Can a recall overcome prey drive?

Jin has a good recall but a huge prey drive (which is a desire to chase, rather than kill, but I dont want either!).

Ive just seen SBs post on another thread about heirachy of reinforcement and that makes sense but where can I begin?

Was thinking something along the lines of Jinty on a longline and throwing large items of food (perhaps a chicken wing or something) and getting her to recall away from that.

Then maybe caged animals - my friend has chickens that Jinty has chased a few times. She could recall away from the fence.

Then perhaps toys. Get a friend to throw toys and recall her past them, even maybe BALLS.

Then my friends chickens - free range (dog on long line). The chickens live with dogs and dont care about dogs. My friend is a dog trainer and would be happy with this.

But would this translate to cats, which is her biggest weakness, and is this 'learning journey' outlined above appropriate - using the reward hierachy and a longline to ensure success.....(at least until shes got a GOOD recall away from distractions).

Thoughts please!!!

A tip for your dog trainer (and you).

When starting to train for ANY activity, including recalls, you always START SUB THRESHOLD.

So you start by recalling from nothing and then gradually escalating the triggers until you get to the BIG one.

Otherwise you make it too difficult for the dog and you set it (and yourself) up to fail.

This is where most training goes wrong.

Lumping instead of splitting and rushing the training before the dog has sufficient understanding.

If you are going to train, have a plan, have contingency plans, and work on ONE thing at a time and ensure that you fully understand WHAT you are training and WHY.

So introducing animals before toys would be less than ideal.

Also, please remember the welfare of the animals used as triggers.
.
ps in answer to your original question yes of course it can.

I was thinking more along the lines of the fact that she already recalls away from the fence (with animals on the other side) ie - her CURRENT threshold - she can even recall past a lose chicken, so the plan outlined above is sub threashold for her.

The idea of moving from caged animal to toys was a movement thing - the animals on the other side of the fence move slow whereas toys can move fast and I think movement is what triggers her chase more than anything else as she doesnt chase my friends cat (that doesnt run- as he lives with 4 big dogs).

I use toys to train with (as a reward). They seem to satisfy the prey drive. And, of course, because they are used every day, they are constantly reinforced.
Having said that, persevering with training till it becomes an ingrained behaviour for your dog would probably work as well. I think a lot of people don`t train a response long and often enough.

Yes you can train a recall off prey, but as SB has already explained, the criteria have to be increased incrementally and only one at a time.

There is a big difference, in dog terms, between an animal being reasonably still and one in full flight.

And this is what is often forgotton.

All the DIFFERENT variables.

Dog still
Dog moving
Prey still
Prey moving
Both dog and prey still
Both dog and prey moving

Again, all steps in training and often ones which are left out.

I don't really understand all of this. But, looking at what SB says about what it depends on, I feel instinctively that, the reason why 'some' dogs go for Bella (and same dogs that didn't go for my last little dog) is just because of the way she moves? Well, that and that she looks a bit like a big rat? you can almost detect that she 'triggers' something off in them if you know what I mean?

When she runs she is super fast and low - she can run at an amazing speed (maybe the greyhound in them?) Unfortunately seems to prefer running round in big circles to running in a straight direction!

She goes so fast other dog owners will be shouting Run Bella! Run! Run! Run! and laughing at the sight of her as she whizzes past in a blur.

Which is why I've worked (not hard) but consistently and every day (even if not needed) to make sure I can stop her and recall her to me.

Her legs are only about 6 inches long! And she seems to feel the 'need' to run every now and then. If she doesn't run when out she will do a spell of lunatic running round the apartment now and then (quite hilarious on marbled tiled floors)

Dog will often exhibit predatory drift, which basically means that dogs see other small dogs etc as potential lunch.

This is vastly different from aggressive behaviour IMHO.

I understand this. It was thus with my CKCS when the lurcher moved in opposite. He was taken out lamping frequently (down in west Penwith) I think he saw her as a rabbit!

A dopier dog you could not wish to meet than this lurcher - not an aggressive bone in its stupid body. And belonged to a good friend too. He caused me to:
*keep my back door closed - he'd get in and rip my daughter's toys to shreds. And empty my bins.
*Watch my CKCS like a hawk.
then, eventually,
*build a high fence on top of my perimeter wall round my detached dwelling - coz he could leap the wall and had dug my entire garden up (we are talking holes a man could crawl into with the shifted dirt stuck up against the white walls of the house.)

Owner was lovely but hapless and when I heard her shout OUT JASPER! in desperation, I'd shout back 'Thanks a bunch Emma - you can't handle him and now I've got the b*gger to deal with!

(people down in west Penwith don't go in much for keeping their dogs confined, on lead, whatever)

I need to work on this after this mornings antics. There are now 3 cats who frequent our property and one was in the shed. As the area is pretty overgrown I didn't see the cat until it ran under the gate (which one of the dogs can jump). Luckily the dogs were still searching around the shed.

I don't know who owns the cats but I wish they'd go and find a neighbours dog free garden instead of risking life and limb here.