Dog Behavior: Predatory Aggression
Why Do Some Dogs Chase and Kill Small Animals or Birds?
Psychological or Behavioral Problem?
In an online article Dr. Nicholas Dodman, author of The Dog Who Loved Too Much, and other books on behavioral problems in dogs, writes: “All dogs have some level of prey drive (the motivation to chase, catch and kill small furry or feathered creatures) because hunting and killing was a way of life for their ancestors and the means for their survival. Predatory aggression by dogs does not reflect a psychological problem and neither is the perpetrator vicious, malicious or vindictive.”
I agree that predatory aggression is not a psychological problem; the dog is only doing “what comes naturally.” But it certainly is a behavioral problem, and one that needs to addressed and resolved.
But where does this behavior—or set of behaviors—come from?
Animal Psychology:101—Reflexes, Impulses, Instincts and Drives
First, there are two basic kinds of stimuli. Internal stimuli, like hunger and thirst, motivate animals to seek food or water. External stimuli, like cold or hot weather, might stimulate an animal to seek warmth or find a shady place to rest.
Impulses happen when a stimulus triggers a usually unconscious urge or desire to react to a stimulus. An animal may act on an impulse, it may not.
Some stimuli cause involuntary reactions known as reflexes. My dog Freddie was once scratched on the nose by a cat. He immediately pulled his head back the way you might if you unknowingly put your hand on a hot stove. He was always very cautious—though not frightened—around cats from that day on.
Instincts are behaviors or sets of behaviors that are also triggered by external stimuli. But while instincts and reflexes share a common feature, in that they’re both unlearned, i.e., “hardwired,” instincts are a bit more complex. For instance, seeing a squirrel may cause one dog to immediately chase it. Another may wait patiently in a stalking stance, exhibiting a form of impulse control. Once the squirrel starts running that dog may then give chase—most dogs do, though some don’t. Meanwhile, another type of dog wouldn’t react to the squirrel’s presence at all, so for that dog the squirrel isn’t acting as a stimulus.
In Natural Dog Training, the method I use, the first dog would be said to have strong feelings of attraction for the squirrel. These are unconscious feelings that are similar to the way a piece of steel would be attracted to a magnet. The second dog would have a mixture of attraction and resistance while the third would have neither.
As for drives, they’re internal stimuli that can be triggered by external events, which motivate an animal to act in order to achieve a specific outcome. This does not mean that the animal is capable of thinking about that outcome and planning ways to achieve it. Rather the animal feels compelled to act in ways that its evolutionary history has set in place for that species.
The difference between instincts and drives is that instinctive behaviors generally express themselves in a predictable, stereotypical fashion with little or no variation. Drives, on the other hand, are more flexible and have a much wider range of expression. Another difference is that instinctive behaviors aren’t usually long-lasting, while an animal may stay in a state of drive for several hours or longer. Of impulses, reflexes, instincts, and drives, only drives are capable of sustaining a set of behaviors over such extended periods of time.
As I mentioned before, impulses, reflexes, instincts and drives are all triggered by internal or external stimuli. A stimulus, by definition, is something which increases the energy in—i.e., stimulates—an organism.
According to the principles of Natural Dog Training (as well as the basic laws of physics and Freudian psychology) this bump in energy causes palpable feelings of internal pressure, tension or stress. This means that animals don’t necessarily respond to stimuli in order to achieve a specific, goal-directed outcome, but rather they do so to relieve those internal feelings. This happens through a very simple formula: energy in > energy out, which could also be described as stimulus in > behavior out.
Finally, there are said to be two basic drives in carnivorous animals: the sex drive, designed to motivate animals to mate, and the prey drive, designed to motivate carnivores to hunt. The purpose of each is to stimulate an animal to pursue a specfic goal—mating or hunting—until the goal has been reached or the animal is too tired to continue.
So where does a dog’s predatory aggression come from?
The Predatory Sequence
Dr. Dodman says that this behavior or set of behaviors comes from the dog’s genetic connection with wolves, who exhibit a specific set of motor patterns—called the predatory sequence—that unfolds every time they hunt.
