# Do you discourage prey drive?



## liquid (Dec 28, 2011)

Well? Do you encourage or discourage prey drive in your dogs?
I'm just wondering how you guys react, or rather how your dogs react when they see small critters like birds, squirrels, rabbits? 

Eevee saw a rabbit today and nearly took my arm off trying to run after it!
What would have been the appropriate response to that, in your opinion?


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## Dude and Bucks Mamma (May 14, 2011)

I discourage it INSIDE the house because we have four pet rats and I certainly don't want him chasing them. He has known from 8 weeks old that the girls are off limits unless I hold them down to him. He then has permission to sniff them and possibly get nipped (as they will do when he gets too pushy) but mostly they will just sniff noses and be done.

Outside, if he is on a leash, I absolutely discourage it and we discourage it when he directs it at smaller dogs. In the backyard, I don't care and what we are working on now is, "you can chase things but when I tell you to come back you'd better get your hiney over here!" hahaha.

I don't think a dog with prey drive bred into it should have that prey drive extinguished. We hide things for Buck in the backyard all the time so he can use his nose. Any dog with prey drive needs some kind of outlet where they can use what was bred into them. But I also firmly believe that there are times when they need to suck it up and ignore that drive.


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## Sprocket (Oct 4, 2011)

What she said ^^^

I discourage it unless I ask for it.


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## Liz (Sep 27, 2010)

Since herding drive is part of hunting/prey drive I try to redirect it and use it for training. There is no chasing anything in the house and while on leash. If something is spotted off leash they can give chase but will most likely be called off.


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## sozzle (May 18, 2011)

Owning an ex racing greyhound - I think it is impossible to de-program them from certain prey. My dog isn't that fussed about small dogs and sometimes will and sometimes won't chase other dogs, if he does it's normally larger ones and then only if he can be bothered and normally looks at me first to see if it's ok. He definitely will chase cats if he sees them (if they come into our garden but thankfully hasn't caught one yet), he does kill hedgehogs if they come into our garden at night but we have little control over that and he will also kill rats and mice if he sees them. He is so quick we often don't have a chance to stop him.
He will also chase ducks but not smaller birds.
I think it very much depends on the dog. Other greyhounds I have met have very strong prey drive, I don't think my dog does although I would never trust him 100%.


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## Makovach (Jan 24, 2012)

Dude and Bucks Mamma said:


> I discourage it INSIDE the house because we have four pet rats and I certainly don't want him chasing them. He has known from 8 weeks old that the girls are off limits unless I hold them down to him. He then has permission to sniff them and possibly get nipped (as they will do when he gets too pushy) but mostly they will just sniff noses and be done.
> 
> Outside, if he is on a leash, I absolutely discourage it and we discourage it when he directs it at smaller dogs. In the backyard, I don't care and what we are working on now is, "you can chase things but when I tell you to come back you'd better get your hiney over here!" hahaha.
> 
> I don't think a dog with prey drive bred into it should have that prey drive extinguished. We hide things for Buck in the backyard all the time so he can use his nose. Any dog with prey drive needs some kind of outlet where they can use what was bred into them. But I also firmly believe that there are times when they need to suck it up and ignore that drive.


My dogs are the same way. From time to time we let the rats (Rosie, Nina & Stuart) out of the cage to roam around a bit. They know to leave them alone. If they get too bothersome (mostly Tucker) they get bit and they back off. 

Outside, chasing prey (rabbits, birds, groundhogs) permitted they listen when I call them off to leave it, and depending on the circumstances, I don't mind. I think you should definitely have control over the situation and not get your arm ripped off. I couldn't Imagine that would feel well


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## malluver1005 (Nov 15, 2009)

Um well, I don't discourage it. I just let him be...it's impossible to de-prey drive Aspen.


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## liquid (Dec 28, 2011)

How would I discourage her from chasing things on leash? I don't know what other people do when they correct their dogs. My trainer always said to use positive reinforcement and that corrections are not necessary... so I never learned how to correct.

Hmm.

