again... and was gobsmacked as he turned and ran back to me again 
I'm pretty sure the vicious gorse he'd had to run through was dampening his enthusiasm for the chase, but a lurcher's pain threshold when in full flight is pretty high
He got lots of praise, two bits of sausage and a dried fish as reward!
Naturally, all the recall training has been positive, and has involved a lot of sausage and chicken. I really don't understand how negative approaches could ever work with recall!
