

Living With a Predator

Our dogs’ ancestors survived in the wild as predators.  A lot of predatory instinct has trickled down to our furry friends.  This doesn’t mean that your little lap dog is going to track down and eat every living thing that moves.  But there are certain behaviors that we recognize as toned down predatory ones. 

When a predator in the wild goes out for lunch they engage in a sequence of behaviors.  Each behavior in the sequence must be successful before they move onto the next.  The predatory sequence looks like this:  Search, stalk, chase, grab, kill, dissect, eat.  The predator has to find it before she can eat it.  Once she finds it she stalks it, chases it, then takes it down.  She then dispatches it, rips it up and eats it.  This is all kind of gruesome, really.  But it is what nature dictates.

So, how does this apply to our pups and why does it matter?  Well, these behaviors translate into the behaviors we often see. Most dogs engage in some of these activities.  By recognizing what our individual dogs like to do we can prevent them from engaging in these behaviors inappropriately and then provide them with an outlet for the natural behavior that they prefer.  Next time we’re going to talk about how to do this.

Jody Diehl