I wouldnt mind if Eevee wanted to chase things when she's permitted to, though. I would never think to completely extinguish her prey drive, oh nono. Not with her breed. :nono:


Edit: I also hope to have a cat someday! So I'll definitely have to learn how to introduce a cat to a prey-driven dog like her... but that is another thread to be made in the future :tongue:


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## Sprocket (Oct 4, 2011)

liquid said:


> How would I discourage her from chasing things on leash? I don't know what other people do when they correct their dogs. My trainer always said to use positive reinforcement and that corrections are not necessary... so I never learned how to correct.
> 
> Hmm.
> 
> I wouldnt mind if Eevee wanted to chase things when she's permitted to, though. I would never think to completely extinguish her prey drive, oh nono. Not with her breed. :nono:



I just use a "leave it" command with Gunner. If it seems he is getting too interested in something, I tell him to "leave it" and he looks away or diverts his attention to me. 

It's really easy to change his train of thought. His "leave it" is rock solid and we use it for everything from food, to a toy, playing with Sprocket, when he's on leash and sees a small animal or even a human. He automatically stops concentrating on it and continues on.

He knows the different between "get it" and "leave it".

What I would do is establish a solid "leave it" starting with a object (toy). Also establish a solid "watch me" command so she pays attention to you. Then expand it to other things.


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## liquid (Dec 28, 2011)

I shall work on her 'leave it' then :thumb: It's not rock solid like Gunner's but she does understand what I mean by it.


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## sozzle (May 18, 2011)

If Stanley is onleash and he sees a cat and starts pulling a bit, I use the 'leave it' and a small tug on the leash and he gets the idea, although he looks like he still would really like to chase it up a tree!


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## mischiefgrrl (Oct 28, 2010)

Tanis has almost no prey drive - until he sees a squirrel. Then he's like the dogs in "Up." He's just curious though, tail wagging and a giant smile on his face as he tries to climb the telephone pole to get to them. He hasn't figured out yet that he can't do that.


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## bridget246 (Oct 26, 2011)

No, I don't discourage it. I'm going to start encouraging herding which isn't really prey drive imo. Currently we use a flirt pole for prey drive playing. 

Bridget does well with small animals including cats(they don't like her), puppies, frogs, etc. I want her to chase away geese so I do not discourage barking and growling at them. 

The worst prey drive I had with Bridget on leash was leaves. They blew at us out of nowhere and Bridget had to chase every one of them.


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## Little Brown Jug (Dec 7, 2010)

Woof has the most intense drive I've ever seen. And you cannot redirect him until he snaps out of it. He goes into his only little world and all he sees and hears is that object. When I first got him I was with an ex boyfriend and we had two cats. I thought Woof was going to kill them and break his own neck chasing them. When I took him to work he attacked a Maltese puppy, picked the poor thing up and started to shake it. It happened in the blink of an eye but luckily the puppy was OK and the owner wasn't upset. He'll chase birds as they're flying, jumped off the bridge, he's run off cliffs, goes into tunnel vision and just loses his mind. He's lucky during one of his escapes he hasn't gotten hit by a car or seriously hurt. Just the other day my father had him out for a walk, he saw a rabbit and ripped the leash from my father's hand after almost dragging him to the ground and took off into the woods. The only reason he was stopped was because his leash got wrapped around a tree. Yesterday he made a go at a friend's Shih Tzu and wouldn't calm down even an hour later. He's just too intense and I as well as others just don't think it can be toned down at all in his case.


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## Maxy24 (Mar 5, 2011)

Tucker has just learned through experience that he cannot have the animals in the backyard because of the dang leash so he might as well not bother. He'll focus on them and stalk if I let him, but when he hits the end of the leash he just stands there and watches and I can easily get his attention back. He's nice because he doesn't try to bolt after prey, he immediately wants to crouch down and stalk. I too think a leave it would be a good idea, that way you can continue training positively, rewarding the dog for listening to the leave it. If he has trouble then you might use the premack principle, asking him to listen to you, then when he complies allowing him to chase the critter (even on leash with you running with him), but that depends on whether or not you want him chasing critters at all. 

You might also want to work on general self control games like Susan Garrett's "Crate Games" or "It's Yer Choice" (basically a default leave it). That way he'll have an easier time keeping his composure around temptation, some dogs just really can't control themselves.
Here's an "It's Yer Choice" video, Crate games would have to be baught, though there are videos of people doing it themselves on youtube.
"It's Yer Choice" - YouTube


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## chowder (Sep 7, 2008)

When I first got into Chows I had a lot of old time people tell me that I could never have Chows and cats or small animals together. You wouldn't think that about Chows, but they go after little furry things with a vengeance in not trained. I did raise many Chows with cats and little dogs without problems, it just took training from the day I got them. 

