Prey Drive – Reduce It or Use It?

Ahh prey drive, the thing our dogs are born with that can make life slightly complicated. Many people find themselves wondering, should I try to reduce my dog's prey drive, or should I be using it? In this episode, we'll dive into what prey drive is, whether you should try to reduce it, and how you can turn it into a MASSIVE reinforcer for your pup. WHAT IS PREY DRIVE? Prey drive is essentially our dogs' innate desire to search, stalk, chase, and bite objects. And typically, those objects are moving. In a simplistic sense, it's why your dog might love to chase squirrels or even a tennis ball. And while prey drive often has a somewhat negative connotation, it really is an important part of our dog's DNA. In the early types of dogs, they had to hunt for food. So prey drive was a matter of life and death. Nowadays, our dogs aren't hunting for their food... but the prey drive is there nonetheless. SHOULD YOU REDUCE OR USE YOUR DOG'S PREY DRIVE? While there isn't one answer for every situation, in most cases you should strive to utilize your dog's prey drive in a controlled manner. So that often means your dog will still "use" their prey drive, but just in a controlled and desirable way. I will note here... If you have a dog with an extremely strong prey drive, I would recommend getting the help of a professional dog trainer. They can help you understand your dog's behavior more thoroughly and learn how to tap into that drive for your dog's benefit. USING PREY DRIVE AS A REWARD My dog Scout loves to fetch. She would fetch for hours if she was given the opportunity (I've only seen her willingly stop playing fetch a couple of times in her whole life). She LOVES the chase. And many times in her life, that has gotten her into some troublesome situations (most if not all of which were my fault for giving too much freedom). When dogs like Scout lock onto something, their brain is literally wired to stalk and chase that item. And then when they aren't "allowed" to it can cause leash, fence, and other frustrations. Or it can get them into trouble like running to places or towards people/objects they shouldn't. One of the best ways we learned to utilize Scout's prey drive is by using fetch and flirt poles as part of our training and rewarding process. Here is what we have done consistently for over a year now. In a controlled and safe environment, start to play fetch. Once you do a few throws, grab the ball as if to throw and ask your dog to come to you. (It may feel foreign to your dog at first, so if they struggle just shorten your distance for the 'come' and continue.) Once your dog comes to you, give your marker word (or clicker) and throw the ball for them to fetch. The fetch is the reward!! I have been doing that process consistently every time I play fetch (not every throw, but every time we play fetch) and Scout's recall has improved dramatically! And in conjunction with other training, it's also helped to improve her ability to focus outside and has helped reduce her reactivity to other dogs, skateboards, bikes, etc. This took a lot of time and practice generally, but learning to use fetch (prey drive) as a reward for other behaviors made it so Scout ACTUALLY cared about listening to us while outside! Please leave a review, thanks for listening! Download the FREE Pupford App here: https://pfrd.site/pupappfree