Predatory Behavior

All dogs share a common ancestor with wolves. It may not seem possible when you ponder a tiny Yorkie with a fancy hair-do, but it is true! Through generations of selective breeding, we’ve transformed the way wolves look: from as powerful as an 80-pound predator to as tiny as a teacup Chihuahua.

So what do wolves have to do with anything anymore?

Here’s what: A lot of dogs retain many, many wolf-like behaviors from how they respond to something scary to how wolves hunt for food. These are the things that breeders have developed in lines of dogs to make them do certain jobs. They are also the things that often make people pick up the phone and cry to their local dog trainer, “Why is he DOING that, and how can I make it STOP!?!”

The complete process wolves go through to find and consume food is called the “predatory sequence”:

Search
Stalk
Rush/chase
Grab, kill, dissect
Eat

Dogs have inherited pieces of this sequence. Sometimes the behaviors are complete and recognizably wolf, but more often they are weird, odd, fragments of wolf behaviors, such as:

Shaking and dissecting stuffed toys rather than prey animals,
Chasing tennis balls and bike tires, and
Burying food in between couch cushions.

Sometimes, humans have selected these strange fragments of wolf behaviors and made them exceptionally robust by breeding (for example):

Beagles to have superhero-like scent-tracking abilities,
Border Collies to know in their DNA the most efficient route to herd a flock of sheep, and
Greyhounds to sprint faster than 40 miles-per-hour to chase a decoy rabbit.

Thus, a dog’s desire to herd is a fragment of the sequence: “stalking.” Fetching balls and hurtling towards tires is a later fragment of the same sequence: “chasing.” And dogs LOVE doing these things.

In fact, crazy though it sounds, dogs feel about chasing, herding, and fetching, like we do about eating favorite foods likes pizza, cheesecake, and cinnamon buns. Of course, dogs don’t eat the stuff they herd (i.e. cattle or, perhaps, toddlers), fetch (i.e. balls and Frisbees), or chase (i.e. bike tires); they just love love LOVE the experience.

The take-home message is that when dogs herd, fetch, and chase, they are simply acting like a normal dog — doing normal and enjoyable doggie things. If your dog loves to fetch, provide him with this fantastic exercise as often as you can. If your dog is herding toddlers or chasing bikes, recognize that you need to find a safe, acceptable outlet for this behavior. Try fetch, or a sport like Agility, Rally, Freestyle, or Treibball.

Predatory Drift

Why is it dangerous to have big dogs and little dogs off-leash together? What about two dogs on one? One possible answer is "predatory drift," a term coined by veterinarian, behaviorist, and dog trainer Ian Dunbar.

Sometimes, when a big dog and tiny dog play together, the big dog's ancestral DNA kicks in, and he thinks that tiny dog is prey. Maybe the little one yelped. Maybe he just ran the other way. Whatever the reason, the big dog's prey drive kicks in and if he catches Tiny, he might grab, shake, and kill him.

The big dog is not actually being "aggressive" in the way we might normally think -- the drive that he inherited from wolves (that all wolves have in order to survive) has simply kicked in.

It doesn't mean the dog will now become aggressive towards people, or other dogs, for that matter. But it does mean that this dog should never be allowed off-leash with little dogs again (or with cats or pet bunnies...). If you can envision a bigger dog being able to pick up a smaller dog in his mouth and shake it, predatory drift could occur.

Other predatory drift situations include two-dogs-on-one-dog scenarios and also when dogs fight. Armed with this knowledge, you can help keep your pup and other dogs in off-leash areas safer by avoiding these situations.

Predatory Behavior and Dog Breeds

Many dog breeds have been purposefully shaped by humans to do a fragment of the wolf predation sequence in preference to other behaviors.

Scenthounds, such as Beagles, are “search” experts. They have a tremendously powerful sense of smell, which means they can hunt down rabbits. It also means they need daily opportunities to sniff their surroundings to feel fulfilled.

Golden Retrievers and Labrador Retrievers excel at rushing, chasing, and grabbing. They can fetch fowl shot down in a hunt, and they adore games of fetch. And, to the dismay of some pet owners, they also might feel an urge to chase cars, children, bikes, and cats.

Some herding dogs who are bred to nip at their flock to move them around, like Corgis, have been known to nip at children’s heels.

Sighthounds, such as Greyhounds, are bred to chase down their prey and thus can run at speeds faster than 40 miles-per-hour. They also are bred to shake and kill small prey, which means they need to be managed carefully around very small dogs.

While breed doesn’t predict all behaviors, it can be helpful in determining if a dog will fit in well with your lifestyle. And by learning about what “jobs” your pup’s line was bred to do (a.k.a. the predatory-drive behavior that breed excels at), you can also figure out what types of activities will make your dog feel mentally and physically fulfilled.

See Dogs Being Dogs and Enrichment for more on that.

Herding in Action

So is it nature or nurture? This sheepdog puppy is herding for the first time ever.

That pup's got some mad skillz!