Squirrels, rabbits, and deer in the back yard are always fair game. Our yard is fenced and if the animals come under or over the fence to eat my garden, they are taking their chances with the dogs. But on leash, nothing is allowed to be chased. Rocky and Shade were both really bad on leash at first and we worked hard with the "look at that' program. It did wonders for both of them. Rocky started when he was only 8 weeks old so he went a lot quicker. He totally ignores animals when on a leash now, and actually most of the time in the yard (that's just laziness). Shade looks at the animal and whimpers, then looks back at me to show me how good he is being! 

I'm not sure what would ever happen if a stray cat ever went into our back yard when Shade was out there. I don't think I could 100% guarantee his behavior.


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## brandypup (Jan 23, 2012)

liquid said:


> Well? Do you encourage or discourage prey drive in your dogs?
> I'm just wondering how you guys react, or rather how your dogs react when they see small critters like birds, squirrels, rabbits?
> 
> Eevee saw a rabbit today and nearly took my arm off trying to run after it!
> What would have been the appropriate response to that, in your opinion?


brandy had a very strong prey drive. I would take her in the woods for hours and work with her not taking me for a ride. I would try hard as heck to stop something first. I would say wait. Of course then she knew it was around and she would immidety get low and still and look until she found it. When she did I would say easy. that meant stalk slow. (this was all her natural instincts anyway, I just put words to it. I used a extend leash so it would be unlocked. When we were close enough to let the squireel still get away and close enough to the tree were me and brandy wouldn't get jerked I would say OK GO and she would bolt. 

Once we moved in with cats I taught her no kitty, she wasn't allowed to run after the cats. (any cats were no) We even fostered orphaned squirrels on time and she did ver well-supervised and I also had gerbils. 

Boomer the beagle saw his first rabbit yesterday. It was fantastic to hear him bay and chirp. There is no way to teach him the above lol.


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## Sprocket (Oct 4, 2011)

chowder said:


> When I first got into Chows I had a lot of old time people tell me that I could never have Chows and cats or small animals together. You wouldn't think that about Chows, but they go after little furry things with a vengeance in not trained. I did raise many Chows with cats and little dogs without problems, it just took training from the day I got them.
> 
> Squirrels, rabbits, and deer in the back yard are always fair game. Our yard is fenced and if the animals come under or over the fence to eat my garden, they are taking their chances with the dogs. But on leash, nothing is allowed to be chased. Rocky and Shade were both really bad on leash at first and we worked hard with the "look at that' program. It did wonders for both of them. Rocky started when he was only 8 weeks old so he went a lot quicker. He totally ignores animals when on a leash now, and actually most of the time in the yard (that's just laziness). Shade looks at the animal and whimpers, then looks back at me to show me how good he is being!
> 
> I'm not sure what would ever happen if a stray cat ever went into our back yard when Shade was out there. I don't think I could 100% guarantee his behavior.


There is the most beautiful deep red chow that I see at Alston. She is missing a back leg but gets along just fine. She is so sweet! I have never seen her go after anything. She mostly walks/hobbles around sniffing while her owner calls her name. She completely ignores all the other dogs that pass by.


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## chowder (Sep 7, 2008)

Sprocket said:


> There is the most beautiful deep red chow that I see at Alston. She is missing a back leg but gets along just fine. She is so sweet! I have never seen her go after anything. She mostly walks/hobbles around sniffing while her owner calls her name. She completely ignores all the other dogs that pass by.


Once they get past a year or two, most of my Chows pretty much stopped chasing things. They get into their 'lazy' mode. I had two girls who continued to chase deer and squirrels their whole lives, but all the rest of mine decided that life was a whole easier if you just observed it from on top the deck :smile: My big black boy used to share the yard with the wild rabbits. Now THAT was annoying!!


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## catahoulamom (Sep 23, 2010)

I think you've already gotten good advice, a solid "leave it" should help. Although I know how Carolina dogs can be - my grandfather has two (used to have 3) that showed up on his property in Clover, SC. They have a strong prey drive and there's no longer any roaming cats on the property because of it. Eevee is gorgeous by the way!


