Prey Drive

[Tracy Priestnall 83]

what is prey drive ? keep hearing about prey drive, new " in word" but what exactly does it mean, is it out of a plummer book or what ?

[Ideation 8,216]

Te drive to prey upon something I would guess?

[skycat 6,172]

Prey drive is the amount of determination and keenness a dog shows when pursuing its prey, but dogs with high prey drive also make great sniffer dogs, drug dogs etc, but in their case the prey is a ball or toy they are allowed to jump and grab once they've successfully located drugs or people. Prey drive doesn't only show when running live animals, but in the case of working lurchers and terriers it would be safe to say that this is so.

 

Working Collies have high prey drive, but in their case the actual bite and kill is inhibited by generations of breeding for a dog that will 'chase' but not go as far as the kill.

 

To my knowledge, Plummer never mentioned prey drive at all: whilst people who worked dogs on drugs, missing persons, burglars, when training attack dogs etc, have long used the term, it didn't really filter into lurcher or terrier circles until the last 10-15 years or so. Lurcher owners never particularly thought about prey drive: if a dog was good it caught plenty of stuff it ran, if it didn't show much interest it was considered useless: still applies I guess, though even us lurcher people have become better educated in the way a dog's mind and instinct works.

[Tracy Priestnall 83]

in spain pups of 8-10=12 week old hunt, chase and catch rabbits...in pens, they catch but only have milk teeth. vary different to how we bring our dogs on but they do end up with vary hard working, and obedient dogs.

 

prey drive...i know what prey means, i know what drive is but prey drive makes no sense, its a term used by trainers and dog experts..dog shrinks...where there's dogs there's fools with money...the proper way to say it is prey motivation because they

use the word drive to mean motivation.

 

prey drive, food drive, aggression drive, sex drive, defense drive...what a load of bullshine!

 

if a wolf chases a hare whats its motive? is it prey drive or food drive?,

 

forget prey drive breed for hunting instinct and then for nose and work-rate and stamina etc etc.

 

kev medlock crew

[Silversnake 1,099]

Is it really important what term is used? People understand the term prey drive so people say prey drive... I wouldnt be concerned about a 15 week old pups prey drive, learn as much as you can about obedience training and get the dog as healthy as you can and have fun. Atb

[Snoz 29]

Kevk you've just found out what the only down side to working dogs is,

 

The waiting!!!!!!!!!

 

You should be having this conversation this time next year mate, until then you'll have to do what everyone else does ie stroke it,feed it,clean it out, and dream about how good it's going to be!!! .I wouldn't even be taking it when your hunting yet even if its just bushing because you don't want the pup starting to think it can't catch and having a hard time get through the cover because it will stop trying and that'll make it harder to enter when the time is right

[scotty38 14]

I don't think it's much of a pup now...

[lampingloon 1]

I don't think it's much of a pup now...

 

Haha, very true

 

For what it's worth, my JRT is the soppiest lap dog of a JRT you could possibly wish to meet. He tried to chase a bullock when he was 12 weeks and quickly changed his mind...the nothing, not any remote interest in even rabbits that were feet from him. Suddenly and with zero training or encouragement, when he was about 9 months old he just got interested. Within a couple of months, he was killing things left right and centre. I would find the Lab eating his kills while he was off getting something else. One of my other dogs accidentally flushed a pheasant one day, which turned on the dog, sliced a really nasty wound in her leg and the JRT was there in seconds and it was dead.

 

I guess, if your dog has that prey drive wired in strong, it will flush/chase/kill regardless of what you do. We are lucky as we had two older extremely obedient dogs, so as pups, the other two learned recall and obedience really quickly, but I am all for letting a pup be a pup

[Tracy Priestnall 83]

keep posting but why are most not getting threw?

 

on prey drive i keep asking what is it? no-one seems to no, if it means natural hunting instinct there is nothing you can do to help ,or improve it.

a dog as it or doesnt.

if you think terriers going to ground is a fault dont keep terriers, near impossible to keep working bred terriers above ground,

 

not to worry, the earth may be empty, the dog might stay but five minutes,

it might bolt within minutes...etc.

biggest problem is running the type of terriers that will drop in and stay

forever, no chance of being called out.

every season hundreds...probably thousands of terriers are used to work in

cover in terrier packs or bobbery packs with few major incidents.

 

the great thing about terriers is they can work above and below

 

kev-medlock crew

[Tracy Priestnall 83]

keep posting but why are most not getting threw?

 

on prey drive i keep asking what is it? no-one seems to no, if it means natural hunting instinct there is nothing you can do to help ,or improve it.

a dog as it or doesnt.

if you think terriers going to ground is a fault dont keep terriers, near impossible to keep working bred terriers above ground,

 

not to worry, the earth may be empty, the dog might stay but five minutes,

it might bolt within minutes...etc.

biggest problem is running the type of terriers that will drop in and stay

forever, no chance of being called out.

every season hundreds...probably thousands of terriers are used to work in

cover in terrier packs or bobbery packs with few major incidents.

 

the great thing about terriers is they can work above and below

 

kev-medlock crew