Dogs often chase. They chase all sorts of things. Other animals, birds, joggers, cyclists, children’s footballs. I’ve even known dogs who would look high in the air and chase planes.
Chasing can get dogs into huge amounts of trouble. They can run miles away and get hit by cars crossing roads or end up on railway lines and be at risk of being hit by a train. They can get into fields with livestock and start chasing – and where I live in the UK, farmers may shoot dogs who are worrying their animals.
Concern about keeping wonderful, much loved dogs safe is what so often triggers people to search for ways to stop dogs chasing. If that is what has brought you to this blog, welcome and let’s dive into the subject.
The first thing to understand is that if your dog is chasing, they are a normal dog. Chasing is a completely natural behaviour for dogs.
In fact, it’s not just that chasing is natural. Part of the point of using breeding to create all the amazing dog breeds we have right now was to make chasing something that dogs will do far more than wild predators.
Domestic dogs doing a job they have been bred to do often have to chase animals repeatedly to retrieve them or herd them or make them run or catch and kill them. Our Spaniels, Collies, Hounds and Terriers will all keep doing what they were bred to do even when they are tired or in pain. They will keep going even though they don’t eat the prey they are sent after. Some of them are expected to not even touch the prey.
The reason that they keep on going with such a lot of enthusiasm is that chasing makes them feel good. It makes them feel so good that some dogs will do it to excess and hurt themselves. Other dogs use chasing as a way to help them deal with stress.
Those good feelings are why most dogs don’t need external rewards to encourage them to chase. They chase because it makes them feel good.
Wild predators chase way less than dogs. They are only interested in prey when they need to eat. Researchers who study wolves write about seeing wolves and prey animals sharing spaces fairly often with no stress on the part of the prey and no interest from the wolves.
There are no wild wolves in Scotland, where I live, but we do have red foxes. They are the only wild member of the dog family living in the UK. They are fast and agile predators. But - they are not large and so their prey tends to be smaller animals or birds. They pose no risk to animals as large as adult roe deer.
A friend of mine sent me this video of a roe deer and a fox that she spotted while out walking. As you can see, the fox does not try to chase the deer, and the deer is not afraid of the fox.
Almost always when people contact me about the way their dog behaves around deer, what they describe looks nothing like that. Many people find that their dogs will go off and find deer if they smell them and others find that their dogs will chase deer for long periods of time. The fact that they will almost certainly not catch the deer does not deter most dogs.
For wild predators, chasing is only part of the story when it comes to them catching food to eat. They first of all have to find their prey, they have to get close enough that when they chase, they have a good chance of catching it, they have to have a way of disabling and killing the prey, they have to prepare it so that they can eat it. All of those things have to happen before they eat. This has all been described in a neat way called the predatory motor sequence which consists of the following:
Hunt - find the prey.
Orient - get into position to get closer.
Eye - get closer.
Stalk - get closer.
Chase - from a good position, run toward the prey.
Grab-bite - bite the prey hard enough to disable it.
Possess - carry the prey. This one happens far more often in dogs than wild predators.
Kill-bite - shake the prey to kill it if the grab-bite hasn’t done the job.
Dissect - prepare to eat by pulling the prey open.
Consume - eat!
Domestic dogs have been bred to be specialists. Many gundog breeds hunt out prey as part of their jobs and so do many hound breeds, particularly the scent hounds. Border Collies are eye and stalk specialists and in the absence of sheep, many of them can be found performing those stages using other dogs or tennis balls as sheep substitutes.
Some dogs are expected to come into contact with the prey. Most of the time working gundogs are expected to wait for the prey to be shot but there are times where they will be sent to chase an injured bird, catch it using a soft possess style bite and return it without bite marks to their person. Some of the hound breeds when working are expected to find, chase and then possess and return with their prey. Many of the terrier breeds are expected to use grab and kill bites to kill animals that humans consider to vermin. Those dogs will typically work in confined spaces where any chases will be short, but they are expected to use grab and kill bites repeatedly.
