How Do You Satisfy Your Dog's Prey Drive?

[raineth]

raineth - one thing I did with Zig (HATED tug!!!) was to play tug with a really fluffy toy as soon as I walked in the door. He was just super excited to see me and I channelled the crazy :D

Oh God, I have to do this, I am going to go sit one by the front door so I don't forget!

[huski]

ahh thanks for the feedback Huski!

Yeah I think part of why she runs away is because to get her to tug I had to use treats in the tug and so she once she has the tug she tries to get the treat out, does that make sense? That tug I'm sure still actually has bits of treat floating around in it.

So hopefully if I can keep making the game more fun, and then transition to a different tug toy (that has no association with having treats in it) so she will notice that I am actually on the end of the tug? I can really see what you mean though because when I play with her with no toy at all she is more interactive and gives me hip-buts and play bows etc.

I hear you about the no commands, I was more just trying to build some anticipation for her, But I will find another way to build some anticipation :)

thanks again for the tips :)

Ok that could be another reason that you are finding she doesn't get as much satisfaction from playing tug, vs hunting etc. She may be in food drive rather than prey, or hasn't really developed enough desire for the tug vs live prey.

I would definitely try transitioning to a different tug that doesn't smell like food or even something like a flirt pole so you can build a bit more frustration and drive.

When you say you want more anticipation, do you mean you want her to show more desire/frustration to get the toy?

[The Spotted Devil]

raineth - one thing I did with Zig (HATED tug!!!) was to play tug with a really fluffy toy as soon as I walked in the door. He was just super excited to see me and I channelled the crazy :D

Oh God, I have to do this, I am going to go sit one by the front door so I don't forget!

Once he went nuts for it I started tugging him down to the letterbox - was a really nice way to transition. When he was mental about tugging at home I started to make home tugs boring and saved the fluffy tugs for out and about.

[raineth]

ahh thanks for the feedback Huski!

Yeah I think part of why she runs away is because to get her to tug I had to use treats in the tug and so she once she has the tug she tries to get the treat out, does that make sense? That tug I'm sure still actually has bits of treat floating around in it.

So hopefully if I can keep making the game more fun, and then transition to a different tug toy (that has no association with having treats in it) so she will notice that I am actually on the end of the tug? I can really see what you mean though because when I play with her with no toy at all she is more interactive and gives me hip-buts and play bows etc.

I hear you about the no commands, I was more just trying to build some anticipation for her, But I will find another way to build some anticipation :)

thanks again for the tips :)

Ok that could be another reason that you are finding she doesn't get as much satisfaction from playing tug, vs hunting etc. She may be in food drive rather than prey, or hasn't really developed enough desire for the tug vs live prey.

I would definitely try transitioning to a different tug that doesn't smell like food or even something like a flirt pole so you can build a bit more frustration and drive.

When you say you want more anticipation, do you mean you want her to show more desire/frustration to get the toy?

re: the anticipation, I just find it is a reliable way to get her excited about something. I don't know if you know it, but probably the closest we ever get to proper prey drive is when I play Susan Garrett's "I'm gonna smoke ya" game; she actually shakes with adrenalin while she is waiting for me to say those words and run away.

She loves the flirt pole at club, doesn't love the one I bought her. But I might see if I can attach something different to it that she might find more exciting :)

[The Spotted Devil]

Oh the shaking :laugh: Em does that when I put my white jacket on at retrieving trials. Just too much impulse control for a crazy Spaniel!

[raineth]

raineth - one thing I did with Zig (HATED tug!!!) was to play tug with a really fluffy toy as soon as I walked in the door. He was just super excited to see me and I channelled the crazy :D

Oh God, I have to do this, I am going to go sit one by the front door so I don't forget!

Once he went nuts for it I started tugging him down to the letterbox - was a really nice way to transition. When he was mental about tugging at home I started to make home tugs boring and saved the fluffy tugs for out and about.

Awesome! Well I currently have fluffy Big Bird from sesame street waiting at the front door so I can do this :) Also very welcoming for anyone who comes to the door!

