Prey drive is the

instinct Instinct is the inherent inclination of a living organism towards a particular complex behaviour, containing innate (inborn) elements. The simplest example of an instinctive behaviour is a fixed action pattern (FAP), in which a very short to me ...

ive inclination of a

carnivore A carnivore , or meat-eater (Latin, ''caro'', genitive ''carnis'', meaning meat or "flesh" and ''vorare'' meaning "to devour"), is an animal or plant Plants are the eukaryotes that form the Kingdom (biology), kingdom Plantae; they ar ...

to find, pursue, and capture

prey Predation is a biological interaction in which one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not ki ...

; this instinct can be refined for industrial purposes such as

herding Herding is the act of bringing individual animals together into a group (herd), maintaining the group, and moving the group from place to place—or any combination of those. Herding can refer either to the process of animals forming herds in ...

livestock.

Aspects

The predatory motor sequence follows a sequence: search (orient, nose/ear/eye); stalk; chase; bite (grab-bite, kill-bite); dissect; and consume. In different breeds of dogs, certain steps of these have been amplified or reduced by human-controlled

selective breeding Selective breeding (also called artificial selection) is the process by which humans use animal breeding and plant breeding to selectively develop particular phenotypic traits (characteristics) by choosing which typically animal or plant m ...

for various purposes. The "search" aspect of the prey drive is used in detection dogs such as

bloodhound The bloodhound is a large scent hound, originally bred for hunting deer, wild boar, rabbits, and since the Middle Ages, for tracking people. Believed to be descended from hounds once kept at the Abbey of Saint-Hubert, Belgium, in French it is ...

s and

beagle The Beagle is a small breed of scent hound, similar in appearance to the much larger foxhound. The beagle was developed primarily for hunting rabbit or hare, known as beagling. Possessing a great sense of smell and superior tracking inst ...

s. The "eye-stalk" is for

herding dog A herding dog, also known as a stock dog or working dog, is a Dog type, type of dog that either has been trained in herding livestock or belongs to one of the dog breed, breeds that were developed for herding. A dog specifically trained to he ...

s. The "chase" is seen in sighthounds such as

Greyhounds The English Greyhound, or simply the Greyhound, is a breed of dog, a sighthound which has been bred for coursing, greyhound racing and hunting. Some are kept as show dogs or pets. Greyhounds are defined as a tall, muscular, smooth-coated, "S-s ...

and

lurcher A lurcher is a Dog crossbreed, crossbred dog resulting from dog reproduction, mating a greyhound or other sighthound with a dog of another Dog type, type such as a herding dog or a terrier. The lurcher is not a "breed," but is a generic descri ...

s, while the "grab-bite" and "kill-bite" are for the training of

terrier Terrier () is a Dog type, type of dog originally bred to hunt vermin. A terrier is a dog of any one of many Dog breed, breeds or landraces of the terrier Dog type, type, which are typically small, wiry, Gameness, game, and fearless. There are fi ...

s. In most dogs, prey drive can occur without extrinsic reinforcement.

Benefits

dog training Dog training is a type of animal training, the Applied behavior analysis, application of behavior analysis which uses the environmental events of antecedents (trigger for a behavior) and consequences to modify the dog behavior, either for it to a ...

, prey drive can be used as a performative advantage because dogs with strong prey drive are more willing to pursue moving objects such as toys, which can then be used to encourage certain kinds of behavior, such as that of

greyhound racing Greyhound racing is an organized, competitive sport in which greyhounds are raced around an oval track. The sport originates from Hare coursing, coursing. Track racing uses an artificial lure (usually a form of windsock) that travels ahead of th ...

or the speed required in

dog agility Dog agility is a dog sport in which a handler directs a dog through an obstacle course in a race for both time and accuracy. Dogs run off leash with no food or toys as incentives, and the handler can touch neither dog nor obstacles. The handle ...

. Prey drive can affect training in Schutzhunds as well.

Retriever A retriever is a Dog type, type of gun dog that retrieves Game (hunting), game for a hunter. Generally gun dogs are divided into three major classifications: retrievers, flushing spaniels, and pointing breeds. Retrievers were bred primarily to ...

s are sometimes expected to chase prey and bring it back to the human hunter, but not bite or damage it. Bull Terriers, such as the

Staffordshire Bull Terrier The Staffordshire Bull Terrier, also called the Staffy or Stafford, is a purebred dog of small to medium size in the terrier group that originated in the northern parts of Birmingham and in the Black Country of Staffordshire, for which it ...

, have an amplified grab-bite as they were originally bred to bait bulls (restrain bulls by hanging onto their noses), but never needed to find or stalk the prey.

References

{{reflist Dog behavior Predation

Aspects

Benefits

See also

References