The only parts that domestic dogs do less of are the last two – the dissect and consume parts. These are not unheard of in domestic dogs, but they have not had the same focus when it came to breeding. Some of the dogs who work to herd or guard livestock will also catch and eat mice and rabbits to supplement the diet they get from people.
There is a great deal of complexity in what dogs do with prey animals which is why it important to . . .
I get it. It feels like chase is such a huge problem that it needs to be focused on and if you feel that way, you are not alone.
I once conducted some detailed analysis of the scientific literature about predatory dogs. I managed to find nine articles that explored ways to help people deal with the problems that their dog’s predatory nature caused them. Of those, four articles completely focused on chasing, three articles didn’t really talk about what predatory dogs would do, one of them talked about the specifics of what Border Collies would do. And just one of the articles mentioned the motor sequence.
That one motor sequence mentioning article was the most recently published. It was published in 2020. That article as well was the only one that mentioned the positive emotions that dogs experience when they are able to follow their predatory nature.
Since doing that analysis, I have been going along feeling as if although there isn’t much research, at least the more recent research had started to consider that there might be more going on for dogs than them just chasing.
I thought that until very recently. What changed was another scientific paper was published. It came out in September 2024 when I was planning this blog. That new research is all about comparing different training methods when teaching a recall for dogs who are chasing. The article makes no mention of chasing being part of a sequence. It also makes no mention of the emotional experience that dogs may have if they are simply prevented from doing something that is at the core of what makes them who they are.
When it was first shared with me, I was disappointed because to me when it comes to helping dogs be safer by helping them learn to resist chasing, it misses the mark by miles. I’d hoped that research had progressed beyond looking for ways to prevent dogs from performing natural behaviour and had started to take a more holistic view – it’s clear I was wrong.
Introducing Calgacus
He would chase deer for miles. He would catch, kill and eat rabbits and birds anytime he could. I taught him to be able to recall from chasing and to lie down if something moved suddenly in front of him. You can see him practicing in this video.
I always rewarded Calgacus with food when he recalled or lay down when something moved. For Calgacus, the whole point of chasing prey was to eat it. So, when I made it clear that I was a great bet for him being able to eat, chasing got way less interesting for him – and instead doing the things I had taught him took priority.
Introducing Cuillin
Cuillin would also chase deer and rabbits but unlike Calgacus, he didn’t ever touch another animal. The problem I had with Cuillin was that he would get lost – sometimes for hours at a time.
To start with I assumed that teaching him to recall from a chase and to be able to ignore fast movement would be great ideas. So, I worked really hard on it. You can see Cuillin in this video ignoring the movement of the toy running along the ground.
I was deeply disappointed when teaching him to ignore fast movement in no way fixed the problem. Cuillin got lost just as much after this training as he did before it. Cuillin didn’t especially like chasing, and he certainly didn’t want to catch another animal. When he was young, he did it because his lack of experience meant that he didn’t know what else to do. Cuillin liked to follow scent trails and to spend time in areas where wild animals had been standing or lying for a while. It was all about spending time taking in the scent for him.
Anyway, I bet you are still wondering . . .
Don’t worry. It isn’t all that difficult to stop your dog’s chasing causing you problems. Into the bargain, while stopping the problems, you will spend time learning more about who your dog is – and being closer to them than ever. Isn’t that great? Let me introduce you to the Prey Drive Framework.
Habits are powerful. They are what allow you to have an easier life by giving you short cuts so that you don’t have to think about and decide every little thing. Things that you do regularly like type in computer passwords, stand up from a chair or drive off from traffic lights happen on autopilot and they are often so automatic that if you had to talk somebody else through what you do, you would find it hard. I even know people who only know what their computer password is when they sit at their desk, put their fingers on the keyboard and type.
Dogs form habits just like people do and those habits are similar in that they take a shortcut past conscious thought. Lots of what goes on when training dogs is trying to help them build habits that are helpful. Chasing can become a habit easily because most dogs – especially puppies and young dogs – enjoy chasing. The world offers lots of things that are fun for dogs to chase. Without help, chasing can become a strong habit that your dog no longer things about.
