Many dogs have a natural instinct to hunt for, chase after and sometimes catch small furry animals and birds. If the instinct is strong, they are often described as having a high prey drive. Those dogs can be hard work as pets. Their prey drive can cause them to do things like chase flying birds, refuse to leave trees they saw a squirrel run up and bark and lunge on the lead. Some of them even chase bikes and cars.
Dogs with the lowest prey drive often make the easiest dogs to take for walks and have as part of the family. In this blog, you will learn more about where low prey drive dogs can be found.
I am basing this on real data. I gathered prey drive information on 1,875 dogs and to get this list of dogs with the lowest prey drive, I looked through the data and selected the dogs who had no interest in one or more parts of the predatory motor sequence. I looked only at the breeds or types where I had 10 or more responses. The answers might surprise you so if you click on each that interests you, you can see more detail.
If you are involved in a breed club or breed specific rescue and would like me to conduct some research with your breed, get in touch by email.
From my research, there was one dog who had no interest at all in any part of the predatory motor sequence and that dog was an American Staffordshire Bull Terrier, one of six of the breed in my survey.
There were also some dogs who had a mixture of being rarely interested or not interested in each part of the predatory motor sequence They were:
Bearded Collie
there were two in my research
Bolognese
that dog was the only one of their breed.
Border Collie
there were 109 in my research.
Cavalier King Charles Spaniel
there were five in my research.
Miniature Schnauzer
there were 13 in my research.
Labrador x Staffordshire Bull Terrier
there were four in my research.
Pyrenean Mountain Dog
that dog was the only one of their breed.
Rottweiler
there were 13 in my research.
St. Bernard
that dog was the only one of their breed.
Tibetan Terrier
there were 3 in my research.
My research makes it clear that prey drive, while linked to breed, cannot easily be determined by breed. Individual dogs of each breed will behave very differently from each other.
If prey drive is something you’d like to avoid in your next dog, here are my top tips:
Choose dogs who have been bred to be show dogs or companion dogs.
Get your dog from a reputable rescue who has been able to assess your new dog in a range of environments, including the sort of place where you live. If you live somewhere with lots of rabbits, you want a rescue who has been able to walk the dog where there are lots of rabbits.
Find a reputable breeder who is breeding dogs to be companions and who is able to select the most appropriate puppy for your family.
Finally, although it is not ALL about breed, breed does matter and avoiding breeds that have been created to help people hunt, remove vermin or herd livestock is a great idea.
There are no guarantees with dogs and sometimes prey drive appears in the most unexpected dogs so making sure that you spent plenty of time training your dog to be able to cope with many different distractions is a great idea. Hire a dog trainer who uses kind methods to help you if you don’t know how to do that.
If you already have a dog with a high prey drive and would 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.
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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.