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## 7766 (Sep 20, 2011)

On the rare occasion we are on walks they are pretty good at no chasing down animals. The walking trail where we usually would walk them is wooded and has lots of furry little creatures. They have been taught "Leave it" but it has not been perfected. 

The back yard is a whole different story. In my previous house I had a neighbor who collected stray cats and never bothered to fix them so every spring we would have an influx of 20-30kittens. On average it seemed the population stayed around 40-50 cats. They learned really quick our yard was off limits. I would rattle the back door before I let my dogs out to give them a head start. Luckily we never had any incidents.

The new house is a zoo. I have found turtles, raccoons, possums, squirrels and rabbits. They will tree the squirrels but they loose interest pretty quickly. One morning I did find the remnants of a rabbit. I couldn’t get one of my dogs to come in one night and I could see her lying in the grass but couldn’t tell what she was doing. Figured it out the next morning when I saw the rabbit. When we visit my mom, she has a wild bunny that lives in the bushes and my dog will stalk it from the couch. She will stand on the arm and stare at it for hours.


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## Tobi (Mar 18, 2011)

We use a leave it when off leash, and on leash. at our house if there are critters i let him chase them, it's a natural drive for him, and i can respect it.


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## StdPooDad (Mar 16, 2012)

Teaghan, one of my standard poodles, is the same way when she sees a squirrel. She has the most vertical leap I've seen on any dog! 
Her hind feet almost clear the top of my 4 foot fence as she jumps straight up.


mischiefgrrl said:


> Tanis has almost no prey drive - until he sees a squirrel. Then he's like the dogs in "Up." He's just curious though, tail wagging and a giant smile on his face as he tries to climb the telephone pole to get to them. He hasn't figured out yet that he can't do that.


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## lovemydogsalways (Mar 4, 2012)

When we are out walking and the dogs see a squirrle I say leave it and continue to walk, no stopping or making any deal out of it. Just continue on our way. So I guess I discourage it, but if they are off leash in the timber it is free game to run for one. It gives them a good work out. LOL


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## 1605 (May 27, 2009)

With two GSPs you can imagine that they are all about the hunt. There is no way on earth that we can extinguish their prey drive; nor do we want to do that. We simply want to re-direct their interest to more appropriate venues.

The best "control" method we've found is actually a combination of obedience and field training. Between the two it approaches we seem to be able to direct them away from prey if hunting is not desirable. We are able to do this reliably off leash with the older dog -- not so much so with the puppy. This may change once the young one gets back from 2 months at "hunting camp" in GA this Summer as he is supposed to be whoa trained at that time.

Pax,


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## sozzle (May 18, 2011)

Alas, we don't have squirrels in New Zealand. 

They are lovely to watch, but when I go to UK in June I'm sure we'll see a few and won't have a dog to worry about either.

We don't have snakes either and possums are nocturnal and you wouldn't want your dog messing with one of those.


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## liquid (Dec 28, 2011)

catahoulamom said:


> I think you've already gotten good advice, a solid "leave it" should help. Although I know how Carolina dogs can be - my grandfather has two (used to have 3) that showed up on his property in Clover, SC. They have a strong prey drive and there's no longer any roaming cats on the property because of it. Eevee is gorgeous by the way!


How lucky that your grandfather just had Carolina Dogs show up on his property! 
They definitely do have a very strong prey drive, so I think I'll have to do more obedience work with her than normal.
Also, thank you! She's even cuter in real life. Photos cant capture her expressive eyes


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## xchairity_casex (Oct 8, 2011)

I dont discourage i CONTROL it.
i have a flirt pole for Cesar (a pole with a strong rope and a hunk of fur attatched to the end)
i use it with him he is encouraged to chase and catch and even "kill" the hunk of animal fur at the end its great excersize for him and he enjoys it greatly
but i do not allow him to chase animals outdoors while off lead i WILL allow him to chase a grouse into the forest a short distance becuase i know he cannot catch them they fly up and make alot of noise and he goes bouncing after them i ask "whats that Cesar?" he will follow it about 5 feet turn and come back.

at home i have button quail right now im down to 9 button quil they are tiny ground dwelling quail that can fly and are always escapeing and fluttering around my room when i go to feed/water/clean them cesar always follows me while i do this and he has had them litterly land on his head when i first brought him home he would try grabbing them he was young and has a good amount of prey drive he would also try grabbing them thru there cages i would always give him a verbal correction or use my hand togive him a jerk on his collar and say "UHUH"
now when birds get loose and flutter around it doesnt faze him i just give him a reminder "UHUH" and go grab the bird.

