I have a nice gentle dog. She has no dog aggression at all. I really have never seen her get angry in the the two years that I have owned her. Lauren had a post the other day and got me thinking. If a dog goes into prey drive chasing other animals does it end up in a kill if that animal is caught? How about if the animal decides to fight back, does a submissive dog run or does it still try to kill its prey? Does a dogs natural intinct tell them to strike first and fast or do some dogs when they finally catch the prey. decide that the game is over.

I'll take a shot at this one. I can only give you examples of what I've seen with my dogs. All are good or very high prey drives. In this instance, I'll just focus on 2 of my dogs. First female, high prey, strong nerves. Luckily she hasn't caught the rabbits yet. She will try to kill it, no doubt. She crouches down and strikes fast. Other female (pet) is high prey, but weak nerved. She'd chase it, but once she caught it, she'd back off. My opinion is that the instinct is there, just what they do with it would depend on drive and nerves.

My young female, (22 months old) chases and catches birds. She has medium prey drive, strong, confident, good nerves.

When she catches a bird, she will not go for the kill, but rather acts a bit like a cat and tries to play with it. She will bring the bird alive to her kennel and bat it about a bit to try and get it to move. She enjoys re-catching it over and over. Finally when the poor thing dies of fright and stops moving, she loses interest in it and wanders off. Sometimes she will try and bury the dead bird in the gravel.

Needless to say, I do not encourage this bird chasing!

Sarah (BMK)
http://www.bmk.org.uk

I just came in from my regular walk in the woods with the dogs. They flushed a deer and on the way back to me after I recalled them off of the deer a poor little squirrel decided to get the heck out of the way. Zen (my Leerburg female out of Otis and Jenny) snatched that squirrel off the side of the tree and chomped the life right out of it. The Malinois and Zen's half brother Jack were right in there trying to play tug of war with the unlucky little dude. I gotta say it was not fun to watch. The squirrel got his licks in and both my dogs have multiple bites on their faces. Jack came out of it unscathed. My main concern was that the bitches would get in a fight over the prey but they dropped it after it was dead and left it when I told them to. (with a little help from the ecollar on the Mal. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> )

From what Ed has told me, Zen's mother Jenny is a very successful squirrel catcher and captures them regularly. Now that she has actually caught one I am sure our daily walks will be more exciting. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> She had very high prey and hunt drive before so I will be interested to see the difference now.

Thank god we don't have porcupines here!! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Cindy,
As I recall, squrriels can carry all kinds of nasty little diseases. If it bit your dogs you might want to ask the vet about it, just to be on the safe side.
Erin

 Quote:

Originally posted by Cindy Easton:


Thank god we don't have porcupines here!! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

<img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> Just had to throw that in didn't ya?

If you have trees and live in NA you have them. I looked into coverage maps and all of the US was covered, they even have some in the desert! Luckily, they don't run. I know exactly what happened to Dippy.... She sniffed the stupid thing, it whacked her, so she decided to "kill" it.

She isn't the sharpest crayon in the box. :rolleyes:

The prey I’m referring to is a coyote and it scares the hell out of me if the prey becomes the predator. Unless my dog has a Dr. Jackal Mr. Hyde personality she will be in a world of hurt. That’s why I asked the question. I was hoping to read that their primal instincts will take over.For those of you who are wondering she doesn't take off after other dogs. When she gets a scent of coyote she becomes very intense it does not happen when she gets a scent of domesticated dogs.

i am worried about coyote myself.
my dogs aren't good with other dogs. they have prey issues and dominance issues. and a lot of dogs seem to think the corgis are bunnies.
i hope i don't have to find out what would happen if my dogs came face to face with a coyote. i do not allow them off leash at night, and during the day only two of them are off leash. (unless i'm doing obedience.)
i think i saw a coyote about 60 feet from my house a couple of weeks ago. it was dark out, so i can't be sure, but it was scary. hopefully with 7 dogs, the coyote won't attempt to intercept my pack.

I just wanted to quickly pass along our sad experience with Coyotes. We had a small mixed breed dog a few years ago. He got out of our sight for no more than a couple of minutes and when we called we could not find him. A couple of hours later he came to the door. I won't describe his physical condition.

Four hours later he died under surgery. Our belief is that he came upon a pack of coyotes and played dead - that's the only reason he made it back to the house. It appeared one got on one end and another on the other end of him. I was terrible.

So, PLEASE, don't take for granted that there is only one coyote. Regardless of how great your dog is, watch them closely if you have coyotes in the area.

Doyle

I have a middle aged bitch, chow mix, with what my schutzhund trainer called "low prey drive". (She refused to chase items he tossed at her as a pup-we were graciously discouraged from further training in the sport). She was a grim little puppy, who never wagged her tail, ran after sticks, or stood on her hind feet for treats.
This grew up to be a dog who will chase a coyote to China for the kill. She has caught and disemboweled numerous jackrabbits. She will dig a groundhog up from his hole if it takes her four hours. I've seen her outwait the cats for a mouse or rat to come out of his hole. I have great pics of her climbing a tree to get squirrels.
I am not a dog trainer. I am an unschooled person in such things, so please don't take too much out of my post.
I spent a few years on a ranch out west and the owner had wolves and hybrids in addition to ranch dogs. I have seen canines chase and eat lots of live things, including each other.
I think most dogs, if they are chasing something with their buddies, and the group catches up to it, will kill it. If they are alone, it depends on your individual dog. I have seen tons of big bad dogs lose their nerve when confronted with something fierce.
Just a personal note-I saw lots more bitches hold their ground with "prey" one on one than dogs. (Not always a nice thing-saw some nice barn kitties lose their ninth life and also some durn good pooches, saw a lot more dogs ready to hold their ground with PEOPLE than bitches. For whatever that's worth.)