Waiting for drives to kick in? - Page 1

Some people say that drives such as prey should be there when they are a young pup and if they have it you will know it.

 Others say you have to wait to see what they have at maturity...up to two years or longer. 

what are the opinions on this.  I realize you wouldnt want to test the defense untill mature but what about the prey?

It appears that my 11 month olds (mainly west german..some ddr way back) drives do seem to increase with time.  I work with her but it does seem to be a little more than just the work I have done.   Not sure.  Will her drives continue to increase??  I would assume they will.

May seem like a strange question but it is confusing to me.  I know all dogs are different. 

This was a retired vet, who specialized in "canine behavior", who is now unhappy with the "flat" temperament.

If he is unhappy with what he created he should give the dog up to someone who has time for it. What is with people crating for 8 hours? I believe in using a creat and having them trained to a crate. It comes in handy when they are sick and you need them still, or when someone comes over you do not want exposed to the dogs.

Why should Ravenwalker not be able to ask a question doggie?

Ravenwalker,

Perhaps the increase in drive that you are seeing is also a function of her physical conditioning and stamina.  I'm a lot of assumptions here, so bear with me.  If you are giving her lots of exercise, a quality diet, and engage in prey building play with her, she should get stronger and faster. 

I buy into the religion that puppies should have prey drive from the get go, but when they're young they don't have the coordination or the muscle mass to play a vigorous tug game for long. 

If she's got the genetic component of prey drive, and you continue to work her, and exercise her well, and feed her well, I believe you will be satisfied with the results.

Best wishes!  Now grab your tug and get out there and work up a sweat with her.  Yee ha!

Yvette

my dog started out with very little desire to chase a tug or ball. he would do so intensely at short bursts but for the most part wanted nothing to do with them. he preferred tugging, and if you managed to get him to do that, he would be very strong and refuse to let go. grip like a vice. but it was frustrating.

bout half a year later something in him clicked in place. now i can put him in drive in a snap, just whip out a tug and he'll go for it. his eyes and intensity are still the same as when he was a pup but now he'll go in drive anytime, anywhere.

i kinda believe on the 'it's always been there, you can't build it up' idea, but also it will look different depending on the dog's maturity. 

Most working line pups will start showing their prey drive very early on as early as 8 weeks of age.

However, I have seen one ddr/west german male that had low medium prey drive until he was about 1.5 years old. I had not seen this male for about 3 months and it was unbelievable how much his prey drive had increased. Until I had seen this I likely would have told you that if the pup does not high prey by 3 months it likely won't. Now I will tell you that if both parents had high prey, then there is a possability that it can kick in later in life from 1.5 to 2 years of age.