Management is your friend when trying to stop unhelpful habits from forming or change them if they have already formed. When it comes to stopping dogs chasing, the most useful form of management is a lead of some description.
Remember that motor sequence that I talked about earlier ? Well, it complicates your quest to stop chasing.
What most people say to me when they first contact me is that their dog loves to chase. Really, very little is known about what motivates dogs to chase. Even dogs who are bred for chasing and then trained to chase from a young age, don’t all reliably chase a lure. Researchers exploring why that might be noted that we don’t know if the dogs who do chase are chasing because they enjoy chasing or because they are motivated to try and catch and then do something with the lure.
In my experience, this differs from dog to dog.
That brings me onto meaningful alternatives. By that phrase all I mean is that if you don’t want your dog going off after wildlife, other dog’s toys or children’s footballs, you NEED to find some sort of alternative that is meaningful to your dog.
If you have a dog like Calgacus who chases because they want to eat the prey or a dog like Cuillin who is only interested in the scent the prey leaves behind them, throwing a toy for them to chase isn’t going to be effective at all.
You need something meaningful for two reasons:
To act as a reward for your dog when they respond to you.
To give your dog a suitable outlet for their instincts toward prey.
If you offer rewards that your dog doesn’t enjoy and if you don’t give your dog a good outlet for their instincts, they will continue to look to the world around them for fun things to do – and you will find it harder and harder to get their attention.
Helping your dog learn that they can control themselves is a vital part of the work to resolve chasing.
Wild predators learn a great deal of impulse control because they have to if they want to eat. They can’t just start chasing as soon as they spot prey because almost always, their dinner would escape them.
They can learn impulse control and your dog will be able to learn it as well.
Giving your dog some skills that will help them to deal with prey encounters without a drama really helps. There are loads of skills your dog can learn that will help but a good recall has got to be top of the list.
Really, though, you can train anything that will help your dog to deal with prey without getting frustrated and without a drama.
I know that it might seem a bit woo-woo of me to suggest working on your own mindset when all you want to do is stop your dog chasing things. Trust me, though, what you believe has a powerful impact on what you do. What you do is what will get you results – or not.
Working on your mindset is a vital part of being successful when training your dog. I’ve lived with and successfully trained a number of truly difficult dogs. Each time what was key was finding and working with mentors who could help me – as well as spending lots of my time working on my own beliefs and how I was looking at my dogs.
Without me doing that work, Calgacus would have spent his life living in small world, isolated from other dogs due to the time in his youth when he was aggressive toward other dogs and Cuillin would have spent his life only running free in enclosed fields. He hated enclosed fields because they don’t have much wildlife scent.
I’m going to leave you with my encouragement to remember the Framework I’ve been talking about – and then put each part into action. If you want a bit of help doing that, I’d love to offer you my webinar and super helpful downloads that covers the Framework in more detail. The information in it is absolute gold and you won’t find better help anywhere else.
Howell, T.J., Bennett, P.C., 2020. Preventing predatory behaviour in greyhounds retired from the racing industry: Expert opinions collected using a survey and interviews. Applied Animal Behaviour Science. 226. 104988. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applanim.2020.104988
Johnson, A.C. and Wynne, C.D., 2024. Comparison of the Efficacy and Welfare of Different Training Methods in Stopping Chasing Behavior in Dogs. Animals, 14(18), p.2632. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani14182632
Mech, L.D., Smith, D.W., MacNulty, D. R., 2015. Wolves on the hunt: The behavior of wolves hunting wild prey. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
Starling, M., Wilson, B., McGreevy, P., 2020. Effects of Lure Type on Chase-Related Behaviour in Racing Greyhounds. Animals. 10(12). 2262. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani10122262
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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 peer review for Applied Animal Behaviour Science to help bring quality research into the world.
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.