Prey drive in dogs
This topic comes up quite frequently among animal welfare folks and is debated at conferences and dinner parties alike. Some feel a dog with a high prey drive can never be adopted out to a home and others feel as long as the owners' are aware of the drive, everything will work out okay.
The internet is full of articles on this subject and you could read opinions for hours about dogs with prey drives. I had a dog like that. He would chase anything that moved; lizards, squirrels, cats, birds, small dogs, it simply didn't matter what it was. If it moved, Jasper would chase it and kill it if he could. He was not that way with larger dogs like he was, only small ones. He was never any problem unless the unsuspecting creature walked in his yard. Then it was gone. No bark, no growl, nothing but attack.
High prey drive dogs can make great pets. They love competition and do well in those areas. They also make great search and rescue dogs because they are so focused. Most of the time they cannot live with small animals and expect if they catch one in your yard, they will bring it to you as a present. (Carmella, another of my dogs brought me a squirrel one day while I was in the shower. Despite my inclination to scream, I simply removed her from the room and had my son come and dispose of the squirrel.)
If this subject interests you, check out these articles to get more background. There really is a reason why dogs bring in dead critters for you to praise them.
http://www.best-behaviour.com/prey-drive.html
http://www.canismajor.com/dog/hidrive.html
The internet is full of articles on this subject and you could read opinions for hours about dogs with prey drives. I had a dog like that. He would chase anything that moved; lizards, squirrels, cats, birds, small dogs, it simply didn't matter what it was. If it moved, Jasper would chase it and kill it if he could. He was not that way with larger dogs like he was, only small ones. He was never any problem unless the unsuspecting creature walked in his yard. Then it was gone. No bark, no growl, nothing but attack.
High prey drive dogs can make great pets. They love competition and do well in those areas. They also make great search and rescue dogs because they are so focused. Most of the time they cannot live with small animals and expect if they catch one in your yard, they will bring it to you as a present. (Carmella, another of my dogs brought me a squirrel one day while I was in the shower. Despite my inclination to scream, I simply removed her from the room and had my son come and dispose of the squirrel.)
If this subject interests you, check out these articles to get more background. There really is a reason why dogs bring in dead critters for you to praise them.
http://www.best-behaviour.com/prey-drive.html
http://www.canismajor.com/dog/hidrive.html
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