while out in the woods weve encounterd lots of deer running infront of us (i NEVER allow him to chase)
porcupines,rabbits,grouse,ducks,geese,bear,skunks,even a few foxes he is not allowed to chase them and he knows it off lead i would give him a vibration from his collar as well as a verbal correction to remind him.
the ONLY time i allowed him to go after somthing was a medium sized female snapping turtle.
he walked over and pawed at it a few times before picking it up in his mouth to carry around then he dropped her and went to pick her up again well seh wasnt about to be picked up again and gave him a quick nip to the nose (never broke skin she was too small to do any real damage) he yelped and has since avoided ANYTHING with a shell! a good lesson i would say
with the porcupine i was tempted to let him learn the same lesson but i really didnt feel like picking quills out of his face and stopped him..

i really see nothing wrong with encourageing prey drive in SOME areas while discouraging it in others dogs ARE predetors they were designed to attack prey it needs to be reliesed sometime thats why i use a flirt pole and allow him to "kill" stuffed toys i know alot of people will debate "you cant use flirt poles with a dog unless you want to encourage prey drive all the time youll make them cold blooded killers they will atack anythingthat moves including little dogs!"
well sure it will if you dont have a good respectful relationship between your dog and yourself if you dont trust your dog to listen to you 100 percent dont get a flirt pole.
i never used the flirt pole with Cesar untill he
#1. ALWAYS dropped anything i asked him to "give" even if we are in the middle of a game of tugg or he has food if he didnt give everytime he wasnt ready for the flirt pole.
#2. you dog responds to you verbally while off lead everytime so if your dog sees a little critter running thru the woods you can say "leave it" or "lets go" and the dog will ignore it to come to you.


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## Dude and Bucks Mamma (May 14, 2011)

liquid said:


> How would I discourage her from chasing things on leash? I don't know what other people do when they correct their dogs. My trainer always said to use positive reinforcement and that corrections are not necessary... so I never learned how to correct.
> 
> Hmm.
> 
> ...


I,personally, think any dog can learn to live with smaller animals with enough training and effort. Obviously, it is much easier to teach a puppy from the day they enter your home that the cat, rat, bunny, guinea pig, etc are off limits to them than an older dog with no prior experience with said animals but I have never had an issue with it. There are plenty of dogs I know who were not previously sharing their homes with a cat and they were either adopted into a cat home or a cat was brought in after the dog but even with only allowing them to be in the same room when you are there too works. Even our dogs are only together when we are there with them. Buck has free roam of the dog room and Dude is crated in the dog room (he tends to pee in there).

We just taught Buck to ignore his prey drive by giving a jerk on the leash to snap his attention away from what he was focusing on and then used "Look" to maintain his attention with treats being shoveled in his mouth either until the focus of his attention was gone (him in a sit/stay) or we were past it (watching me while we walk). Once he had the focus concept down pretty well I started using "Leave it" when I jerked on the leash. Then "Look" once his attention was no longer focused on the "prey". Now I don't need to do anything with the leash. All I have to do is say "Leave it" to get him to look at me and away from the "prey" and then "look" to get him to keep his attention focused on me. 

The best way to teach "Leave it" IMO is to give them a treat or reward them in whatever way you reward them when they look away from what it is you want them to leave. Keep doing that and once your dog has that down only reward when she looks at YOU rather than just away from the "prey". Pretty soon "Leave it" will be another cue to focus on you and only you. Almost all of the commands I teach my dogs result in eye contact. Sit, down, leave it, look (obviously, haha), wait, etc. They all will get me eye contact, especially with Buck. He has a really good leave it when he is on leash and we are out in public whether it be sniffing things going down the aisles in a store, children running by, people walking by with their dogs, small animals running around, bikes, etc. We haven't seen horses on the trail yet so I do wonder about that but he does have a TINY bit of experience with horses so I'm not too worried. Hahaha. 

Sorry that was such a long post. That's how I taught leave it and focusing stuff. We are still working on making it even better but he is great at it and it was super easy to teach.


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## KittyKat (Feb 11, 2011)

We encourage it for lure coursing.


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