What Does Prey Drive Mean In Dogs?

Dogs are fantastic animals. They make great pets, great employees, and great partners. They're great for protecting your home and farm, and they're just as great for helping you relax at the end of a long, hard day. The amount of love and joy they can bring into your life is nearly unmeasurable.

Yet one thing many people forget is that dogs are predators. They're carnivores. They want to chase down prey, kill that prey, and eat it. No one likes to think about their dog chasing down a rabbit or a squirrel and killing it, yet the simple truth is that it's an instinct all dogs have.

When people talk about a dog's "prey drive", this is what they're talking about. The desire a dog has to chase down prey and catch it. Even if you dog never chases rabbits and squirrels, you may still have seen a sign of their prey drive. Have you ever played fetch with your dog? Fetch is a game dogs enjoy because it allows them to engage in their prey drive. In this case, the prey is the ball, or the frisbee. Just like they would an animal, they chase down the item. Some dogs bring the item back, some don't, but this is still a matter of instinct and training.

Prey drive can be problematic, because you can't get rid of it. It's an instinct all dogs have. What you can do, however, is train a dog to understand there are acceptable and unacceptable actions. You need to teach your dog that no matter what their instinct is telling them, they have to listen to you. All dogs can be trained. All dogs are smart enough to understand commands when you give them.

The problem with this is that most people do not take the time to properly train their dogs. They let their dogs pull them along on the leash, or allow their dog to run off after a rabbit and do nothing but yell. This does not lead to a well trained dog. You have to actually train them, and that can be difficult. So many people have a desire to blame the dog and the dog's prey drive, but remember. The dog is an animal. They may be smart, but they do many things on instinct. It's always up to the human to do the training and to teach them what is and is not allowable.







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