Is Your Dog a Hunter?

I don't mean hunting dog exactly, but does your dog have a strong prey drive? Are they good at it or do they just see it as a great chase? Has it ever created a problem? How do you feel about it?

Sophie fears our house cats, except the two or three that sleep with her. But outside...well she knows our cats even outside. But she's gotten some neighborhood strays in her time I still feel horrible about.

Obviously why I only walk her in the woods now. She galumps after squirrels and chipmunks, runs headfirst into trees not thinking to look UP-yes the smell goes UP the tree duh. she's tried to chase geese and a deer and both times gave up halfway, seemingly puzzled as to why they wouldn't stand still.

Any profile on pitties usually mentions a high prey drive, they don't say anything about intelligence...poor dawg

[JacksonsMom]

Most definitely.

Squirrels, rabbits, birds... he always will go after them.

To be honest, I'm not sure a recall would happen if he were on the hunt for a fast moving small furry creature outside.

[houlahoops]

Bailey of course is a hunter...as a working coon dog he will tangle with anything that isn't fast enough to get away. But he definitely doesn't have the hair-trigger response that a lot of really prey-driven dogs do: when he's trailing something exciting, he's not too into squirrels or deer or whatever. Unfortunately, he has also killed two farm cats (not ours) =(

Liberty's all about barking at things. I think the only thing he's ever killed was a bird (and I suspect Bailey killed it, only to have it taken away by The Boss Dog). He also got sprayed by a skunk once.

Mammoth is blind =)

[Renee750il]

Mine all love fast food -- anything not quite fast enough to get away

Bimmer used to hunt rabbits with a redtail hawk out in the pasture. He taught Shiva and Kharma to hunt. He flushed Kharma's first groundhog when she was just five months old, but she killed it and ate it herself. Shiva was about eight months old or so when she got hers. Then she learned to kill skunks without getting sprayed. And yes, she ate them. We kept finding skunk skins laying around with only the head and tail assembly left.

Kharma and Tallulah are adept at catching birds too. Kharma caught the mockingbird that kept bombing her every time we'd leave the house . . . while she was on a 3' lead. And yes, she ate it. Left the feathers, head and feet. While I was on the other end of the leash

[AussieAshley]

Desoto will chase things (rabbits, deer etc) but not to kill, just to herd them and he always listens when you call him off. He once caught up to a bunny he was chasing only to have an awkward and confused stare off and then let it scamper away. That being said if it was a predator he may react differently. Buns are not really a threat to us or the property.

Radar chases to kill, he is a successful mouser (better than the cats!) and is basically determined to kill any non canine creature smaller than him. He stays leashed in unfenced areas.

Duke (sister/roommates pointer) chases just to chase he would never really hurt anything he is just a good ol' boy having fun. He is also easily distracted and um...slow, so if it where my preference he would stay leashed most of the time.

[Kimbers]

I'm not too sure if she'd kill anything.
She stalks and chases, but 90% of the time, the critters she's after are in a tree. I found a dead squirrel and bird recently in our yard, and while she did eat them, I don't know if she killed them.
Another kind of interesting thing, she recently saw a baby mouse and started playing with it. My mom and I thought it was just a really big bug, but when we saw it was a mouse, I pulled her away and picked it up. It wasn't hurt at all, just very wet from her mouth. And she's pretty good with cats. Maybe a bit too rough, but I doubt she'd ever hurt one on purpose.
Long story short, Kailey has prey drive, but I'm not sure she has the instinct to kill.

[Pops2]

Originally Posted by Kaydee

I don't mean hunting dog exactly, but does your dog have a strong prey drive? Are they good at it or do they just see it as a great chase? Has it ever created a problem? How do you feel about it?

Sonic/Olive based on their individual criteria: yes/yes, okay/surprisingly, not really but close/no, it's the reason i got him/lucky

[Lyzelle]

Zander is pretty good at catching birds. He's never encountered anything like a deer or rabbit, though, so I don't know how he would do with ground critters?

Or if he would even see them as food. Between ferret, rat, and bunbun friends, he might have it in his head, "FRIENDS not food!". But he WILL chase anything that runs, period. Just don't know if he would kill it purposely, considering all his little animal non-food friends.

[yoko]

Yoshi is sometimes. She doesn't really notice cats other than to check them out. Most things inside other than a toy she's fine. But when you let her outside anything on the ground that runs is free game. Not cats but rabbits, mice, other small critters.

[houlahoops]

Another kind of interesting thing, she recently saw a baby mouse and started playing with it. My mom and I thought it was just a really big bug, but when we saw it was a mouse, I pulled her away and picked it up. It wasn't hurt at all, just very wet from her mouth.

I think it definitely depends on the circumstance. Liberty is only likely to give chase if the potential prey item is running or darting away from him, and even Bailey will yield if a large animal turns around on him (a bear, once! Yikes!). Liberty had an ongoing non-aggressive relationship with a rabbit that didn't give a f___ and just sat around while he hopped around it and barked. He never touched it.