The Hunting Instinct

My 7month old NI has an incredibly strong hunting instinct, she has done ever since one of her first walks when she was no longer scared of going outside.

Jess will chase anything and try to catch it, if it moves, its fair game, well except for cats.
She chases everything, Squirrels, Rabbits, Mice, Frogs, Birds, Bees... She even chased 3 Ewes once but we punished her for that.

I do not have a problem with her having such a strong prey drive if she is off the lead and catching her prey will do no harm, but she even wants to chase on lead. She has an excellent memory too, if she saw a bird in a certain bush, or a frog on a patch of grass, even a week later she will remember where she saw what and search for it once again.

Jess has never killed anything yet, except for a wasp but I am wondering when (and it is a case of when, she has come so close) she makes her first kill will this only serve to heighten her passion for hunting.

I was wondering is hunting something that dogs grow out of?

I do not think it is something she will grow out of personally but I have never known a dog to have such a strong prey drive before.

Great topic - In my opinion you will never ever ever remove the 'prey drive' but you will be able to control her actions.

I've lived with hounds for almost 30 years and one thing I'm very proud of is that their prey drive hasn't been bred out. It's controlable (just) but you'll get the odd one that will, no matter what training you put in, always chase anything that moves when they're out. It's just something you have to accept with certain breeds (not saying NIs in particular because I don't know anything about them ) and adjust your places of exercise accordingly.

Debs

Debs

If you have a dog with a strong hunting instinct, you need to provide for that so that it can be controlled.

It's usual for a dog to respond to toys if they are provided with the right idea in mind, for instance a border collie who was bonkers about chasing aircraft was taught to be bonkers about frisbees

I attended a predatory chasing seminar a few months ago run by the APBC, and the speaker was a police dog training instructor who worked in Cumbria so had a large amount of experience to draw on.

In his opinion, over 90 per cent of dogs if trained can be taught using appropriate toys, plus assessing other things like the environment, relationship with owner etc.

Dogs can be taught a predictive command for chase recall, you'd need help to teach this. A friend who is a very good trainer had a saluki lurcher who used to chase trams, and she was able to control him via using food rewards, not easy but she did it. However trams don't react in the way a prey animal might.

Only a few needed an aversive, and this has to be introduced by the behaviourist and they still need something to direct their drive onto.

Dogs don't grow out of hunting, and this breed of dog will have strong predatory drive. I'd suggest you find what will be the best toy for her, keep this as special and learn to control her with play training with this. That way she will focus more on you and the toy than on things like bees which could be dangerous.

I understand why owner punish for chasing sheep but to be brutally honest, the dog is just doing what she desires, it is up to us as the owners to keep them under control. (But you know that ) Thus maybe it is the owner who should be told off Also remember punishing after the event does no good whatsoever, and dogs with strong instincts would have to be half killed before they stopped and even that wouldn't work. I never ever let my dog off anywhere near sheep and she has an excellent chase recall from running animals.

She needs an outlet for her drive as I'm pretty sure she won't grow out of it, rather she will get more practised.


Good luck

Wys
x

Skye has the same urge to chase, but I am not sure if he would attack anything - probably just play bow at them and say hello. He is scared of cows though. We don't let him off where there are things to chase as his recall is not good at the best of times. I wouldn't want him getting into the habit of chasing as he may do it more then, plus farmers have guns so I prefer him to be safe. Maybe it is just curiousity due to being young.

Heidi, my 2 chase just about every thing that moves, Kains recall is getting there but Inka is a whole different ball game, hes thick sorry but he is lol It is usually Kain that starts the chase though so I think Inka is more of a sniffer and Kains the chaser...Hope fully it'll sort itself out as they get older, I think if they are off lead there is so many distractions for them, I stick to places I know its safe to let them off, I'll never try them next to horses or sheep or anything like that its just not worth the risk.

Luckily we have a friend who owns a farm and she is going to let us teach Jess around her sheep so that Jess wont try to chase them.
Apparently she says she has a ram thats a bit of a 'bully' and puts dogs in there place so I am hoping he gives Jess a freight so she leaves sheep well alone, he has done it before and sorted the dogs out, without harming them of course otherwise I wouldnt let Jess anywhere near the ram.

Dont worry I know how and when to chastise my dog, I know chastising after the incident is useless.

Personally as long as Jess chases the right thing in the right enviroment I really dont mind if she does it.
If she catches a Rabbit or something then hey I will cook it for her, im not squeemish.

We have used the whistle in mid chase and it has stopped Jess in her tracks so she can be told to stop if need be.

At the end of the day all Jess is doing is following her natural instincts, she is just being a dog and doing what comes naturally to her.

I cannot understand why someone would want to completely eliminate this behaviour from thier dog, seeing how much Jess is enjoying the thrill of the hunt I wouldnt want to take that away from her.
Like I said before as long as she is only chasing 'vermin' and not sheep etc I dont have a problem at all.

Even my poodles and min dachsie hunt so I really don't think it is something they will 'grow out of'. However, as you are aware of it you can direct it so it doesn't become an issue.
Becky

Loki is exactly the same in all the ways you describe. He took off after first a pheasant and then a duck this morning totally ignoring my command to "leave". He didn't catch it. Bees have been his thing this evening.

Watch Loki around bee's lucky star, we had a JR cross when I was small, he died after catching a wasp, it stung him in his throat and his throat constricted and he choked to death.

I just wanted to warn everyone how bad it can be.