Prey And Defense - Page 1

I have few questions. How can I test my dog whether there is a balance in him for Defense and prey drives.

My understanding is that in prey the dog bites in pleaseure and fun whereas in defense the dog feels threatened.

Please correct me if I'm wrong. Also  How can one test their dog for a balance of the two drives. If the dog has stronger prey drives will the dog react appropriately in a real life thretening situation to the master?

cheers

It really depends on the age of your dog...Prey Drive is the drive in which the dog uses to chase down and catch it's food (Prey)...liking chasing down food to kill to satisfy it's hunger....Defense Drive is the drive which a dog or any being will use to defend itself...Self Defense...

~Bob~

How does one know if the dog has a balance of the two drive?. My questions is during training how does one "Shift Gear" from Prey too defense. Lets say my dog has stronger prey drive how do I make him react to a threat if my dog is more prey oriented he may not react to a threat. This also links to my question on personal protection dogs. Can a highly prey oriented dog become a personal protection dog?

thanks for all help

cheers

Once again it depends on the age of the dog...most dogs don't develop a stong defense drive until they're a little older...at a young age your worried more about developing their prey drives...Then later on they will begin to develop their defense drives...and your trainer will beable to begin to develop their drives...But you will begin to put the dog into a more defensive posture...

~Bob~

for a slow maturing Belgian ( Not the breed but the country) Lines what approximately is the age to know a balance of the drives?

Also as a add on question does building defense drive equate to instilling a levelk of fear in the dog? What happens with dogs with very strong nerves?

Thanks in Advance

Wait until maturity....est 16-24 months FOR a Belgian. Longer for a Shep.

You can easily Ruin a dog with too much pressure & defense training in this fashion if done too early.  Not recommended. 

Been there, done that.  

A solid  trainer might slowly & incrementally,  begin to introduce a little pressure & defense training,  after the other is clearly built as a foundation..Leave it to a trainer that really knows what he is doing. And has trained & titled many, many dogs.  my .02

I only have experience with one Belgian line German Shepherd - and two of his offspring which have a w.German WL damn.  From what I can tell the male is all prey...I have never seen any defense in him....but he's got prey out the wazoo.  One of his sons is just like him - no defense, all prey.  He's a year old and I dont see that changing.  The bitch on the other hand more balanced....she started showing her defense around 8 months or so.  I dont know how much more she'll change, but she is good now - I'll let you know if she changes at all.

~Cate

All dogs mature at different rates...and German Shepherds for sure mature at different rates...Some sooner and some later...You don't really want a dog that has super defense drive very early...It can be the sign of an unstable dog...But the usual way to bring along a young GSD...is to develop their prey drive first...and then later on the defense drive will come along...German Shepherds will mature anywhere from 6 months to 3 years...or so...The only thing that you can do at this point is to socialize your dog and give them a very balanced foundation to fall back on...This is most important in developing a young dog...

~Bob~

Ideally, what I want is extremes of both: intense, but balanced.  Usually, prey drive develops more prominantly at first, but some dogs will have earlier developed defense drives, before their prey drives catch up, and this requires a rather different approach in training to help maintain the balance.  My thinking is, every dog in training should be treated as an individual, and shouldn't be thrown into stereotype training methods.  This 11 month old below is viewing his first helper, and with such intensity of defense it was pretty obvious that prey drive should be the focus of the following session.  He showed little prey drive at all until his 8th month, but upon acquiring his target he was very possessive of it.