BH320: Making Choices, Managing Prey Drive 2

This is the second part of the two-part series on Prey Drive.

Prey drive is a highly emotional state for a dog. One of the first things that you will notice with your dog when getting into his prey drive is that when he “locks” onto something, in most cases, he is gone; no amount of yelling, calling, etc., will help. The dog simply appears to have tuned out the rest of the world like it doesn’t exist.

This is the work of instincts; chemicals like adrenalin and others hit the dog’s brain and this powerful cocktail overtakes the brain creating an effect that we can maybe compare to the effect of a horse’s blinders. It is important to remember that in many cases instincts and instinctual actions overpower dog training capabilities. It often happens that even the most trained dogs simply “disobey” when instincts come into play.

A dog doesn’t understand what the road is and how dangerous it can be. Even dogs that have higher levels of training, in some situations, can launch into a wild chase at which point it doesn’t matter if there is a busy road in their path or not, they are going through, full speed ahead. Dog owners who don’t understand or who underestimate this powerful instinctual drive often tend to rely on dog training, recalls or other factors to save the day.

Every situation is different, different environments, different triggers, and different distances from the triggers. It also plays a factor if the dog is tired or has plenty of energy to burn at that particular moment. Or even which family member is with the dog at the time, etc.

The second goal of this class is to introduce activities for you and your dog that will satisfy the parts of the prey sequence your dog loves the most.