Exactly bubbatd, but, it's play that turns into the hunt. People need to realize that breeds specifically bred to have enhanced drives can be dangerous in "certain" situations.
My Rottweiler goes into eye stalk, chase motor pattern with my dogs at key moments...it's almost as if she goes into a whole new mode, in a working environment herding cattle this would be the exact motor pattern you would want. But for urban areas, it can be very dangerous when the owner doesn't understand it...or is not aware.
Not being aware of these enhanced drives is equally or more dangerous than a person who purposely creates an aggressive unpredictable dog. It's very sad. We had a child in our area killed in a similar manner. Nice Rottweilers, child got scared the dogs went into predatory drift and killed. The dogs were sweet lovable dogs, in no way aggressive in any way except this misunderstood motor pattern.
I more or less echoed this in the other post. I had problems years ago with stray cats and my goldens.
The biggest difference would be the Golden does not have the full series of motor patterns and should not have the motor pattern to go past grab bite. If the Golden did go past grab bite it would be a poorly bred Golden that would either have been culled or taken out of the gene pool and never used for breeding. A hunting companion that would have a hard mouth on birds is not something you would want and would not be bred for.
Sporting breeds have been specifiacally bred not to go past the grab bite....just as Terriers and Cattle droving breeds have been specifically bred to go past grab bite to kill bite to maul...this is a huge difference in safety around small dogs and children.
