They can maintain a good lead by simply loping through the woods, stopping frequently to listen and scan for alarming scents. Only the most badly wounded deer can be caught and the dogs then invariably bay it, rather than attack. This allows the hunter to catch up with the dogs and administer the coup de grace. Staying well ahead of the dogs allows the deer an opportunity to plan its escape. Wise bucks are well known for jumping over fences, running through herds of does or hogs, swimming sloughs and doubling back in order to lose the dogs or throw them onto another track.
Standers have to stay alert.
Rather than exploding across a pipeline scant yards ahead of the pack, the deer might simply walk across it a half mile in front of the howling dogs. Since more often than not the deer escapes the standers on a drive, dog hunting often involves long hours of searching for wayward hounds. Well-trained dogs eventually return to their owners' houses or the area of the drive, but some have been known to disappear for weeks before mysteriously reappearing. Dog hunters are a helpful lot, however, and long established tradition requires hunters to take in lost dogs and notify their owners. There have been cases of owners receiving calls from people forty miles away who had caught lost dogs.