Prey drive and killing.

I have recently bought a delightful whippet bitch pup - she is 16 weeks, and has fitted in well with the min schnauzers.

I realise that as she gets older, her inherent prey drive is going to kick in. I have places where she will be able to run freely and safely as this breed needs to do and I am realistic enough to understand that there is a likelihood she will chase and catch rabbits, although I am not overly keen on the thought of this!

How do other hound owners feel about this - do you muzzle your dogs? Do your dogs tend to kill outright or do you find yourself dispatching these poor creatures on a regular basis?

I do not wish to upset anyone with this thread but I need to know what I am likely to come up against.

Congrats on the new pup

My dogs regularly catch and kill myxy rabbits It used to really upset me, even though I knew they were doing the rabbit a favour, but they do it quickly and efficiently so I just let them get on with it. I am not sure I would be much good at finishing them off myself.

My dogs also kill myxy rabbits, tbh, I don't mind, as it's a quicker death than myxy itself... (they can't catch a healthy rabbit!)

Sadly, Murphy is also attracted to anything feathery; and I've had to dispatch my fair share of pigeons, thrush, and some of next door's chickens who escaped their fencing...

Not nice, but, he is a dog after all..

I wouldn't muzzle my dogs unless they attacked other dogs or people... (but that's just my opinion)

I have 3 whippets , they are old now but when they were young they frequently caught rabbits . They are expert at killing them and they do it really quickly , I never had to finish one off . They didn't really get interested till they were about 1 year old . She might get interested in them next spring when there are babies about . It's not something I encouraged but it's their instinct .
Lucky you with a whippet , they are fantastic dogs

you could try massivley socialising her around rabbits now in a controlled environment and managed situation.
lots of treats and positive association.
this may neutralise the instinct.
prey instinct is strongly possible, but not inevitable.
i have dealt with greys/lurchers that have walked by rabbits and cats with no issue.
now is her her critical time for socialising

She might not want to kill things like rabbits, not all hounds do. Just like some terriers, not all of them want or go on to kill.

Do you know if her parents, relatives etc have a very high prey instinct?

Could you socialise her now around friends cats/rabbits/other small furries? It would be of great benefit to get her used to cats, at least, I would imagine.

I would say socialise her now around rabbits, ducks etc to teach her how do behave around them and get her as used to them as possible, and take it from there.

Hope this helps, I haven't got much advice on this but the above is what I'd try and do. I'm sure others will give you much more detailed information.

There should be no problem with your whippet and cats or small dogs but wild rabbits may be a different matter

I dont have a hound but my gundog has a very high prey drive. He has caught many things in his short life but since I dont have the nerve to finish them off myself, I let the dog do it as he seems to be able to give them a quick and tidy death.

I have thought about muzzling him because if he is going to be a worker I dont want him killing things but I decided to forget the idea of the muzzle and concentrate on the training instead.

Our Alaskan Malamute tries to eat anything that is smaller than her. If a hedgehog comes into the garden she will pick it up in her mouth and run about with Spirit our other dog running after her. She has also caught birds, mice, frogs and probley other things that we haven`t found. Unfortunatly it`s in her nature so we just try to keep things out of her way.

Think my malamutes if had the chance would kill and eat prey, not something I would like to be part of, thankfully the ONLY thing ours have managed to catch is a very large MOTH, although willow did nearly catch a chicken once but it managed to get away.

Mo