Prey Drive - Natural Canine Instinct

[BookThief]

Imagine: a neighbor's cat gets into your yard, and kills one of your birds, what do you do? You may warn the neighbor to keep the cat contained. You may set out a trap, or have other means to keep the cat away. But, do you call the cat aggressive? More then likely not.

If a fox, coyote, hawk, or other wild predator kills one or more of your flock, again, you may call animal control, set out traps, or even kill it. But do you call them aggressive? Probably not. Why? Well, they may be considered pests, but they are wild animals looking for food, and they saw your flock as easy prey.

Yet, when a dog kills your birds it is considered aggressive. In fact, when a dog harms or kills any smaller animal, it is call dangerous, vicious, or aggressive. Why?

All carnivorous animals on this planet have a little thing called prey drive. Tigers, bears, falcons, and even a tiny chihuahua all have prey drive. Yet, the prey drive in dogs is often seen and dealt with differently then it is for other animals. I personalty once new a boxer who was very sweet and gentle. Yet, he one day got out of his yard, saw a tiny dog and attacked it. The attack did not come out of nowhere. The boxer saw a tiny animal and viewed it as prey and his instinctual behavior that he is born with kicked in. The little dog did survive, but the boxer was listed as a dangerous dog and the owners would have to pay a yearly fine for owning such an animal. If a different animal, such as a cat harmed a smaller animal, that cat would not be considered dangerous. It would just simply be called a cat, and it would be said that cats are natural hunters, that it was normal. Dogs are natural hunters too, yet humans have put such a high standard on them.

Humans seem to expect dogs to be perfect, and the moment they do something the human doesn't like, the dog is seen as a monster that needs to be destroyed. I know there probably will be people who will say their dog would never harm a small animal so therefore they have no prey drive. But, does your dog like squeaky toys? Does your dog shake its head when it has a toy in its mouth? Does your dog like to chase toys or play fetch? If your dog doesn't like or do any of these things, then you have an exception, not the normative.

If you say that its all about how you raise them, that's also not true. There are so many factors that go into the behavior of a dog that humans don't consider. I once new a bully mix who only ever wanted to play with other dogs. He was gentle, and calm, and loved his doggy friends. But one day he began to become reactive, hated any other dogs around him. Some might write it off as it being the genetics of a bully breed not being good with other animals. I happened to notice he was walking oddly, his gait was ever so slightly off; I told his owner to take him to the vet. Turns out, his Achilles tendon was torn. After recovering from surgery, he was back to his old self. It's not just how you raise them. You need to treat them right, yes, but you also need to train them, look out for their health, feed them a good diet, but also understand that their environment and experiences in life affect them too. And, yes, genetics do play a role in a dog's behavior as well. Don't expect a labrador to make a good guard dog, and don't expect a malinios to be quiet.

Prey drive in an instinctual behavior. The great majority of dogs have it, though the degree of how strong it is varies from breed to breed, as well as individual to individual. And although we can try to control that prey drive through training, it take a lot of practice, and a dog is a sentient being. We cannot predict everything they are going to do. But we must understand that a dog is a carnivorous animal with an ingrained instinct that was passed down from wolves. It is not in any way aggression. It does not make the dog dangerous, or vicious. It does not mean the dog should be destroyed the moment it harms or kills another animal. Prey drive is something built into the animal for survival. I'm not saying to ignore the behavior, no. But I am saying that we need to stop calling a dog behaving the way nature intended aggression.

 

[orloffer]

I think this is an interesting point you make; something I had never really considered. I agree that it is important to understand the natural instincts of both dogs and the other animals, rather than try to be blind to them when something seems to go wrong. Thank you for sharing!

 

[chickens really]

Well. I agree to a certain point with your views. My dogs are trained but also have common sense without having to chaperon them daily with livestock.
Dog next door is nuts and never been trained or exposed to livestock. He is aggressive with people, dogs and livestock. I won't even mention his breed because it's irrelevant because all dogs can learn to behave with the proper exposure and training.

 

[BookThief]

Well. I agree to a certain point with your views. My dogs are trained but also have common sense without having to chaperon them daily with livestock.
Dog next door is nuts and never been trained or exposed to livestock. He is aggressive with people, dogs and livestock. I won't even mention his breed because it's irrelevant because all dogs can learn to behave with the proper exposure and training.

I completely understand where you are coming from. Like I said, every dog is different, and have varying degrees of prey drive. And there are multiple things that go into a dog's behavior. The dog you mention next door has multiple things going for it that causing it behave the way that it is. Prey drive is one thing, being reactive and/or aggressive is a completely different thing.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

Yes prey drive is genetic. It can be tempered in some dogs, and in other dogs its simply uncontrollable.

In the case of dogs its often a discussion had when dealing with human-aimed aggression. I’ve raised bulldogs for decades. I’ve had some bulldogs with no natural human aggression but could be raised wrong and become dangerous. But the most dangeous dogs weren’t raised that way, they were born that way. And if so born, they cannot be reforged or made safe. I met a national champion American bulldog at a bulldog show that two weeks after I met him killed a toddler. The death occurred just 10 minutes from my home. The warning signs were there. He was a dog of high prey and dominance drive and the little girl he killed was too much like an annoying prey animal.

We try to excuse dogs because 1) we hold dogs in esteem on a cultural level and 2) we are egalitarian and view the notion that an animal may be born unreformably “bad” as a fundamental unfairness that would be unjust to accept the truth of. We project “innocence” on animals, especially fur covered ones