In the UK Weimaraners are part of the group of dogs known as HPR (hunt, point, retrieve). What that means is that they will hunt for birds, mostly using their nose, when they locate it, they will then stand still and become fixated. If trained, they will stay like that until they are asked to go forward to the bird. Then, when it flies, they should be still. After the bird is shot, they will be sent to retrieve it. Like most of the gundogs they should be biddable meaning that if time is taken to train them and give them activities to do, they will happily work with people.
Your dog is bred to work closely with people so making sure that you spend time playing and training your Weimaraner on walks will help keep them happy. This is not a breed who can often be left to their own devices on walks.
Hiding toys or food in long grass and letting your dog find them using their nose is a great Weimaraner game.
Teaching Weimaraners to go still when they find birds, to stay still – and then to return to you if the bird moves is a great way of helping the dogs to feel fulfilled without risking the birds be chased.
Many hunting dogs enjoy the sport of mantrailing as it allows them to use their hunting instincts.
Others love to do sports like canicross where they are able to run in areas with lots of wildlife to see, hear and smell.
If you'd love to know more about keeping your high prey drive dog happy, click here and sign up for my FREE course designed especially for high prey drive dogs.
Predatory Motor Sequence statistics for Weimaraners. The graph shows the percentage of Weimaraners in my research study that had a strong level of interest in each behaviour.
Hunt: 83%
Orient: 58%
Eye: 25%
Stalk: 33%
Chase: 58%
Grab-bite: 58%
Possess: 50%
Kill-bite: 25%
Dissect: 50%
Consume: 17%
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I am the founder of Best Dog Learning and Stuff and a massive prey drive enthusiast. I've lived with high prey drive dogs for over 20 years and I love them. I run the awesome High Prey Drive Club where I help my members learn to have fabulous walks and happy lives with their high prey drive dogs.
I am a published researcher in my field with both my original research and my review of the literature looking at prey drive in dogs being published in the respected journal Applied Animal Behaviour Science.
I am the author of Canine aggression: Rehabilitating an aggressive dog with kindess and compassion.
I want to show you how easy and fun it can be to have a high prey drive dog.
If you'd like help with your dog, I'm ready to help you right now.