DOGGIE DOG BLOG

I often get questions like this one written by Amy.

Amy ask: What is the reason a dog has more prey drive than defense drive or vice versa? Is it a matter of breeding or is it due to the way the pup was raised?

Well that is a million dollar question and the answer is that no one really knows the answer fully. So, for argument sake we will say it’s 50/50. Half genetic and half environmental. But, that is only partly true. Since I have seen many a dog that was poorly raise have tremendous balance in drives. A recent litter I evaluated presented a perfect example. By all rights they should have been total losses by the time I got my hands on them. Never on leash, never in the car, never off the property and

they were over sixteen weeks old. But, their genetics were so strong that three out of the four pups I evaluated had tremendous drive and showed almost no sign of having been poorly socialized. Contrary to that I have seen pups with excellent upbringing have no drive whatsoever despite having a pedigree that would speak of a great working dog.

There are both genetic and environmental factors that can effect the development of prey drive and defense drive.But, there are factors that can influence the development of prey drive and defense drive. Once you decide what type of companion you want at maturity. You then design the environment and training regiment to suit that goal.

The easiest way to kill defense drive is over socialization and handling. An over socialized dog becomes complacent and believes that everyone is their friend and never takes any threat seriously. My personal dog is very much like that because of her upbringing in a high traffic kennel situation. I have only seen her seriously threatened two times and it takes a very skilled helper/agitator to do it.

The easiest way to kill prey drive is over stimulation with toys. Constant exposure to toys can make a dog with average drive less motivated. They simply take the toys for granted and gradually lose interest in them.

Depending on the goals you have for your dog you will want more prey and less defense or vice versa.

When training for Schutzhund one hopes for is balance. Too much prey drive and you have a dog that doesn’t take the work serious, doesn’t have the intensity and hardness of grip that you would want. Too much defense drive and you see frantic bites that are not calm. Regripping, whining and shallow bites are a sign of too much defense drive without enough confidence to back it up.

If you were raising a police dog or personal guard dog you would want more defense and less prey drive. These dogs have to take their jobs very seriously. Even to the point of biting first and asking questions later. They don’t get a second chance if they are wrong about the bad guys intentions.

If you were raising a dog for agility competition you would want a dog with more prey drive and less defense drive. Prey drive is needed to build motivation, but defense drive would simply be an unwanted distraction. Another example of this would be a hunting retriever. Prey drive is needed, but defense drive is unwanted.

Perhaps your idea companion dog, lap dog, coach potato dog, would have low drive in both categories.

So, as you can see these are complicated issues. In my apprenticeship course I spend weeks teaching my students how to develop these drives, read these drive and shape them using one drive to augment the development of the other.

Drive shaping is a great subject for a rainy day. Hope I get to share that knowledge with you some day.

David Harris