But more to the OP. We have several members in the dog club with us that only still hunt. They see and kill plenty of deer. We will drop dogs right on top of them. When we move on the deer go back to what they were doing.
My experience as well.
I shined 3 bucks one night (legal in FL as long as you don't have a gun). Went there the next morning and hammered that block. Ran does out all day. I quit at 2 and put the dogs up and got in a stand around 4. I killed one of the 3 before 5 that evening. He was just feeding along like normal.
I hunt on hard hunted public land in FL. A 60,000 acre dog hunt WMA. It's adjacent to a hard hunted 60,000 acre still hunt WMA and a few limited entry WMAs. Probably totals 200,000 acres in all. If I'm still hunting, I'd rather hunt the limited entry WMAs obviously. But between the 2 very pressured 60,000 acre tracts, I'd much prefer to still hunt the dog hunt one.
The deer pattern the hunters and dogs. Most folks don't run dogs till dark and evenings can be great. Also, most dog hunters stay pretty close to the road and if you get away from the road, there is very little human pressure.
