My standard poodle and I befriended a doe in the woods next to a nearby lake. She was pretty bold to begin with. My poodle was of course very excited the first

My standard poodle and I befriended a doe in the woods next to a nearby lake. She was pretty bold to begin with. My poodle was of course very excited the first time we met, but she was also well behaved, and when I asked her to sit down and quiet down, she did. I sat next to her and the doe calmed down and browsed foliage gradually nearer and nearer, coming to within about ten or fifteen yards before we moved on. We encountered her many more times over the next several years. I was able to recognize her because she had a distinctive deformity in one ear. My poodle always got quite excited, but also always remembered that the thing to do was to settle down and be patient and allow the deer to approach. I never touched her, though she did eventually take to coming close enough that I or my dog could have touched her if we wished. The poodle was not always able to contain her excitement enough to keep from spooking the doe. She would sometimes make a frustrated sound or wriggle enough to spook the doe, and she'd be off, but would approach us again on our next visit. One year she had two fawns. I thought it interesting that although the doe approached us calmly even with fawns, the fawns fled and hid when they saw us. Very sensible of them. My poodle passed away about a year ago and I haven't been back to those woods to visit since.