[dididog]

Great seeing another big doggy with good rear end awareness! Didi and I have only started working on it recently and she's gotten so much better about being tight on right about turns already :)

At the moment I'm really trying to find a way to click with Didi more with our training. I don't think she has a strong prey drive... she might try and lunge at a bird while walking now and then but when offlead she will just trot through a flock of birds without paying them much attention. However she goes absolutely crazy for tug, is there another sort of drive she's satisfying through tug or is it just for prey drive?

We are pretty good with engagement on the tug, she gets so psyched when we tug and if I were to let go she'd just ram back into me to keep going and she has a strong grip and gives me a good shaking but I think my problem is more not knowing how to properly use the tug in association with training because I really don't understand what it means to work in drive or anything and I still feel like I'm kind of just bribing her with the tug rather than building a desire to work for me???

[raineth]

well I can't really help you there Terri, but feel free to post your video up of Didi Tugging :)

[huski]

However she goes absolutely crazy for tug, is there another sort of drive she's satisfying through tug or is it just for prey drive?

We would need to see a video to see whether she is actually in drive for the tug, but dogs don't all go into prey drive for the same things. She may also get enough drive satisfaction playing tug with you that birds don't interest her.

My dog will ignore the promise of prey satisfaction elsewhere in favour of working with me.

We are pretty good with engagement on the tug, she gets so psyched when we tug and if I were to let go she'd just ram back into me to keep going and she has a strong grip and gives me a good shaking but I think my problem is more not knowing how to properly use the tug in association with training because I really don't understand what it means to work in drive or anything and I still feel like I'm kind of just bribing her with the tug rather than building a desire to work for me???

A bribe IMO is a situation where the dog needs to see reward to produce behaviour. My dogs produce behaviour to earn reward, so they don't need to see, smell or know for sure I have reward on me. If I say 'ready' and ask them to work, they believe that I will provide drive satisfaction regardless of whether they can see a toy or food.

I wouldn't work for free, so I don't expect my dogs to either. I will 'pay' them reward that they have a high value for, so that they work with a high level of focus and reliability.

Edited February 10, 2015 by huski

[Little Gifts]

My SBT Stussy has a high prey drive but is absolutely useless at catching even a mouse already caught in a trap! She chases everything in the wrong direction! I don't really want her to be the kind of dog who goes beserk over a small animal or bird in the yard and living in cane toad land I don't want her outside at night frothing for a catch. She has had crazy face before when over stimulated and I try to avoid her getting to that point over anything. My approach might sound lame but what I do is encourage her discovery of something but ignore/discourage any efforts to catch and disembowel it. She knows that is my job. She has always had an excellent response to my 'leave' command (thank goodness!). It seems to be a strategy that satisfies both of us. I also buy her big, colourful, non-animal stuffed toys from an op shop each month and I encourage her to go crazy with it. They normally last a couple of seconds before the brains are spilling from the skull (zombie kill). I never give her a stuffed animal type toy. Once she has finished whatever is left over is immediately collected up and removed.

Stussy has always loved tug too and her fave is either just a simple fleece plait or the limbs of a stuffed toy. I actually have footage of her teaching a foster to play tug with her. She'd throw it in his face till he latched on. Initially he'd just run off with it but he eventually got the idea. She's always very gentle in her tug play and always makes sure the other dog has appropriate room to grab on too. She is likely to leave it rather than compete for it if the other dog is more aggressive with it.

Edited February 10, 2015 by Little Gifts

[PossumCorner]

The expose on greyhound training on Four Corners tonight might be too much for some of us. Taking the barbaric use of rabbits, possums etc to its inevitable conclusion in rewarding and encouraging prey drive. So denied for so long by the industry, time it was made public with some proof. Mentioning here as relevant also to this thread as well as "in the News" forum item.

Edited February 16, 2015 by PossumCorner

[hankdog]

Haha Jake refuses to put anything except food in his mouth. Somewhere way back there must be a hunting gene, occasionally he will drop into a stalking stance and point and stalk. I always scare off whatever he's stalking by laughing so loud. Not always a live object, can be a bucket, a pile of leaves, a butterfly, pretty much anything thats around. Pity he didn't get the smart gene.