Evolutionary biologists Raymond and Lorna Coppinger describe this sequence as: “Orientation toward prey → eye → stalk → chase → grab bite → crush bite (kill) → dissecting bite → consuming bite.” (Readings in Companion Animal Behavior, Veterinary Learning Systems, Trenton, NJ. pp 9-18. 1996, Voith and Borchelt, Eds.)
Dr. Dodman’s description differs slightly:
“searching, stalking, chasing, catching, biting, killing and then eating.”
However, I think that eating is an epilogue, not part of the main action. For instance, a wolf may sometimes be too tired to eat immediately after the kill. So I would define the sequence as: search → stalk → cull/isolate → chase → grab bite → kill bite.
The culling (or isolating) process is where wolves get the herd moving so they can target the weakest member. It’s not part of the predatory sequence in other large predators; most big cats don’t normally prey on herds of large animals so there’s no need for culling. Another reason I’d add culling is that glimmers of it can be seen in all breeds of dogs during puppyhood, just as searching, stalking, chasing, biting and eviscerating (toys) are seen in young puppies. It’s also an important behavior seen in many herding breeds.
One reason this sequence is so important to understanding predatory aggression is that, according to Coppinger, once it’s set in motion, it can’t be stopped.
This is why predatory aggression is so difficult to curb. As Dr. Dodman writes, “There is no good treatment for predatory aggression. The manifestation of a high arousal level, a fixed focus on the prey subject, and difficulty distracting the dog, are all indicators of a poor prognosis. Dogs that are born with a high prey drive and have it fine-tuned by experience will always be likely to display this behavior under certain circumstances. They cannot help themselves. The behavior is neither malicious nor vindictive but simply biologically driven and natural.”
I disagree that there’s “No good treatment for predatory aggression.”
Human Targets
Dodman also includes human targets in some forms of predatory aggression. “In the domestic situation, joggers, skateboarders, cyclists, automobiles, people on bicycles and running children frequently awaken the dog's otherwise dormant predatory instincts.”
These things may be closely related to predatory aggression, particularly the urge to chase moving objects, but they’re not the same thing, not exactly. I say that because all aggression—except for predatory aggression—is based on fear. Dogs who chase cyclists and skateboarders generally exhibit loud vocalizations, high-pitched whining or deep-throated barking. As Dodman correctly says, predatory aggression is not “preceded by a significant mood change.” But when a dog exhibits aggression toward cyclists, etc., there clearly is such a change. This is may be due to the size of the “prey.”
Predatory aggression is a serious problem. And it can’t be resolved through operant conditioning. As Dodman writes: “Reward-based obedience training will increase owner control, but will not prevent predatory behavior when the owner's back is turned or when the owner is absent.”
However, most dogs, even breeds with a strong prey drive, don’t engage in predatory aggression. That’s because rough-and-tumble outdoor play usually gives them a satisfying outlet for most of their predatory urges. Remember, according to the principles of Natural Dog Training (and Freudian dynamics), all animal behavior is motivated by an attempt to reduce unpleasurable feelings of internal pressure, tension and stress. That’s why games of chase, wrestling and mock-biting with other dogs, and games like fetch, and tug-of-war played with the owner, usually give a dog enough emotional release so that there’s no need to chase and bite small animals or birds.
However, there are 3 ways that dogs can find themselves caught up in the need for expressing their predatory nature for real rather than through play.
1) The dog isn’t given a safe outlet for his predatory urges through play.
2) The dog is left alone, unsupervised for long periods of time, in a back yard, or in a country setting, as on a farm.
3) The dog was severely punished for using his teeth during puppyhood. (Repressing strong instinctive urges during developmental phases almost always results in neurotic behavior in the adult dog.)
Owner awareness of these three issues will help prevent predatory aggression in most dogs. But how do you cure it?
The cure essentially involves specific training exercises designed to increase a dog’s social attraction to his owner or handler. Though the process can take some time, and may involve a lot of work, it’s essentially just a matter of building a dog’s feelings of attraction to his owner or handler to a much higher degree than what he feels for prey animals, as well as consistently redirecting the dog’s urge to bite into a tug toy. Once the dog feels that deep satisfaction that comes from releasing all his tension and stress into biting down on a tug toy as hard as he can, his urge to chase small animals, birds, or skateboarders (etc.), will disappear, never to return.
Lee Charles Kelley
“Life Is an Adventure—Where Will Your Dog Take You?”
