PREY DRIVE: ACTUALLY A FAULT? - Page 1

My opinion is that Prey drive is essential for preserving a dog from starving in real life and it is a desirable trait in the GSD. I think this drive is to be controlled and channelled into desired paths through proper training.

Ibrahim

Ibrahim,

I have complete faith that a starving GSD can figure out that it should attack and kill that juicy bunny rabbit or squirming lizard for sustenance...  without the accentuated and ever-present prey drive.

The prey drive is most probably available in each dog, but in some it is more present (accentuated), that is why it should be controlled and guided into beneficial work or job through training. Maybe other drives be brought to the surface and thus prey drive is suppressed away.

Ibrahim

 Freemont,
Do not intermix drive and the ability to control/channel/cap it.  These are two very different and distinct things. 

Freemont
Prey Drive call it what you will is in all Dogs, but in some  Working Shepherds possibly higher than most others
It is this very drive in a dog which it needs to even do detection work or tracking for without that certain drive even if it is low the dog would not be so effective,
 It is bred in them and that is in very near all Dogs It is in the Genes
Thats my take on it
Steve1

Hi Freemont,

In my opinion, a GSD with no prey drive would no longer be a GSD.
There should be a balance of drives.
Very many dogs with good prey drive get exellent tracking scores. (some perfect)
Did you watch the mine sniffing dogs video on youtube?
There are some people that would say that hunt drive is a sub-catagory of prey drive.
Prey drive can be used and channeled to get a dog to do all sorts of things, even if it never sees a sleeve.
The dog I had with the most prey drive also had the best focus on me of  any dog I ever had.
Prey drive and hyper activity are not the same.
But that is my opinion based on my dogs.
I agree with steve1

Lee

I,m sorry I try not to offend but just the mere question show lack of undersatnding of the Germans Shepherd dog.

The drive you referring to "protective drive" or whatever you call it, are you talking about defensive drive? If so you will screw up a dog very fast working him in a defense, you start with pray and than you bring defense site in a dog. You bring defense first and you will have issues. It's about balance of drives not one drive is better than other. Every single drive in dog has it's function. Without a pray drive your dog would not be able to hunt trust me. This is why every predator has pray drive. Pray and defense are not the same drives. They are not even close to each other. They serve two different purpose. And if your dog don't focus on you it's not because of pray drive but week pack drive.

Some basic drives:

Food drive dog's desire to persist in getting food (not always related to hunger)
Play drive dogs obsession with objects and his desire to entertain himself actively
Prey drive is the dog's intensity in chasing anything moving away - catching, biting, and carrying it.
Fight drive is the dogs desire to initiate and persist in confrontation, both physical and mental
Pack drive is the dogs desire to work with the handler and be a member of a team.

If your dog is more interested in catching chasing things it means that its pray drive is more developed than pack drive and a lot of time is caused by you the handler and your relationship with the dog. Yes some dogs are being produced to have strong pray drive, but that's not a problem as long as you know how to channel it in productive way, actually pray drive is the simplest to work with.

Now if you have a dog with strong fight drive this is when a problem can start, because the dog might initiate the fight (most unstable dogs are the ones with high fight drive, when I say high it means that other drives are underdeveloped or not present, not that you find a lot of dogs that have it).

You use all the drives to train your dog and if you can keep them at the same level that's when you dog will be optimal working dog.

I thought prey drive was required and channeled for herding? No?
If you just wanted ONLY a guarding biting dog wouldnt you just go for a molosser?