08/04/2024
Hey all! Anja Andjelic and I are leading a prey drive related event in April! Outside of my training with clients, I also train in reward based bite sport. I helped run and photograph a bite sport event this weekend and it got me thinking about the intersection of bite sports and prey drive in “real life.” A big piece of well meaning advice that gets tossed out a lot is to be “more exciting” than the squirrel - or the decoy.
My specific sport has a lot of ”prey based bites” including a call off - we send the dog for a bite on a decoy and recall the dog last second. I promise you, nothing I possibly offer can be as good as a decoy to a bitey dog! Much like a deer in the woods, my dog is not returning to me because she likes me better or because I am “more exciting.” I’m pretty sure that all my dogs would in fact happily be feral in the woods 😅
While there are many parts of the puzzle, some of the biggest pieces for me are a reliably reinforcing reward strategy, only asking my dog to do what they are capable of, and training a call off picture out of context. The tricky part? All of these things look different for different dogs!
Drop your questions, thoughts, and prey drive related training challenges below! We are excited delve into this complex topic!
If you'd like to join us, there is a one time sliding scale fee to access our FB group - you'll get access to prior events as well as future monthly events led by a team of fantastic trainers :)
Image description: a working line border collie chases a lure. His whole body is focused on one goal: catching the plastic bag.
Photography credit: C4 Pet Photography
