Help with Prey Drive

[Boomaa]

My new boy has a prey drive through the roof.  He's a 6 year old, retired Irish racer who only left the track in June 2021.  Essentially he's been trained to chase small furry things for most of his life, and most likely he was trained on live lure.  

He's fortunately on the smaller side and we've had much bigger, dog aggressive dogs in the past, so he's not a problem in the pull us over, running away, get in fights way.  But he goes after other dogs/squirrels/cats with great intensity, which means we are on high alert on walks at all times. 

I'm hopeful that time will help, but with his background, I don't think this is something that will go away easily.  I've not run across anything about prey drive in greyhounds specifically, and am hoping some more experienced greyhound folks can give me some suggestions.  My first step is working on "watch me" at every possible opportunity, but having seen his intense focus when he sees a small furry thing, it's going to take a while.  And his new muzzle came in the mail today. 

Many thanks.  

 

[Legendaryfrank]

Starry doesn't have this problem, but I've read that keeping super high-value treats with you on walks, and redirecting your dog immediately by calling for their attention and giving them a treat right when they see a little critter might work

 

Again I have no experience in this, this is only what I've read!

[Boomaa]

Makes sense. We’ll give it a try. 

[BatterseaBrindl]

Start at home with the 'Watch Me' command.    Use super high value treats. 

Once he can do 'watch me' consistently every time when you're alone in the house, move to your yard where there are more distractions and practice this there.    This could take several days...or weeks. 

Asking him to sit or do a down at the same time is another tool.

Patricia McConnell has a wonderful little booklet  'Feisty Fido' which takes you step by step dealing with these issue.

Our 4 yr old Galgo is extra high-prey and I have found that a 'halti' head collar, along with a harness, using 2 leashes is quite helpful in diverting his attention away from the small critters.

  

 

 

 

[HeyRunDog]

With Grace I found a firm NO and a quick tug on her lead as soon as she started to notice small furies eventually worked together with praise when she stopped looking at it.

[Apollo_the_Grey]

On 2/14/2022 at 3:03 PM, Boomaa said:

 But he goes after other dogs/squirrels/cats with great intensity, which means we are on high alert on walks at all times. 

 

 

I dealt with very leash reactive PH.  Literally any dog within sight or hearing was reason for her to go ballistic.  (aggressive barking, pulling, foaming at the mouth, jumping, rearing.)  

Different type of reactivity but I treated it the same as some of the other suggestions.  

• Start with "watch me" or "look at me"  (If you've ruined one command teach another cue word instead of trying to "unruin" that command word.)
• High value treats as much as possible.  I used liverwurst and chopped up hot dogs or baked chicken.
• Work on consistency.  Train for 2 or 3 minutes at a time.  Be happy, and always end on a high note. (hounds get bored doing the same thing again and again...so 3 minutes training, 10 minutes play, 3 minutes training rinse and repeat as you can.)
• Then add distractions. 

 

In the meantime...until you can get all that training done and develop that consistency, you as the "leader" need to be super watchful for small critters and learn to redirect your boy's attention BEFORE he sees that critter.  And when he' responds to your redirection, reward, reward and reward some more.    As you're training, be more distracting, more appealing and more fun than the distraction/prey item.  (I did this over a period of a year and everyone in my neighborhood thought I was insane from all the jumping around and squealing, and fast moving that I did to distract Ms. Gaia, Pharaoh Hound from reacting.   I failed a number of times to distract her.  But I kept at it.  By the time I finished fostering her, the reactionary distance was about 20-25 feet, which wasn't perfect but it meant we could walk around the neighborhood, as long as we didn't encounter any other dogs at certain "choke points" along the pathways.

 

TLDR:  become a food dispensary, be more interesting, have fun with it and be creative until you find what works for your and your pupper.

 

[Boomaa]

Thanks everyone.  We're working on "watch me" in the house and so far, he's doing well.  There's still lots of muddy, icy, snowy muck in the back yard, so working outside will have to wait for a while longer.  I've found some treats he's over the moon for, so will start using them on walks.  

 He's not a wild man about chasing other dogs/squirrels, etc.  There's no barking or growling - just that intense focus and stalking like behavior, then the jump or pull to run.  By that point, I'm ready for it.  Today, he wanted to go after a barking dog across the street from us and I just kept moving along, talking to him, until he became interested in what was in fornt of him.  I suspect it will take some time, but he's at least manageable.  

[BatterseaBrindl]

Time, time, patience and more time!

[Banjoman]

When I first got her Chancey was a screaming, leaping fury when we saw other dogs out on a walk. I kept a muzzle on her for over three years for her own safety as she could suddenly snap even at dogs we knew. The problem with the muzzle ( pink so that she didn’t look so aggressive) is that it is difficult to feed treats so “Look at me” was a bit difficult to manage.

I used a martingale collar that I could hold tight up behind her ears as she jumped straight up in the air beside me, my hand ending up the same height as my ear! Providing I was standing still and balanced she couldn’t pull me over. We walked in the forest most days and the regulars got used to us standing at the side of the forest path with me making her stand still beside me.

I read that it takes 18 months for a dog and 2 years for a bitch to calm down after they come off the track and I have to say that worked out about right for Chancey. I was eventually able to take her to training classes in a village hall, still wearing the muzzle, and I think that helped her get used to small fluffy dogs but even now, out in the forest , after eight years I still call out to people with small dogs and ask them to control their animals and not let them come running and yapping up to us. I have to explain that instinct can still overcome training, although nowadays it’s really to keep the annoying little things out of our way!